Lights On Whilst Cycling

[Nosnibor]

Hi,

Just a few quick questions.

1. Whilst I'm doing the fishless cycle should I be setting the lights to still come on as normal or leave them off?

2. When I do get the tank fully populated with fish and plants, how should I work out how long to have the lights coming on and when?

3. I've read that you can buy 'special' timers that will simulate dawn and dusk etc. Is this true and where can I get this product from?

Thank you in advance.

Martin

 

[Miss Wiggle]

1 - whichever, makes no odds

2 - start with 8 hrs a day, you'll need to adjust this probably depending how well plants are doing and if you get any algae growth, depends onm any number of factors such as how muh natural sunlight the tank gets so we can't give you an exact time, doesn't matter if they're on mrning, noon or night, set them to come on whenever you're gonna be home to see them!

3 - if you've got more than one lighting unit it's easy, just get normal bog standard timers for any hardware shop or supermarket, set the times so you get just one light coming on at first then the next one an hr or so later, then the opposite for turning them off

 

[Nosnibor]

1 - whichever, makes no odds

2 - start with 8 hrs a day, you'll need to adjust this probably depending how well plants are doing and if you get any algae growth, depends onm any number of factors such as how muh natural sunlight the tank gets so we can't give you an exact time, doesn't matter if they're on mrning, noon or night, set them to come on whenever you're gonna be home to see them!

3 - if you've got more than one lighting unit it's easy, just get normal bog standard timers for any hardware shop or supermarket, set the times so you get just one light coming on at first then the next one an hr or so later, then the opposite for turning them off

Miss Wiggle,

Thank you, that makes sense. With regards to the lights, I have two light strips in there but only the one plug. Do you know if it's possible to separate them?

Martin

 

[Miss Wiggle]

depends on how it's set up i expect, but i'm no electrical expert so I couldn't help you anymore than that, perhaps posting in the DIY section would attract the people who know more

 

[Nosnibor]

depends on how it's set up i expect, but i'm no electrical expert so I couldn't help you anymore than that, perhaps posting in the DIY section would attract the people who know more

Thank you very much once again Miss Wiggle, I will.

Cheers
Martin