My fish hate the LED light

[mrsjoannh13]

I have a 10 gallon non-planted tank with 4 glofish tetra. These fish FREAK out when I put the aquarium light on. I have tried turning the room overhead lights on gradually (they're on a dimmer switch) until they are 100% on over about 30 minutes then I wait another 30 minutes so the fish are acclimated to light. When I put the aquarium light on they start freaking out, bumping into the glass, and acting really stressed. So I turn the aquarium light off and just let the room lights stay on.

I guess my question is.... do I really need to turn the aquarium light on if I don't have live plants? The fish hate it and we can see them just fine with the room lights on, so should we just leave the LED light off? Is there any other reason (aside from live plants) that require the aquarium light to be on for several hours a day?

If the light really needs to be on (for some reason I'm not aware of - I'm new to the hobby) I will try some floating plants. This is my little girl's tank so I'm trying to keep things as simple as possible and hadn't previously planned to get any live plants. But I'll give it a go if that's what we need to do.

Thanks!

 

[AbbeysDad]

Lighting is more for us to view the fish better and of course photosynthesis for living plants. If you don't want to go with floating plants even though they are great at shading, protection, and water purification....you could put a layer of nylon window screen between the light and the water (on the glass top)...assuming you have a glass top to set it on - it would reduce the light intensity into the tank. Another option is grass like plastic plant blocks floating upside down.

 

[itiwhetu]

I have a tank with no light on it, the tank just gets natural light, it is fine and the fish are happy, they love it when the sun strikes it.

 

[mrsjoannh13]

I have a tank with no light on it, the tank just gets natural light, it is fine and the fish are happy, they love it when the sun strikes it.

Okay thanks! Glad to hear I'm not alone. I just wanted to make sure I wasn't doing something "wrong" by leaving the LED light off all the time since the fish really don't seem to like it. They seem very happy otherwise.

 

[Colin_T]

check your water quality and make sure it's good.
add some plastic or live plants.
make sure the tank has a picture or something on the back.
have dark gravel instead of light coloured gravel.

 

[mrsjoannh13]

check your water quality and make sure it's good.
add some plastic or live plants.
make sure the tank has a picture or something on the back.
have dark gravel instead of light coloured gravel.

All the water parameters are good - 0 chlorine, ammonia and nitrite. Nitrate about 10. pH around 7.6 and water temp between 77 and 78.

There are several plastic plants and I have a black background on the tank. The gravel is mixed colors (black, pink, etc.) - it's my little girl's tank and she loves pink

 

[StevenF]

Your aquarium light is probably too bright for the fish. When the light suddenly comes on at maximum brightness the fish behave as you have observed. Typically as they adjust to the brighter light there stress levels should drop. If theydon't calm down over time the light is probably too bright. There are some lights on the market that slowly ramp up preventing the shock to the fish.

 

[mrsjoannh13]

Your aquarium light is probably too bright for the fish. When the light suddenly comes on at maximum brightness the fish behave as you have observed. Typically as they adjust to the brighter light there stress levels should drop. If theydon't calm down over time the light is probably too bright. There are some lights on the market that slowly ramp up preventing the shock to the fish.

Thanks, StevenF. I hadn't actually thought of replacing out the light. I'm going to look into that!

 

[AbbeysDad]

You may find some useful information in this great article by Byron:
Lighting: How it Affects Freshwater Fish

 

[mrsjoannh13]

You may find some useful information in this great article by Byron:
Lighting: How it Affects Freshwater Fish

Thank you, AbbeysDad! I'll definitely read It. I also found a dimmable light option on Amazon and it should be here Monday. I'm hoping that helps out. Thanks to everyone for their advice!!!!

 

[mrsjoannh13]

Your aquarium light is probably too bright for the fish. When the light suddenly comes on at maximum brightness the fish behave as you have observed. Typically as they adjust to the brighter light there stress levels should drop. If theydon't calm down over time the light is probably too bright. There are some lights on the market that slowly ramp up preventing the shock to the fish.

@StevenF - thank you SO much for the suggestion to get a dimmable light. I don't know why I hadn't thought of that! I got an amazing (an affordable) dimmable light off Amazon that has blue and white light options (you can even use the 2 together at the same time - it's awesome). I keep the lights on at a really low setting and the fish seem totally fine with it and we can finally enjoy our glow tank with the blue light! I realize the tank is an explosion of color but it's for my kid and she LOVES it.

 

[PheonixKingZ]

Glad it all worked out!