new tank

Hello all,

Great site! I'm just setting up a new 75 gallon tank. Going to be adding live rock soon and let the rock cycle my tank. I have 2 Hagen t5 glo lighting systems for a total of 216 watts. I also have a fuge in my sump.

My question is what are your suggestions as far as how long to light my tank initially during cycling and afterward? Also, how long to light my sump at night? Just looking to avoid crazy algae blooms if possible. Thanks a lot!!

 

Welcome to 3reef Kernsreef!

During your cycle you don't need any light. Light will just help out the algae. None of the beneficial bacteria on the live rock is photosynthetic. After the cycle once you have some livestock in there you can put it on whatever lighting schedule you wish. I wouldn't exceed 10 hours/day at first just because of the initial algae blooms. Maybe even less would be better. Heck if you don't have coral you can leave the lights off all the time! haha

For your sump you don't really want a light other than maybe a light in your cabinet for maintenance reasons. If you have a refugium, however, then you will need one. It really doesn't require much light. Do a search for refugiums if that is what you're interested in..it's a pretty broad topic.

Hope this helps!
Ivan

 

Welcome to 3reef

+1 irr0001

 

Thanks for the welcome and the advice!

 

Hello and Welcome.

 

that sounds similar to what i want my ever slowly developing setup to be.
feel free to post heaps of pics of the different stages and details about how everything is going
hope all goes well for you

 

Thanks, I'm also hoping it goes well for me. It has been a very slow process collecting equipment and such as the budget is tight!

 

Welcome to 3 reef Kernsreef

hope the budget allows enough for a digital camera?

we would like to see this build in pictoral form

Lights off during cycle is my preference also
I did 8 weeks with lights off on my current set up, using cured, live rock

fuge - a single CFL lamp, cliped on, in metal shade/ cowl is a good option
run it on reverse lighting timer when tank is set up

so main tank lights are on during daylight, and lamp over fuge comes on after main lights go off and stays on at night for 8 - 10 hours

Steve

 

Got it, thank you. I'll do my best to get some photos up.