Window light

[Country joe]

My tank is in a small bedroom, the tank is in the side of the room, not facing the window but does let in a good bit of light, the tank is on a timer coming on at 10 am and off at 8pm, should I keep the window blind down, or just leave it up.

 

[MaloK]

If your natural light time frame overlaps the synthetically created one both ends, by a reasonable delay, your golden.

let the natural light start the day then use you leds as long as you can.

In a place like Canada I have to put the time frame the latest I can in the morning to be able to enjoy them in the late afternoon.

They also have to cope with "time savings" every year... Most aquarium will stand up to 12 hours a day of consistent light.

Dimmed light in the evening is not a problem.

In my experience except the more light sensitive "nervous" species... Most fishes can take a nap in broad daylight with no problems.

In the middle of the day, I was able to put food on the nose of my betta without him noticing for a minute... If you are not sleeping what else ???

 

[Archerfish]

Do you have any live plants in the tank?

 

[Colin_T]

Leave the curtains open during the day unless you have nosy neighbours.

There is nothing wrong with natural sunlight, plants and fish live under it normally. The only issue in aquariums is too much light and not enough plants using that light, can create algae problems.

I had my curtains open all day every day and never had algae problems in my tanks.

 

[Archerfish]

Yeah, the reason I asked if you have live plants is because there is no reason to run your artificial lighting if you are not home. The fish don't need the light. Indirect, filtered (through a window shade), window lighting should have a negligible effect on your tank. If you have live plants then yes, run your artificial lighting and don't worry about the subtle window light. That is unless you want to prevent the sun from heating your home.