Lighting..

[Aisha]

Hi,

When (in the day) are the lights of the aquarium supposed to be on, during the day or in the evening....

My dad seems to think that because its light during the day that it doesnt need to be on so turn it on during the evening..

I have noo idea, i just thought turn it and i have been doing, although it does make sense to have it on in th eevenings...

Could you help...

ALSO is there a certain amount of watts or amps of something that is needed, my tanks about 11 gal, could be more if i put more water in it which amkes me think... how full do you fill a tank???....

My aquarium has een established for quite some time but regardless i am still inexperienced and learning!

THANKS

 

[rabbut]

Lights are not very clear cut for "on" times. Do you have live plants in there? If so, you need a minimum of 10 hours of the lights being on per day for them to do well. Without plants, the amount of time isn't as important, as the light is just there in that senario to let you see your fish. Be wary of direct sunlight, or having the lights on for more than 12 hours though, as this may lead to algea issues

The ammount of light needed also depends on whether or not you have plants. Without plants, as little light as needed to see the fish is all that's needed, and more light may lead to algea. With plants, 1-2 watts per gallon will be fine for most easy growers, meaning you want between 11 and 22 watts for your 11gal, but some plants require more light. With more than 2WPG though, you will need CO2 injection to keep algea at bay in most cases

I fill my tanks to just below the brace bars usualy, or just above the trim if it is present. If both are missing though, I fill to about 1/2 an inch of the top.

HTH
Rabbut

 

[Aisha]

Lights are not very clear cut for "on" times. Do you have live plants in there? If so, you need a minimum of 10 hours of the lights being on per day for them to do well. Without plants, the amount of time isn't as important, as the light is just there in that senario to let you see your fish. Be wary of direct sunlight, or having the lights on for more than 12 hours though, as this may lead to algea issues

The ammount of light needed also depends on whether or not you have plants. Without plants, as little light as needed to see the fish is all that's needed, and more light may lead to algea. With plants, 1-2 watts per gallon will be fine for most easy growers, meaning you want between 11 and 22 watts for your 11gal, but some plants require more light. With more than 2WPG though, you will need CO2 injection to keep algea at bay in most cases

I fill my tanks to just below the brace bars usualy, or just above the trim if it is present. If both are missing though, I fill to about 1/2 an inch of the top.

HTH
Rabbut

Thanks for your response!

Well we have tried to keep plants but we had too many snails eating them and fish too, so when they looked they were gonna die id take them out.. something recently triggered high levels of ammonia which caused a nasty outbreak of white spot that killed all but three of my fish... that is cleared up now and water levels are perfect but i had to remove the plants... only have plastic ones BUT i am looking to create a moss wall as a background and if all goes well and depending on any fish that ill add, i am lookin to add some back in..

My tank is 3-3 1/2 inches from the trim top of tank, do i need to fill it up a bit more? I have a hexagon shape tank so is slightly deeper than its length..

 

[waterdrop]

Do a snail search on TFF. You can drop a chunk of cucumber or lettuce in overnight and probably find many of the snails on it in the morning. Just pull it out and toss it in the outside trash can (so they won't crawl out and around your house.)

Agree with rabbut's lighting tips. If you get around to growing the moss wall or having other live plants in this same tank then I'd say a fairly standard 15 or 18 watt fluorescent tube will put you in the sweet spot of just over one watt per gallon, which is where you want to be for easy plant low light technique. I'd also say you could consider 8 hours per day or 10, either one, and a simple hardware store timer for the light so that you could split the time for having light in the morning and evening (assuming that's when you are there to view.) That would also help a little (the dark gap in the middle of the day) with making things a little more difficult for the algae. Keeping up a frequent gravel cleaning schedule so that there is little debris may also help minimize the amount of ammonia when you do subsequent cleanings, thereby minimizing the algae being triggered by the ammonia kicked up.

Water line level is totally up to you. I find it is sometimes nice to have it down a bit so that I don't slosh water over when I stick my arm into the tank to do things, but if you are disciplined you could wait to do these things during the lower level of your weekend water change. Higher water line is often nicer looking, which is what the hobby is all about is some respects. Lower water line may also leave mineral deposit lines that may be hard to get off, as most have experienced with any place tap water sits around.

~~waterdrop~~