Lighting For New Tank

ok, I have a new 150 gal tank. There is 150lbs of Reef Saver dry rock and 80lbs of caribsea reef sand. I have a 55 gal sump that is empty right now, just running water through it. There is a MAG 9.5 running the return and three MAXI JET 1200 in the DT moving things around. I put two raw shrimp and 5 damsels in on March 25th. On March 30th I started dosing with Microbacter7 30ml a day. I plan on using 500ml of microbacter7 then letting the tank do its thing for the next six months. There are five damsels in there that will be fed daily, that should keep things real.

My question is this, how long should I leave the lights on? I just put up an old 250w 14000k pheonix bulb. I was thinking 4 hours a day would be ok. What are your thoughts on this???

This light is only temp, when I get back I will have two 250's and two 96 watt Actinic PC's.

 

It depends on how much algae you want.

Seriously, you don't need supplemental lighting during the cycle. I like to run my lights longer to force algae growth so it takes up the nutrients. It eventually dies off on it's own. Others prefer no lights at all to help prevent nuisance algae blooms... There is no hard rule on the matter.

 

Sweet, then 4 hours a day for the next six months should be ok. I figure I need some light to keep things going, but I dont want a ton so things go nuts. When I get back Ill add the rest of the lights and let them do the mini cycle on the hours I want.

8 for actinics and 6 for halides.