Glowfish????

[Envee]

Yes. Good. I thought those glow tanks were needless! What about the timing on the lights though? Isn't it unhealthy to use only blue LED lights? Should fish get some other type of lighting for part of the day? Any suggestions?

 

[Luananeko]

Now my questions....Do you really need to buy a specific glow aquarium? They are so overpriced! I would like him to be able to get a 30-40 gallon. I was told that it is blue LED lighting that really make the fish glow, and also told that it is a blacklight. Which is it? Or will they both work? Couldn't we buy any aquarium and just put the correct lighting in? Has anyone done this with any success? If it is just a blacklight, wouldn't pretty much any white fish look glowy in there? Aren't you supposed to have regular lighting for them anyway, and only use the glow light for a few hours each day?

You're in luck, I actually have a 36 gallon bowfront set up as a DIY GloTank I considered doing a write up on my findings for what worked/what didn't as far as lighting, fish, and decorations, but I wasn't really sure where the best place to put it was... Here's a summarized version....

Tank - Absolutely get a bigger tank. All of the GloFish types (barb, tetra, danio) require a 20 gallon long minimum since they are very active schooling fish. Do NOT buy the specially made GloTanks. As previously mentioned, they're torture tanks unless you use them for shrimp or a betta.

Lighting - Personal taste and budget, really. I've tried the following lighting setups:
1) Actinic bulb in the standard tank fixture
2) Regular bulb with a Marineland Hidden LED strip
3) Actinic bulb in the standard tank fixture + Marineland Hidden LED strip
4) Blacklight
Option #3 is my preference since you can toggle the LED strip to daylight or nighttime, effectively giving you 3 different lighting mode combinations (nightime LED only, nighttime LED + actinic, daytime LED + actinic). The fish don't care if the light is blue or regular, so if you want you can leave the actinic and nighttime mode on for maximum "glow". Blacklights give a truly alien glow, but far dimmer than the blue lighting options and require you to use 100% "Glow" marketed decor, while the blue lighting lets you use any flourescent decor for neat effects.

Fish: Anything GloFish obviously work, as do any solid white fish. Neon tetras also show moderately well depending on the lighting you chose. You can only see their stripe under the LED lighting only, but they do look nice under actinic + nightime LEDs or any combo of natural lighting + nighttime LEDs.

Here's a pic of what my tank looks like (well, as it was 10 months ago, stock and decor has changed slightly since and haven't taken new pics yet) as an example of how nice a DIY GloTank can look


As far as lighting timing goes, ever since I moved all my live plants into my sump, I've been leaving my actinic bulb on a timer and leaving my hidden LED strip on nighttime mode 24/7 (other than when I feel like toggling it to daytime during the day) to serve as a soft nightlight for the hallway it's in. There's still a distinct difference in day and night so the fish have their usual sleeping patterns, and everyone is just as healthy and normal acting as ever. In fact, I have a few nocturnal inhabitants in there that are far more active under this lighting than they ever were in my other tanks, so I actually get to see them out and foraging under this lighting scheme

 

[Envee]

Oh so cool! I have seen those jellyfish decorations for super cheap online. I'll be honest, I have no clue what an actinic light is. We just got our first tank in Dec. 2013. You have just given me a lot of options to read up on, which I love doing. Your tank looks very cool. I'd be willing to bet my son would love something like that! Thanks for the awesome advice!

 

[Luananeko]

Oh so cool! I have seen those jellyfish decorations for super cheap online. I'll be honest, I have no clue what an actinic light is. We just got our first tank in Dec. 2013. You have just given me a lot of options to read up on, which I love doing. Your tank looks very cool. I'd be willing to bet my son would love something like that! Thanks for the awesome advice!

Actinic lighting is just a fancy name for a certain spectrum of blue lighting. You can find them at any LFS, especially those that carry a lot of saltwater tank equipment! My Glow Tank has definitely been the most fun tank to put together and tinker with, so have fun and experiment

 

[Envee]

Thanks. I have plenty of time to research. My bf and I are working on getting together a 55 or 60 gallon tank at the moment. My son just got his first job, and the glow tank would be his. I am trying to teach him to be more responsible, so he thinks that he has to pay for his entire glow tank set up, but I will help him pay for it if he shows me that he is trying. My goal is to share the hobby, and turn it into a fun learning experience. I just want it to be a fun, happy experience for us.

 

[Luananeko]

Sounds like a fantastic idea Glow tanks are something that you can spend as little (well compared to a similar sized tank) or as much as you want on and it's still fun. I love my natural 75 gallon tank too, but my glow tank is my "mad science"/portal to an alien world that can definitely hook someone into the hobby. All of the GloFish species are pretty hardy once they're full grown, so as long as the cycle and the first 6 months of the tank go well, it should be a very happy and fun experience for him.

 

[Envee]

Yay! I love the idea of a mad science project with it! Already, my 7 year old twins are getting a huge kick out of helping me raise my first batch of guppy fry. I can only imagine how much they will love glowing fish! I can honestly say this hobby has been great for bringing my family closer. I hope it continues to do so as we learn together.

 

[GodFan]

I would recomend getting a current usa sattelite freshwater plus led. The blue mode on that makes tje fish pop great! Plus you can program any normal color (blue, green, red, purple) you want to see. Very easy to use. Even has a lightning storm mode!

 

[Sambo7475]

You're in luck, I actually have a 36 gallon bowfront set up as a DIY GloTank I considered doing a write up on my findings for what worked/what didn't as far as lighting, fish, and decorations, but I wasn't really sure where the best place to put it was... Here's a summarized version....

Tank - Absolutely get a bigger tank. All of the GloFish types (barb, tetra, danio) require a 20 gallon long minimum since they are very active schooling fish. Do NOT buy the specially made GloTanks. As previously mentioned, they're torture tanks unless you use them for shrimp or a betta.

