Reef Central Online Community

Home Forum Here you can view your subscribed threads, work with private messages and edit your profile and preferences View New Posts View Today's Posts

Find other members Frequently Asked Questions Search Reefkeeping ...an online magazine for marine aquarists Support our sponsors and mention Reef Central

Go Back   Reef Central Online Community Archives > General Interest Forums > New to the Hobby

 
 
Thread Tools Search this Thread Display Modes
  #1  
Old 07/19/2007, 03:20 PM
an411 an411 is offline
Registered Member
 
Join Date: Feb 2007
Location: Derby CT
Posts: 1,000
light on or off?

I have t5 and a pc light strip. I am not sure of the exact wattage off hand. I have 2 questions?

1) Should the lights be on during a cycle?

2) How do the light phases work and also does it depend on what you are keeping in the tank?
  #2  
Old 07/19/2007, 03:22 PM
chris31 chris31 is offline
Registered Member
 
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: long island NY
Posts: 370
do you have LR or anything in the tank
  #3  
Old 07/19/2007, 03:25 PM
der_wille_zur_macht der_wille_zur_macht is offline
m0delgator
 
Join Date: Sep 2003
Location: In the hizzy
Posts: 5,294
I leave my lights on during the cycle. Part of the point of cycling a tank - especially for newcomers - is to get used to how your entire system behaves. The lights we use are SO powerful, they add an immense amount of energy to our tanks. You don't want to start running them at the same time as adding your livestock, otherwise you could find out that lots of things are changing at once, which is never good.

So yes, lights on during the cycle.

Light phases should just be set up to mimic natural daylight. For most reef keepers, that means 10 - 12 hours of light. Leaving the lights on longer does not compensate for having weak lights, though some people seem stuck on that concept. Most people that have multiple lights turn them on and off one at a time, to simulate the sun getting stronger at dawn and weaker at dusk. For instance, you could do the following schedule:

1) PC lights on at 9 AM
2) T5 on at 10 AM
3) T5 off at 7 PM
4) PC off at 8 PM
  #4  
Old 07/19/2007, 03:25 PM
an411 an411 is offline
Registered Member
 
Join Date: Feb 2007
Location: Derby CT
Posts: 1,000
well when I start my cycle there is going to be fresh live rock and sand in there
  #5  
Old 07/19/2007, 03:25 PM
griss griss is offline
RC Mod
 
Join Date: Jan 2000
Location: In The Jungle
Posts: 11,133
There are two schools of thought on this.

One, is to leave the lights off to help discourage algae. However, if there are any photosynthetic organisms on the LR, you may lose them without light.

The other is to turn the lights on to preserve any photosynthetic organisms on the rock. But, you may get more algae this way.

Personally, I would rather deal with algae than lose any life on the rock.
__________________
George

"You guys confuse me...." ~ mhurley

"So does Sesame Street." ~ BrianD
  #6  
Old 07/19/2007, 03:25 PM
seapug seapug is offline
clams are your friends.
 
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: 4980 ft.
Posts: 1,836
you can leave them on or off during the cycle. Some people prefer to leave them off to help keep algae under control, but if your rock has coral frags/remnants on it that you want to save it might be good to keep them on.
As far as light phases go, 14-16 hours/day will mimic tropical daylight duration, especially if you ramp them up in the morning and down in the evening by staggering the time different lights come on-- fewer/weaker lights on for the first and last couple hours, full blast for about 6-8 hours in the middle of the phase.
  #7  
Old 07/19/2007, 03:28 PM
chris31 chris31 is offline
Registered Member
 
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: long island NY
Posts: 370
what i did was during my cycle i had my lights on only 4 hours a day but i cycled my rock with just LR if your gonna use fish to cycle it then i would leave you lights on if not no sense in wasting money on eletric right
  #8  
Old 07/19/2007, 03:30 PM
der_wille_zur_macht der_wille_zur_macht is offline
m0delgator
 
Join Date: Sep 2003
Location: In the hizzy
Posts: 5,294
My big argument against the "leave them off to control algae" camp is that if you do that, then guess what you get when you finally do turn them on? An algae outbreak! Sure, it might not be as bad as what you'll get cycling with lights on, but better to start getting through the nuisance algae cycle before you have livestock in there, IMHO.

