Lighting question for 20 gallon community tank

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Zachw2193

Aquarium Advice Newbie
Joined
Aug 20, 2016
Messages
9
Hello,

I'm still new to the hobby, but I've had a 20 gallon tank setup for about a month now. I previously had a 10 gallon tank for about 4 months and upgraded to a 20 gallon about a month ago. I have two velvet red sword tails, 3 peppered Cory cats, 5 neon tetras, a black kuhli loach and an African dwarf frog. I have one live plant which is an Amazon sword. Today, I bought a glass hinged hood and the 24" natgeo programmable led light. My question is, how should I setup the lighting? It has the blue and white lights. How long should I let each of the lights run? My work schedule is 230p-130a Monday through Saturday and I normally feed them when I get home from work. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks all!

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Sword doesn't need high par. But if you dont have a timer for the light that would be my next purchase. Not sure if you can find par data for that light.

If you feel its more light than what you had I would lower the photo period. You can raise duration a little each week.
 
That light isnt super powerful if i remember correctly. I would get a light timer (can be bought for around $5 from wal mart) and set it to run for 8 hours. Set the light to come on about half an hour to 1 hour before you get home to give the fish time to wake up before feeding.

If you are getting a lot of algae, reduce the time that the lights are on.

Lastly, you will need to get some root tabs for that sword.
 
Stingray can be raised as well. There is some good par videos on YouTube. If you use a top that will help some. I like mine alot.
 
Thanks for the replies everybody. The light does have a timer on it and it has two sets of lights, blue and white. Is there a difference in running the blue and the white lights? In the manual it says white lights are daytime lights and blue are nighttime. The way I currently have it set is to run the white lights from 9am-5pm, and the blue from 501pm-3am, and no light for 6 hours. Any suggestions for me regarding which color and for how long?

Thanks!
 
Moonlights will be for aesthetics will little value to plants or fish. 8 hrs is a common duration. If it were me I might start with 6 and move towards 8hrs gradually. But thats me being cautious. I imagine your low light on that fixture.

Plus one to whoever said root tabs.
 
You can definitely leave the blue light on the entire time that the white light is off. It is merely to recreate moonlight.
 
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