View Full Version : more than 1 light period per day?
biggie357
05-27-2009, 8:15 PM
I recentely bought an automatic light timer and i have a few questions:
my viewing schedule is kinda spread out, so its tough to have a solid lighting period with enough time for when im home to be looking at it. right now i have it on 2 separate periods; 7:30AM to 12:00PM, then 5:30PM to 11:30 PM
my plants seem to be doing fine, but is this ok for them? can you have more intervals than 2?
I also put my timers on intervals with lights out during the afternoon when I tend to be gone. Plants and fish do just fine. Don't see why you could not throw in another interval if you wish.
I do make sure that my fish have lights out at least 8 hours straight through the night.
timwag2001
05-28-2009, 6:10 AM
from what i've read the double light period is getting to ge a pretty common thing. some people are doing it to try to help control algae. i dont know if i would throw in another though. i have a raphael catfish and a common pleco that flip out everytime my light snaps on. i'm not sure that it would be a good thing if it snapped on 2 or more times a day.
thesixis
05-28-2009, 7:36 AM
The dude at Baylees told me to break up the lights because of my algae problem, it solved the problem.I now do it on all of my tanks.
bazil323
05-28-2009, 9:21 AM
I do this mainly because I want the lights on when I'm home, not when no one is there to enjoy them. I split it into 2 just because that's when I'm home, morning and evening. I don't see why having 3 would be a problem, except as someone said for nocturnal fish.
Another reason some do this (might be why algae problems are fixed) is for CO2 to build up during, I think, the "night" setting. I'm no expert on CO2, but I remember seeing something about that.
Only real down side is the more often the lights go on and off the shorter their lifespan.