That, on top of the comments everyone made about preserving life on the live rock. Though it's probably somewhat rare to actually get a coral frag or something that cool on your rock, you will certainly get tons of coralline algae growth, and running without lights for weeks will definitely kill that all off.
  #9  
Old 07/19/2007, 03:31 PM
der_wille_zur_macht der_wille_zur_macht is offline
m0delgator
 
Join Date: Sep 2003
Location: In the hizzy
Posts: 5,294
Quote:
Originally posted by chris31
if your gonna use fish to cycle
Using fish to cycle a marine tank is archaic and pointless - especially if you're gonna have live rock in the tank at some point. The live rock provides more than enough biological matter to get through the cycle.
  #10  
Old 07/19/2007, 03:35 PM
griss griss is offline
RC Mod
 
Join Date: Jan 2000
Location: In The Jungle
Posts: 11,133
Quote:
Originally posted by der_wille_zur_macht
That, on top of the comments everyone made about preserving life on the live rock. Though it's probably somewhat rare to actually get a coral frag or something that cool on your rock, you will certainly get tons of coralline algae growth, and running without lights for weeks will definitely kill that all off.
Ah, the good old days of getting really cool corals on live rock.
__________________
George

"You guys confuse me...." ~ mhurley

"So does Sesame Street." ~ BrianD
  #11  
Old 07/19/2007, 03:37 PM
an411 an411 is offline
Registered Member
 
Join Date: Feb 2007
Location: Derby CT
Posts: 1,000
yeah I would rather get the algae break while cycling rather then afterwards Now with this algae break out what can be used to control it or do you leave it and let it happen since its normal? Should it be scraped off whatever it is on?
  #12  
Old 07/19/2007, 03:41 PM
der_wille_zur_macht der_wille_zur_macht is offline
m0delgator
 
Join Date: Sep 2003
Location: In the hizzy
Posts: 5,294
Physically remove it if you can, but don't worry too much. You can put a net in the tank and just drop the algae into the net as you pull it off, or do the removal at the same time as a water change and use the hose you're draining the tank with to suck the algae out of the tank.

At any rate, it's not critical to remove the stuff during the cycle - every tank gets some, and you don't need to worry unless it looks out of control.

BTW - another controversial matter is water changes during the cycle. Personally, I'm all for it. With the amount of live rock most reef keepers put in new tanks, there's far more than enough dead organic matter to kick off the cycle. Better to do water changes here and there during the cycle to reduce the harm done to beneficial life on the live rock, and also to reduce the severity of the algae outbreak you'll get - vs. not doing water changes and letting everything sit there in a toxic soup for a month or two.
  #13  
Old 07/19/2007, 03:45 PM
an411 an411 is offline
Registered Member
 
Join Date: Feb 2007
Location: Derby CT
Posts: 1,000
Yeah I agree with you on the water changes I was planning on doing that since I am going to be putting 150 lbs of live rock in to get the cycle process going . I am not just putting it in for that reason obviously/ Correct me if I am wrong but with water changes I am going to be using fresh water No salt added?
  #14  
Old 07/19/2007, 04:42 PM
m_wonnacott m_wonnacott is offline
Registered Member
 
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: Stratford, Ontario Canada
Posts: 140
Do not use fresh water for water changes. only use fresh water(no salt) for top ups.
__________________
90 Gal currently in the process of planing a change to a FO SW setup.
Currently set up-
-about 150 lbs reef rock
-black tahitian moon sand
-black background atm switching to blue
-single tube fixture with a coralife bulb
-emperor 400 with two bio wheels
-a hot magnum filter
-300 W aquarclear heater
 

Thread Tools Search this Thread
Search this Thread:

Advanced Search
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is On

Forum Jump


All times are GMT -5. The time now is 10:39 AM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.4
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
Use of this web site is subject to the terms and conditions described in the user agreement.
Reef Central™ Reef Central, LLC. Copyright ©1999-2009