how long to leave lights on?

[shanklyred]

how long is it recomended to leave the lights on for? i have only silk plants in my tank. probably a stupid quetion, but hey...... i'm full of 'em

 

[jsoong]

No question is stupid!

Without plants, you can base the lighting period a bit on your preference. Most fish will do fine with 5-6 hrs of light. You can go up to 12 if you want to watch your fish all day (& have no algae problem), but the fish also need some dark time to sleep.

 

[FishCrazyBenBOMB]

I keep all my tank lights on (without live plants) from 7:30 a.m to 10 p.m. so around 14 hours, no algae problems or anything.

My tanks with plants are kept on 9-10 hours.

 

[shanklyred]

excellent, thanks guys. much appreciated.