B737-800 flight crew reported they got a low altitude alert from ATC on a night visual approach into...

Narrative:

Cleared for a visual approach to 34L rno at night in VFR. When I turned to a base leg PNF informed me that we were high. Informed tower we were turning a downwind leg to lose altitude. They said roger. We maintained 8;300 feet. Then they responded that they were getting a low altitude alert on us. We had GPWS on and neither one of us were indicating terrain issues. We had the field in sight the entire time and said so to ATC. We turned a left base leg then final and did a small south turn to continue to lose altitude. At 1;000 feet we were on PAPI but above glideslope fully configured and stable. Considered a go-around however did have one red on PAPI.I broke my protocol. I accepted a night VFR approach into a [high terrain] city. Should have stayed with ATC and received radar vectors and altitudes from ATC. It was my first officer's first time into rno.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: B737-800 flight crew reported they got a low altitude alert from ATC on a night visual approach into RNO.

Narrative: Cleared for a visual approach to 34L RNO at night in VFR. When I turned to a base leg PNF informed me that we were high. Informed tower we were turning a downwind leg to lose altitude. They said roger. We maintained 8;300 feet. Then they responded that they were getting a low altitude alert on us. We had GPWS on and neither one of us were indicating terrain issues. We had the field in sight the entire time and said so to ATC. We turned a left base leg then final and did a small S turn to continue to lose altitude. At 1;000 feet we were on PAPI but above glideslope fully configured and stable. Considered a go-around however did have one red on PAPI.I broke my protocol. I accepted a night VFR approach into a [high terrain] city. Should have stayed with ATC and received radar vectors and altitudes from ATC. It was my FO's first time into RNO.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.

Attributes
ACN	1293789
Time
Date	201509
Local Time Of Day	1801-2400
Place
Locale Reference	RNO.Airport
State Reference	CA
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Light	Night
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	B737-800
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Final Approach
Person 1
Function	Captain Pilot Flying
Qualification	Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Person 2
Function	First Officer Pilot Not Flying
Events
Anomaly	Inflight Event / Encounter CFTT / CFIT Inflight Event / Encounter Unstabilized Approach

B737-800 flight crew reported they got a low altitude alert from ATC on a night visual approach into rno.