Red Sea 650 lighting question

[Robs]

Hi all

I purchased a Red Sea 650 about 6 months ago and have never been certain about the amount of lighting to use with the standard bulbs it came with.

When I first swapped my corals over from my Red Sea Max 250 to the 650 they started to bleach pretty quickly. So I reduced the lighting because all other water parameters seemed good. The bleaching (mainly on soft corals such as brains) did stop and slowly started to reverse.

I have one actinic and one cool white going for 12 hours. During the middle of the day I then have 4 other bulbs (mixture of actinics and cool whites) come on for 1 hour.

My question is for those who have the 650, how many hours of light do you give each day using what quantity of bulbs?

Thanks for your help.
Rob

 

[Joeys Tank]

I am using LEDs instead of the T5s and run them for 7 hours with 2-hour sunrise/sunset (total of 11 hours). For T5s, you will have to slowly adjust your times (once a week by 15-30min increments). Advice here and on the internet will give you a nice range of times, but your tank and livestock will let you know the perfect amount for your system. You are definitely on the right path with knowing how your coral is responding. Slowly adjusting the light period and watching for changes in your coral will let you fine tune.

 

[Seagars]

i have changed all of my bulbs to ATI or Geissemann, leaning towards more Antinic +. i run the center channel (2 bulbs) for 1 1/2 hrs on either side and the other 8 bulbs for 8 hrs. a total of 11 hrs. come on around 10am and go completely off at 9pm. just what works for me.

 

[Robs]

i have changed all of my bulbs to ATI or Geissemann, leaning towards more Antinic +. i run the center channel (2 bulbs) for 1 1/2 hrs on either side and the other 8 bulbs for 8 hrs. a total of 11 hrs. come on around 10am and go completely off at 9pm. just what works for me.

Thanks for both of your reply's . Sounds like I could increase my lighting more but perhaps more gradually. Appreciate your input.

Cheers
Rob

 

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