Light Dual Led

Light Dual Led
How should I run my aquarium light?

I found a aquarium light that has 3 switches, one for white light, one for blue and another for the led night light. Should I be running the blue and the white together or run them at different times. And if you run them together why can't I just buy a cheap dual strip florecent light and replace one of the white bulbs with a blue bulb?

The way I run mine is the the blue (actinic) is set to come on 1 hour before the white (daylight) then the white and blue stay on togather then the blue stays on one hour after the white goes off. My actinic are on 10hrs and the daylight 8hrs. The led go on when the actinic go off and go off when they come on. This serves to mimic to some extent sunrise and sunset. This helps prevent the fish from being startled when the lights come one and gives them time to get to there hiding places for the night when the completely go off. Running both at the same time creates a more natural light color sepctram than running the daylight alone as this tends to give everything a yellow hue. Also the blue lightwaves penetrate deeper in the tank that the others.

Are you running compact florecents or just regular florecents. If you are running compact florecents they put out much more light per watt than a regular florecent which is the diffrence in the fixture you have and a cheap dual strip. Also make sure you have the bulbs in the correct positions in the fixture. The daylight bulbs put out much more heat than the actinics and if they are made to be in certin positions then the cooling fans will generally only come on when the position for the daylight bulbs is turned on.