Home depot bulb or lfs bulb?
- Thread starter M00n3at3r
- Start date
Cool, glad you think so. Things are a little tight right now, but as soon as I can I will. Until then I will just keep up with water changes and such. For the timing on my lighting, what should I put it at so that it starves the algae but doesn't hurt my plants?
Byron Amazonas
AC Members
This takes some experimenting, but I would start with no less than 8 hours. You can go as low as 6 hours if necessary. A timer is best as the consistency is important for plants and fish; you may already have one. The photoperiod can be pretty much anytime you want. It is important that fish and plants receive some complete darkness, no less than 6 hours with no ambient lighting (daylight, room lights). Fish are easily stressed by too much light, intensity and duration, and it affects plants too. B.
Yeah, I do have a timer, and the tank sits across the room from my window. I keep the blinds drawn most of the time. I'm gone most of the day so I like it to be one a little later, but I can have the light turn on at like 3 and off at 11. That's 8 hours plus there will be light from the window. Should that be good? I get a good amount from that window.
Byron Amazonas
AC Members
Sorry I'm not being more absolute in answering this, but it is difficult to say. An observation of mine concerning daylight: I had my tanks doing well with 8 hours, but I noticed that in the summer the brush algae increased quite noticeably. Somehow I twigged on to the windows which had blinds closed fully in summer, but as my fish room has windows on two sides and they are west and south facing, with no outdoor shade, there is still a lot of bright light entering. I put heavy drapes up, and kept them closed all summer. End of algae. The additional daylight in the room during the longer and brighter summer days was all it took to give algae an advantage.
The period from 3 to 11 is fine in itself. Make sure there is ambient room light for no less than half an hour (better a bit longer) after the tank lights go off at 11. B.
Byron Amazonas
AC Members
It is important to have ambient room light when the tank light goes out. The sudden change of light/dark is extremely stressful to fish. My tank lights come on after daylight is in the room, but when they go off in winter I have a room light that is also on a timer to come on just before the tank lights go off and this remains on for an hour.
I did an article on the effects of light on fish a couple years back, and will excerpt the relevant bits that explain why:
When the tank light suddenly turns on in a dark room, fish will dive to the substrate, dash about frantically often hitting the glass sides of the aquarium, or even jump out of the water. The same reactions occur when the tank lights are suddenly turned out. Aside from any possible physical injury the fish may sustain, these sudden changes in the light cause significant stress to the fish.
The health of fish is closely connected to the intensity of the overhead light, various types of light, and sudden changes from dark to light or light to dark. To understand this, we must know something about the fish’s physiology. The primary receptor of light is the eye, but other body cells are also sensitive to light.
Fish eyes are not much different from those of other vertebrates including humans. Our eyes share a cornea, an iris, a lens, a pupil, and a retina. The latter contains rods which allow us to see in dim light and cones which perceive colours; while mammals (like us) have two types of cones, fish have three—one for each of the colours red, green and blue. These connect to nerve cells which transmit images to the brain, and the optic lobe is the largest part of the fish’s brain.
These cells are very delicate; humans have pupils that expand or contract to alter the amount of light entering the eye and eyelids, both of which help to prevent damage occurring due to bright light. Fish (with very few exceptions such as some shark species) do not have eyelids, and in most species their pupils are fixed and cannot alter. In bright light, the rods retract into the retina and the cones approach the surface; in dim light the opposite occurs. But unlike our pupils that change very quickly, this process in fish takes time. Scientific studies on salmon have shown that it takes half an hour for the eye to adjust to bright light, and an hour to adjust to dim light. This is why the aquarist should wait at least 30 minutes after the tank lights come on before feeding or performing a water change or other tank maintenance; this allows the fish to adjust to the light difference.
Hmm, that posses an issue now with my original plan. My tanks are in my room and having a light on until 12 isn't going to cut it for most nights. I may have to readjust the schedule a little.
Byron Amazonas
AC Members
When I was working, I went to bed at 11 pm, so the fish tank lights went off at 10 pm. The fish tanks were then in an alcove of the living room, so this worked fine.
Mommy wouldn't let me put the tanks in the living room lol, I'm 19 by the way, just so no one thinks I'm that old guy living in mommy's basement lol. I can probably do that. Last night I stayed up kinda late, so I left the lamp across the room on. It's a soft light, but still bright enough to see into the tanks a little.
