black light ????

[strokinbyeu]

im gona set up an extra 10gal tank i have in my bedroom and i plan on puting a few glo-fish in it and maby a betta of some sort and prob a yellow apple snail. my ? is i think it would be cool looking if i had a black light to turn on sometimes iwould also have a regular light. is it harmfull to the fish to have a black light on them?

 

[blackomen]

As far as I know the black light isn't harmful to the fish, I'll leave that to someone else. But, I've been considering doing the same thing basically. I think it'd really bring out some colors of the fish that would look really cool.

 

[strokinbyeu]

yea i found some black gravel with a lil bit of neon blue gravel mixed in with it i would like to find some black sand i just started a 75 and put sand in it and dont wana go back to gravel

 

[bs6749]

It will be fine with the fish. I'd think about mixing some white gravel in with some black gravel instead of the blue. Should give more of a "pop" under the black light.

 

[strokinbyeu]

ok do u think i could use the black lite like a moon lite do u think it would cause an alge prob

 

[bs6749]

I'm pretty sure that black lights are out of the useable spectrum for both plants and algae. It should be fine as a moon light.

 

[wierdkid]

If you really want the fish to have that "glowing" look to them make sure to use a fluorescent black light as they produce ultraviolet light which creates the "glow" effect, and incandescent (the kind with a filament inside) bulbs do not.

 

[spoonman]

The only problem I would think is that you couldnt leave it on for very long. They get hot very fast and get very hot.

 

[strokinbyeu]

i didnt think about them getting hot do they get hotter than a regular light of the same size

 

[spoonman]

In my experience black lights get way hotter than a regular bulb of the same size. I dont know if there are black lights made specifically for aquariums that dont get as hot though.

 

[strokinbyeu]

ok ill have to look into the heat situation. still trying to figur out how im gona have a reg light plus a black lite bc the only hood iv found for the tank is a double bulb hood that take 2- 15 to 25 wat bulbs dose anybody know if there is such a thing as a screw in floresnt bulb that would fit in a hood

 

[strokinbyeu]

thinking about checking out spencers or hot topic at the mall to c what they have for black lites

 

[mfdrookie516]

you'll pay twice as much there as you would at walmart

 

[strokinbyeu]

ok so i got evry thing set up and running i used black sand and black background. i have 2 glow in the dark plants and 2 floresnt plants and 2 lil figurs it looks neat but i bought a hood and used 2 -25w blue bulbs made for fish tanks. and they get real hot i had them on 4 about 20mins and i shut them off i was afaid the plastic was gona melt the paper work said that it was good up to 25w, thinking about returning it bc i found my black lite from when i was a lil yonger and it dosnt get half as hot so im thinking about finding a glass top for the tank and just using the black lite whats anyones thoughts oh and ill get some pics up as soon as i put the glofish in the tank