Lighting for reef tank

[Hela]

Hi, i have 15g tank, i have corals and anemone. I have 2 ocellaris clownfish, 1 emerald crab and a peppermint shrimp.

I dont get it what I should for the lighting of my aquarium. I asked so many people, everyone is telling me different things. I use 8 to 10 hours of white light like (daylight) and at night i use the moon light which is blue light for 8 hours. However whenever i turn on the blue light my Anemone is shrinking and hiding. Once i open the white light its coming out. Same thing is happening with my corals. Some people are saying its normal, they need to rest and its photosynthesis blablabla. But whats confusing me is that in pet stores they always keep the blue light on and all their corals and anemones are showing their colors, they're not shrinked. (My lights are good theyre not cheap.)

If someone could find the problem i would really appreciate your help. 

Thank you. 

[Hasted]

When you turn your blue light on for a moonlight your Nem shrinks? Or do you mean if you adjust your lights through the day to be more blue than white then they shrink?

 

Moonlight is supposed to be very weak to allow fish and corals to rest and give us the (unneeded) pleasure of seeing inside our tanks when it would otherwise be pitch black. Fish and corals both need rest. Your moonlight should be low enough not to disrupt this rest time. 

 

I would not be alarmed if your moonlight comes on and your nem decided it is nap time after showing off for 12 hours. A lot of my corals start to close up during my 1.5 hour ramp down. Well before my lights actually turn off.

[MainelyReefer]

What kind of light? Being vague won’t help.  Also not many people run only whites as daylight, I keep my whites below 20% typically and crank blue spectrums. Without insight into the light model it will be hard to recommend anything.

[geekreef_05]

There should be a number of options on your lighting fixture. Here are my recommendations:

(1) Take a look at the settings recommended by the manufacturer. They should define settings for sunrise/sunset, daylight, moonlights. 

(2) The behaviour of your anemone and corals seem normal. They are suppose to shrink up and contract at night to sleep, then open wide during the day.

(3) At the pet store they are running lots of blue (actinic) along with their whites (daylight) on medium or minimal. Since the corals and nem's are still getting that daylight they need, they are open for the day, despite the actinic lights. 

(4) Moonlights should be your actinics only, but on very very low levels. Less than 5%. And if you can do settings like rolling clouds at night, that would be good. 

 

hope that helps.  

[Hela]

Is this much of lighting and the color are good at night?