How long to leave light on?

[Chriznat20]

I have a timer set up on my tank (30g FW w/4 zebra danios, 1 tetra, 2 cory cats,1 small pleco) to run my light. Im not very well versed with lighting - its a fluroescent tube (18" long maybe?) light that emits almost of a light purple/white light into the tank.

I have the timer set up to come on everyday at 7am, off at 9:30am, then I figure natural light in the room takes over until it comes on again at 5:30pm and off at 10:30pm.

Is that too little/enough/too much light?

 

[Floyd R Turbo]

If you don't have live plants, it really doesn't matter what your lighting cycle is - it's just for display purposes. Of course the day/night cycle is natural for the fish, but if you get any ambient sunlight, that will do fine. Lights on 1/2 hour before & after feeding is good practice. Your light cycle sounds just fine to me.

 

[Jgeezer1986]

Staying on the same pattern every day, you will notice your fish react to it. Now that i am trying live plants , i have changed thing. Every night i would feed at 7 pm.. I would turn the light on at 6pm. Every time , after an hour the fish would collect at the top of the tank waiting to be fed. An hour after feeding they would resume to their regular routine. That is when i figured for my tank , the hour seems to be the key.

From what i read , fish tend to work on a light cycle just as humans do. Although sun light has an effect, as does the aquarium light. They seem to know.

I would personally suggest your feeding times work in unison with the times the light is on. Not that is detrimental to the fish, but it seems to help that they know when it is coming and seems to leave less waste food to go to the bottom.

 

[mgamer20o0]

if its working for you then keep with it.

 

[CA_BroncoFan]

Your cycle sounds good. Mgamer pretty much nailed it, if it works then it works. I prob keep mine on too long for most of the people on here but..they're not in the tank and the fish are fat, happy and healthy so basically it's up to you as long as they're not on all the time.

 

[mfdrookie516]

yep, only needed for viewing pleasure. i dont even turn the lights on on my 55 or 150 because i have no live plants, and the light in the room is enough for me to see the fish. now on my planted tanks, i run the light 4 on, 4 off, 4 on just to break up the photo period and help keep algae at bay. You'll know if you run them too long because the tank will be a nice shade of green

 

[Mark Hewitt]

Our fish are used to getting fed in the morning by my better half before she goes to work. We don't have the tank lights on at this time, but there is a table lamp near the tank which comes on automatically ready for us coming down in the morning, so when you walk into the room the Black Skirts are already at the front of the tank, waiting for their breakfast!

 

[Mark Hewitt]

If you don't have live plants, it really doesn't matter what your lighting cycle is - it's just for display purposes. Of course the day/night cycle is natural for the fish, but if you get any ambient sunlight, that will do fine. Lights on 1/2 hour before & after feeding is good practice. Your light cycle sounds just fine to me.

I've got my quite dim lighting set to come on at 12noon and go off again at 10pm.

Since I don't have any live plants does it matter with regards keeping algae growth down?