Night Viewing Lighting

[Tizer]

Admittedly they look funky for five minutes after you set them up, but like i said, for me, my normal lights are on during the hours while i'm at home to enjoy it anyway, so kinda pointless for me

How long are your lights on for. Mine come on at 9am when the room is light and go off 10 hrs later, which is still pushing a bit. I don't want to come home at night and look at my tank in the dark. Is your tank in a lightless room, allowing the lights to come on late and stay on until 10 pm? Whilst I partially agree with you because of some of the naff lighting you can get, a light into the tank that is no brighter than moonlight cannot be bad and allows to view what's going on (just) without switching the lights on and off and confusing the fish.

My lights come on at 4pm then off at 10pm, only a 6 hour period, I don't want to tempt algae so I only do what I feel necessary. I don't get in from work till 6pm either.

The other thing I have on a timer is the 4000 LPH power head which adds some nice movement to the water which my clown loaches love, that's on from 9am till 6pm.

As for seeing what's going on every 5 minutes, that's something people new to the hobby tend to do, i'm not as focused on my tank now because its been setup ages, I kinda know what's going on without the lights on and even when they are on, I cant always sit there and appreciate it as much as I would like!

 

[Tonyb111111]

Admittedly they look funky for five minutes after you set them up, but like i said, for me, my normal lights are on during the hours while i'm at home to enjoy it anyway, so kinda pointless for me

How long are your lights on for. Mine come on at 9am when the room is light and go off 10 hrs later, which is still pushing a bit. I don't want to come home at night and look at my tank in the dark. Is your tank in a lightless room, allowing the lights to come on late and stay on until 10 pm? Whilst I partially agree with you because of some of the naff lighting you can get, a light into the tank that is no brighter than moonlight cannot be bad and allows to view what's going on (just) without switching the lights on and off and confusing the fish.

My lights come on at 4pm then off at 10pm, only a 6 hour period, I don't want to tempt algae so I only do what I feel necessary. I don't get in from work till 6pm either.

The other thing I have on a timer is the 4000 LPH power head which adds some nice movement to the water which my clown loaches love, that's on from 9am till 6pm.

As for seeing what's going on every 5 minutes, that's something people new to the hobby tend to do, i'm not as focused on my tank now because its been setup ages, I kinda know what's going on without the lights on and even when they are on, I cant always sit there and appreciate it as much as I would like!

Fair enough, so theoretically I could set the same the lighting schedule even though they are in lit room, eg daylight in the room all day, lights on at 4, off at 10. The only reason I got the night light was I because I thought the lights should coincide with daylight hours, is this standard practice??

 

[Tizer]

not really, aquarium lighting and daylight are quite different. for one aquarium lighting is very intense, while daylight can vary with cloud cover and such. If you try match daylight ours with aquarium lighting, its a bit of a recipe for algae outbreaks.

 

[Tonyb111111]

Bit confused with that answer, do you recommend lights on between say 2 and 10 and ignore the fact the room in full daylight. That sounds sarcastic but it's not meant to be, just want to clarify

 

[Tizer]

Depends on your house really, if its in a conservatory with direct light then yeah, I would consider "direct day light" as useful, if its out of direct light, then "day light" isn't much use for plant growth and aquarium lighting should be used. If that helps. Tiz the way I've always looked at it anyway. Fish wise, they dont care about lighting, but its good to have day and night clear cut so they have a sleep pattern like you and me.