On Average How Long Should Lights Be On For?

[lilacamy931]

I know this can be dependant on the plants you have etc but generally on average for quite low maintenance and easy plants what would be the recommended time? I do ask as at the moment the lights go on at 7:00-7:30am in the morning and generally are turned off around 7pm at night, thinking perhaps this is too long and need to get timers in? Sorry to trouble!

 

[onebto]

I know this can be dependant on the plants you have etc but generally on average for quite low maintenance and easy plants what would be the recommended time? I do ask as at the moment the lights go on at 7:00-7:30am in the morning and generally are turned off around 7pm at night, thinking perhaps this is too long and need to get timers in? Sorry to trouble!

When it comes to how long your lights need to be on for the plants you have I cannot advise you as I do not consider myself experianced enough but I will say I used to have them on for a similar amount of time and discovered through advise and observation it was to long for my tank. I currently run mine for 6 and half hours with my blue neons on in the evening for about 2 hours I have found it works for my tank.

Hopefully someone with a more experiance will post. It will help them if you post the dimensions of your tank the plants you have if you have a fertiliser below your substrate, what sort of liquid ferts you use, do you have a nitrogen kit and most importantly what lights you have i.e. t5 or t8 tubes how long they are and there wattage and how many. This will allow them to calculate your watts per gallon ratio and advise you a number of hours the lights need to be on. Dont take it as a gospel as mentioned I am no way informed in this matter but I am sure I have read here on this forum 8 hours is a good amount of time.

regards onebto.

 

[Truck]

It depends on the lighting intensity and whether you're running CO2 and ferts etc.

They shouldn't be on any longer than 8 hours, if you're not experiencing any algae problems then 8 hours will be fine.

 

[fishyfeet]

Plants need in general 8 hours of light per day to remain healthy, algae needs 8 hours of constant light daily to reproduce, so i have found out from experience that a break in between the 8 hours does the plants good, but not the algae, i have a timer so the lights come on at 7am and off at 1pm, on and 3pm and off at 9pm and off course keep the tank out of sunlight.

 

[lilacamy931]

Brill thanks guys, they are on a little longer due to work times and no algae problems, so think I will get some timer plugs and go that ways