Led Lighting?

[Arcygenical]

Hey everyone,

Although this is my first post on the forum (woo!), I'm smart enough to try searching first... Unfortunately, search doesn't seem to work for me (gives me the " connection to localhost:3312 failed" error) so, I apologize in advance if this has been asked before.

I've gotten a new Crowntail betta today (gorgeous metallic-steel blue and gunmetal) and while this is far from my first betta fish, I've never used LED for tank lighting before. I'm using three small (3mm) LED's (I rigged the light up myself) to add a bit of ambient light to the 2.5 gallon tank. These LED's are dim, diffused, and far from very bright. The total wattage is less than 0.5w, so you can see they're pretty insignificant.

So, my question begins: Do I need to give the betta fish a dark/light cycle? Or should he be alright with the lights on 24/7. These things are dimmer than most "moonlights" or "night-lights" (that are left on when the main tank lights are off) but, as I said, I'm inexperienced in LED lighting. They won't contribute to algae growth any more than the sunlight the tank gets... But I'm worried about my betta's eyes getting "tired" (I should know better... sigh)

Any input on this issue, would be greatly appreciated .

Thanks!

 

[modaz]

bettas in deed to to sleep, so good idea not to have it on 24/7 even though it is a dim light, i used one once and the poor sod never slept for a few days, so did eventually start turning it off late at night thru to the early evening of the next day

 

[fourthtimelucky]

Yep I would get a cheap timer switch and plug it into that, then you don't have to remember to switch them on and off all the time!

 

[Arcygenical]

Thanks for the replies .

I figured as much, I mean, it makes sense. T'was my plan all along. Thanks again!