How many hours of lighting?

[chriscoli]

I was wondering what other folks are doing for lighting duration?

How many hours of lighting are you running a fish-only (no plants) tank?

 

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Nonesuch

Don't have any like that.

 

[dogofwar]

I only use overhead lights in my fishroom and I have a timer that turns a light (13W flourescent) on at 8 AM and off at 9 PM. I usually turn on one other manually when I'm down in the fishroom.

Matt

 

[Andrewtfw]

My non-planted tanks at home receive indirect, natural light. I have fixtures on their tanks but rarely use them. The tank in my classroom is lit 8-5 M-F for my students.

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[cabinetmkr39]

I was always told the light was for viewing, fish really only need minimal light. I only have lights on timers on planted tanks. My show tank gets indirect light from outside.

 

[ddavila06]

what kind of light do you have? if its something strong like compact flourescent or T5ho then shorter hours would be better in planted and non because of the risk of getting algea...

all my tanks have T5s and all are in timers. start at around 7 am to 9 pm with 2-3 hours nap

 

[dogofwar]

My fishroom's in a room in the basement with no windows...so it would be pitch black without a light on.

I think that having the lights (or access to ambient light) on a regular and natural schedule is more important than the amount of light (for fish that is)...

Matt

 

[rsretep]

I only light my "fish only" tanks when I am viewing them, my planted tanks are on timers for 8 to 10 hours.

 

[chriscoli]

Thanks for the input, everyone. Although I have a lot of planted tanks, I have a few without... but out of habit (or convenience) they are on the same schedule as the planted ones. Sounds like I could leave them off the timers, use ambient light from the room or other tanks, and just turn them on when I'm looking at them or working on them.

 

[Tony]

I have only anubias in most of my tanks... not really considered a real plant in terms of lighting.

My lights are on when I'm home.... 5:30PM to midnight.

 

[dogofwar]

Where do you go after midnight, Tony?

 

[Tony]

Where do you go after midnight, Tony?

You interested in mogwai?

 

[AndyNarwhal]

To save energy I reduced the lighting on all my nonplanted tanks to 5.5 hours a day (4pm-9:30 pm). This is when I am home and can work on them. On weekends I do it 9 am to 10 pm.

My planted tanks are run at 15 hours a day (6 am until 9 pm).

I used to have all the lights on my nonplanted tanks come on at noon but after cutting it back I was able to save about $10 a month in electric.

Andy

 

[dogofwar]

No but some of those figurines would look DOPE in my Gorillus Umbee tank. It's a 55g so I'd need at least a couple of them...

Matt

You interested in mogwai?