How long to leave on aquarium lights

[novaheat]

How many hours a day should the aquarium lights be on and should I use a moon light at night, blue LED? Aquarium contains fish and plants.

I have been looking at timers but have not found any with good ratings. Is anyone happy with their timer or are most just doing it manually?

Thanks,

 

[JohnPaul]

In general I suggest 10-12 hours of light per day for a planted tank.

You can do it by hand or by a simple timer. I have a power strip made by Coralife that has 4 "always on" outlets and 4 timered outlets that works well. So I plug the heater, air pump, etc. into the always-on outlets and then the light fixture into the timed outlet. Works well for me. I think the strip cost me around $30-35 IIRC.

The name of the strip is the Coralife Power Center. (Or PowerCenter). I picked it up at one of my LFS, but I am sure you can get them online as well. Or else you could go for a cheaper option and just pick up a generic timer from Home Depot or something like that.

 

[Fishguy2727]

I have heard some horror stories about the Coralife ones, I would stick with a standard one from a store. If you have live plants you need at least eight hours, up to fourteen, of light. If they are fake you simply need enough light for you to enjoy the fish, in which case you only need the lights on when you are home to enjoy them. Leaving them on longer will simply help you grow algae.

 

[novaheat]

The plants are live. Do you leave any type of light on at night? My light fixture came with blue LEDs. From the documentation it is to mimic moon light. The fish seem to freak a little when the main lights are turned off leaving just the LEDs on. I am sure this is due to the sudden change, no real sunset.

Thanks,
NovaHeat

 

[Fishguy2727]

Yes, leave the LEDs on all night, or you can have them turn off a little while after the main lights go off.

 

[novaheat]

It has been one bright night light.

Thanks again,
NovaHeat

 

[JohnPaul]

I think that blue moonlight thing is just for your own enjoyment. I definitely wouldn't leave it on all night, as I think fish benefit from a period of total darkness just like most other animals do.

 

[FishEggs]

i have my lights on 11 hours a day and it seems to be a good balance for my tank. 10 hours is a good starting point then you can adjust it to your plants.

 

[mgamer20o0]

home depot or lowes you can get a timer for a few bucks they work great. depending on your lights and plants 8-12 hours is fine. my whole set up is only on 8 hours a day. 10 hours is a good start like fisheggs said. keep the moon lights on when you want to see the fish at night and off other wise.

 

[Deep Seven]

Just a note on moonlights. I know of at least one aquarium fish that people have a hard time breeding, until someone realized they use the moon cycle for breeding, although, if the moonlight doesn't go dim then I guess it's not doing a proper cycle.

 

[novaheat]

I had a timer that came with my used aquarium but it did not have any instructions. After purchasing one from Home Depot I figured out how the other one works. It is missing a battery and battery cover. The only difference between the two is on four outlets they can be split into two programs. and the one from Home Depot controls four outlets on one program. Both have four outlets that are always on. You can almost purchase two from Home Deport for the price of one for an aquarium.

Thanks for the replies

NovaHeat