Marine Tank Lighting

A big part of any fish tank setup is the light unit. Most people just see it as a way to light up the tank to display what's inside it. However in keeping Marine life the lighting unit is extremely important. Many corals are photosynthetic meaning they use 'light' to create its own food and as a results grow and thrive. Light also helps keep a stable PH, something often over looked, a stable PH is important to keeping your inhabitants happy and healthy.

In my tank I use a LED unit to light my tank, LEDs are cheaper to run than conventional lighting, they are also very customisable and programmable. What this means is that in my 3' long unit I can have a mixture of white, blue, red, and UV LEDs and each channel can be programmed from 0-100% brightness. There are 3 channels in my unit which can be programmed to change brightness every 30mins, channel 1 moon lighting 0-10% channel 2 blue and UV 0-100% and finally white, red, and green 0-100%.

Getting the right intensity of light for the corrent time period can be difficult. Below Image 1 shows how I originally had my light setup, ramps up slowly, peaks then begins to ramp down again. After seeking advice from a forum called Ultimate Reef I was advised to have a longer peak intensity and ramp it up and down quicker. Image 2 below shows what I am running now.

Image 1

Image 2