24 hour nightlight?

[minzabella]

hello, me again
is it ok to leave the hood light on 24 hours a day?

 

[Billsgate]

No, this is bad for your fish since they will have no idea when to sleep and might get exhausted. Also if you have plants, they won't appreciate the constant light.
24h of light in your tank is never good. Offcourse, you could try to install nighttime lighting (blue leds) like are SW brothers seem to do.
You should buy a timer and set your aquarium for 12 hours per day. You could do 2 hours or so when you get up and some more when you get home from school or work.
A timer isn't expensive and your fish will appreciate having regular lighting, as will your plants.

HTH

 

[jacktheknife]

anyone ever tried setting a small light near the tank timed to the cycles of the moon...

 

[No_Floaters]

minzabella
It's like Billsgate said. It'll stress the fish to no end. Get a timer & never look back.

 

[workfortheman]

Timers necessary, cost = under $10 at local hardware store

 

[flipz]

You can find a timer for $4 in the hardware section at wal-mart.

An FYI to all, you can make something called moon lights which can be installed in your hood. It is much more common in salt water/reef tanks. It's basically just a bunch of blue LED's. Try doing a search on the forum though, it gives a great look to the tank.

-brent

 

[czcz]

Here is a pic that might help. Extremely easy to build and LEDs stay on 24/7. Hood lights are too bright to show the blue, so its almost hi-tech (hood times off, blue goes "on") Tanks are the best night lights ever

http://www.aquariumadvice.com/photopost/showphoto.php?photo=6204&password=&sort=1&cat=500

 

[FishLover14]

I am going to buy a timer somedat fdor my fish i run the light from 5a.m. to about 3p.m.

Dan

 

[patryuji]

You could hook the main power for the LEDs up to a relay. Use the "Normally Closed" pins on the relay to connect to your hood light power. This way when the hood lights go out the LEDs come on. One timer to handle all of it. Make sure your Relay can handle 120AC.

 

[jibboo]

or if you need some additional watts, you could pick up the Current-USA Satellite lights. I picked up a 48" 2x65watts with 2 moonlights (or LEDs). I ran me about $100, but now I don't have any trouble growing plants, and the moonlights were essentially free since I couldn't find any other 100watt lights for less than the C-USA. It was 2 LEDs, and you really can't see them unless all the lights in the room are out. I think it might actually be useful in the sense that you could see the fish if there were about 4 LEDs. Someday, I might get adventurous and add some additional LEDs (since I've started doing that to my xbox anyways) ... you can pick up LEDs & resistors really cheap (www.123leds.com).

I'm sure buying a whole new light system isn't the best way, but if you were considering new or more lights anyways, there are some good choices out there. Now, unfortunately, the Satellite came with actinic bulbs in it ... which I promptly swapped out (anyone interested in buying some new 65w PC bulbs?).

 

[czcz]

Thx for the info/instructions patryuji.

 

[jacktheknife]

moonlights rule. its exactly what you need to keep your attention on the tank even after lights out