Bio Cube Lighting

[GNCFANBOY]

Hey,
First post! I just bought an Oceanic Bio Cube 14 Gallon. I was just wondering what actual light the damn thing has in it. I wanted to eventually get some hardy inverts going. Can anyone tell me what the "Coralife Lighting 24 watt 10,000K & 24 watt Actinic 03 2- 3/4 watt Blue LED moon lights." Actually are? Are they sufficient enough for coral? Any other info would be appreciated.

Btw...Its also advertised as have a built in surface skimmer. But i just bought the Current nano-skimmer...and Im hoping it will fit. Anythoughts? Thanks guys!

[CollegeReefer]

Those lights will allow you too keep most soft corals. Stick with mushrroms, poylps, leathers, and well that gives you many choices already. All the surfice skimme does is pull the surface water to the back chamber where the pump is. This helps keep your surface clean. Not sure about the nano-skimmer you bought. The biocube is just your basic all in one system. Like all sytems like the one you have, your greatest battle will be keep the temp down.

[GNCFANBOY]

Thanks for the reply man. My temps are actually not bad cuz of the built in fan, its been at about 77. Should I switch 12 hours a piece between the lights? (12 hours of 10,000, 12 hours of other light)or is there another way i should be working them?

[Scuba Kid]

I personally prefer the 10,000k daylights and the actinics on at the same time. Gives a nicer hue. Either way, you shouldn't have light on 24 hours a day. You should have either no lights on or just the bluemoons at night.

[GNCFANBOY]

Okay so Ill just leave the white and blue lights on for twelve hours at the same time. And then the LED's at night

[joe kool]

well I'm not a salty but I think the corals need the antic at night there scuba. At least part of it anyway. you can have the antic on during the day as well for "coloring but I was always told that antics needed to be on at night if you were doing a reef or corals.

Again I'm a freshwater dude so find out from some of the salties on here, they'd know for sure

[TheOldSalt]

That's right, we would. Do NOT run actinics all night. The actinics are only for adding more blue spectrum to the lighting to simulate the blueness of the natural reef environment and to make the colors show up better. ( well, to put it simply ) This is fine during the daytime when the corals need it, but worse than useless at night. In fact, those little LEDs are for simulating the phases of moonlight for coral breeding, and they shouldn't be run every night, either. The idea is to use them with a controller which is a computerized calendar, and this makes the moon lights wax and wane over a 28-day cycle to mimic the patterns of real moonlight, which is what controls coral spawning. Running them all the time will only confuse the corals.

[GNCFANBOY]

thanks old salt....

so im running the 10,000k, and the acitinics during the day.

and then nights ill wax and wane the LED's somehow?

Sound good for some soft coral?

[TheOldSalt]

Sounds good. You can try black electrician tape for varying the amount of light coming from the LED's.

[joe kool]

Originally Posted by TheOldSalt

The idea is to use them with a controller which is a computerized calendar, and this makes the moon lights wax and wane over a 28-day cycle to mimic the patterns of real moonlight, which is what controls coral spawning. Running them all the time will only confuse the corals.

as long as the controllers are just varying the time they are on and not the intensity (voltage going to the LED). If the controller varies the voltage that will also vary the light frequency (nm) output of the LED which may cause them to be outside the "useful" range for the corals as well. That's the problem with a lot of the "variable" LED kits you see on ebay is it varies the voltage of the LED's them selves which changes the light frequency (properties) of the LED

[Scuba Kid]

The LED moonlights do not really provide any growth-essential lighting to the corals. They're just to, as TOS already stated, to imitate the cycles of the moon to induce spawning.