T5 lights how long on/off HELP!!!

sailman

sailman

Member
I just put in two 4 foot/2 lamp T5 fixtures from Sunlight Supply and six moon lights. The LFS sold me 2 54w 420nm Actinic (in the back) 1 Actinic white, 1 Aquasun (front)and 6 moon lights (middle). All this is under my canopy and is on top of a 90gal Allglass tank. All are on timers. What I would like is to set it up on a dawn to dusk schedule with the moon lights at night. Are the bulbs in the correct place? What set of lights should come on first and how long before the other set? How long should the lights stay on ? All of this is new to me. I went from a 1 bulb strip light to this and I'm lost. Please help me find my way!
 
Jeremy0322

Jeremy0322

Active Member
You will want the actinic lights to come on first, so you will want the 2 420nm actinics on the same plug, and then the other 2 on the other plug. Everyone likes to run different lighting schedules, but the popular one is the 8 hour period where your actinics will come on and then an hour later the daylights come on, they run for 6 hours before shutting off, and then the actinics are on for another hour before shutting down. When I had my 4 bulb setup I ran this schedule.

2pm - Actinics on
3:30 pm - Daylights on
11:30pm - Daylights off
1am - Actinics off

Now, that schedule is very long compared to what most people do, but I liked having the tank lit up a lot and it was kept maintained enough that I wasnt too worried about the algae issues associated with longer light schedules.
 
bllfish

bllfish

Member
I have a 4 bulb setup on my 72 bowfront.
Bulbs front to back
blue +
aqua sun
fiji purple
blue +
The blue + are on from 9am till 8pm, the other 2 bulbs come on at 10 am and off at 7 pm. I have 2 - two foot long night lites, both come on at 7 pm, 1 goes off at 3 am and the other at 4 am. The moon lighting is really fluorescent so I get to enjoy it a few hours before I go to bed.
 
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