Lighting

I have installed my new lighting. I now have 80 watts of lighting. I have made my own custom light set-up based on some fancy (more expensive) light sets. I have two coralife T-5 units. Each came with a 50/50 actinic and a 10k daylight bulb. (20 watts/bulb) I have taken the actinics out and put them in one unit and the daylights in the other. I also have dual led night light set. It is two pods with two twilight blue leds on each. (1 watt/bulb) I cycle the lights as follows: 8:00 actinics -- 10:00 daylights (and actinic) -- 1800 daylights off -- 2000 actinics off. The night lights stay on all the time. This cycle gives a nice morning, noon, and night effect to the tank. The nightlights really make the tank look sharp in the evening.


I have had the lights for about 2 weeks now and they are really slick. I have noticed a lot of growth and the nightlife seems to really like to come out into the twilight. I am considering shifting my lighting schedule by about an hour. I miss out on a lot of the daylight with them not coming on until 10.