What kind of light cycle is recommended?

• In any aquarium, the light cycle, or amount of time the lights are on per day, can have a dramatic effect on the growth of nuisance algae.
• If you have a lighting system with both daylight (white bulbs) and actinic (blue bulbs) lights, it is best to have the actinic blue lights come on 1 hour to 1.5 hours before the daylight lights and stay on 1 hour to 1.5 hours after the daylight bulbs turn off. This can be easily accomplished with the use of two timers.
• We recommend a white daylight cycle of 8-9 hours with the actinic blue lights coming on before and remaining on after the daylights.
• If you have rapid growth of nuisance algae, try cutting you light cycle back by 15-30 minutes.
• Sometimes it only takes a small decrease in the light cycle to make a big difference.

What kind of lighting is required for a fish-only aquarium?

• Fish-only aquariums with live rock do not require bright lighting.
• Adding bright lights to a fish only aquarium will cause the growth of excess nuisance algae, resulting in more cleaning for you.
• Provide 1-2 watts of light per gallon.

What kind of lighting is required for a reef aquarium?

• Proper lighting is an absolute necessity for any reef aquarium.
• Most soft corals can do well under VHO fluorescent or Power Compact (PC) fluorescent lighting.
• Provide approximately 3-5 watts of light per gallon. Example: A 60-gallon aquarium with soft corals should have from 180 to 300 watts of light no matter how much live rock you have in the aquarium.
• Aquariums with soft and large-polyped stony corals should have approximately 4-6 watts of light per gallon.
• For SPS (small-polyped stony) coral reefs we recommend 7-10 watts of light per gallon.
• The above method is the old way of looking at required lighting. We will update this page in the near future to include PAR readings which is the updated way to look at reef lighting.

What are metal halide lights?

• Metal halide lights are the best choice for reef aquariums with stony corals of any type.
• They also create a soothing shimmer all over the aquarium.
• The only downfall of metal halides is that they produce much more heat than fluorescent bulbs and therefore require a taller canopy, better ventilation, and sometimes a chiller to prevent them from overheating your aquarium.
• Metal halides should be mounted in a 12 to 15 inch high canopy, or at least 6 inches from the top of the aquarium.
• The results they will help you achieve in reef keeping are tremendous.