Lighting - Personal taste and budget, really. I've tried the following lighting setups:
1) Actinic bulb in the standard tank fixture
2) Regular bulb with a Marineland Hidden LED strip
3) Actinic bulb in the standard tank fixture + Marineland Hidden LED strip
4) Blacklight
Option #3 is my preference since you can toggle the LED strip to daylight or nighttime, effectively giving you 3 different lighting mode combinations (nightime LED only, nighttime LED + actinic, daytime LED + actinic). The fish don't care if the light is blue or regular, so if you want you can leave the actinic and nighttime mode on for maximum "glow". Blacklights give a truly alien glow, but far dimmer than the blue lighting options and require you to use 100% "Glow" marketed decor, while the blue lighting lets you use any flourescent decor for neat effects.

Fish: Anything GloFish obviously work, as do any solid white fish. Neon tetras also show moderately well depending on the lighting you chose. You can only see their stripe under the LED lighting only, but they do look nice under actinic + nightime LEDs or any combo of natural lighting + nighttime LEDs.

Here's a pic of what my tank looks like (well, as it was 10 months ago, stock and decor has changed slightly since and haven't taken new pics yet) as an example of how nice a DIY GloTank can look


As far as lighting timing goes, ever since I moved all my live plants into my sump, I've been leaving my actinic bulb on a timer and leaving my hidden LED strip on nighttime mode 24/7 (other than when I feel like toggling it to daytime during the day) to serve as a soft nightlight for the hallway it's in. There's still a distinct difference in day and night so the fish have their usual sleeping patterns, and everyone is just as healthy and normal acting as ever. In fact, I have a few nocturnal inhabitants in there that are far more active under this lighting than they ever were in my other tanks, so I actually get to see them out and foraging under this lighting scheme

Excellent write up, and I agree with all points. Well done.

 

[CPryor]

+1 to everything said.... those glofish tanks are a BIG FAT scam, marketed to frazzled parents making an impulse buy for their whining kids.

We use the black lights in-store. They don't do much to make the fish pop, as far as I can see; they just make them look darker, and muck up the colors -I think they highlight things in the water column itself, because they make the water look soupy. The fish looked better and brighter to me under our normal fluorescent, so I bet they look fantastic under actinic lighting!

Another word of caution: in our store tanks, we use the glofish brand of decor. Out of four painted decorations, the paint on one is peeling off in long strips. If you look at the reviews online, you see similar complaints - it seems to depend on the batch you get, but I don't think their quality control is very good.

 

[Luananeko]

We use the black lights in-store. They don't do much to make the fish pop, as far as I can see; they just make them look darker, and muck up the colors -I think they highlight things in the water column itself, because they make the water look soupy. The fish looked better and brighter to me under our normal fluorescent, so I bet they look fantastic under actinic lighting!

Another word of caution: in our store tanks, we use the glofish brand of decor. Out of four painted decorations, the paint on one is peeling off in long strips. If you look at the reviews online, you see similar complaints - it seems to depend on the batch you get, but I don't think their quality control is very good.

One of these days I need to make a new video of which lighting combinations look like what on my tank... I made one back when I was using a 20 gallon long, but haven't made one with the new 36 gallon upgrade or with blacklight... It really does crazy things with the GloFish colors. My red ones looked orange, my purple ones looked red, orange looked yellow, green looked even more green... It was a bit startling after seeing them all in the blue and regular lighting for so long.

Oh, and for some reason the Cosmic Blue variety of the danios really don't show up well no matter what lighting I tried, so if you aren't using standard lighting with blue accents, skip them. The purple danios are pretty hard to see too. The purple tetras show up fine though.

That's good to know about the GloFish brand decor. I have one of their barrels and it's been holding up well for the last year or so. Most of their stuff is geared for the tiny tanks though, so I don't have any others or even their plants. I went with a "Glow in the Dark" offbrand for several of my plants, and then experimented with the regular flourescent and pearlized decor and plants that I came across in PetSmart, Petco, and online.

 

[CPryor]

Oh, and for some reason the Cosmic Blue variety of the danios really don't show up well no matter what lighting I tried, so if you aren't using standard lighting with blue accents, skip them. The purple danios are pretty hard to see too. The purple tetras show up fine though.

That's good to know about the GloFish brand decor. I have one of their barrels and it's been holding up well for the last year or so. Most of their stuff is geared for the tiny tanks though, so I don't have any others or even their plants. I went with a "Glow in the Dark" offbrand for several of my plants, and then experimented with the regular flourescent and pearlized decor and plants that I came across in PetSmart, Petco, and online.

Thank you: I'm so glad to know a little more about the lighting! I just dont have much good to say about the black lights - they don't seem to do much for white fish either, other than turn them a dull light purple. My local science center has a glofish tank, with a really pretty blue-white light that set off all the fish, including the gold skirt tetras....I was wondering what it was, but forgot to ask - now I want to call them back and ask PLEASE do the vid- I'd love to see it!

And yeah, glofish designs everything for small tanks...with fish that thrive in bigger tanks -___- I was wondering about gravel as well.....will our store brand of black with color flecks do the same as "glofish" brand that is sold at a higher price in smaller quantities, but looks the same? Seems like it's a much better idea to invest in the right lighting - then you can buy more reasonably-priced decor and not be so limited.

 

[Luananeko]

Thank you: I'm so glad to know a little more about the lighting! I just dont have much good to say about the black lights - they don't seem to do much for white fish either, other than turn them a dull light purple. My local science center has a glofish tank, with a really pretty blue-white light that set off all the fish, including the gold skirt tetras....I was wondering what it was, but forgot to ask - now I want to call them back and ask PLEASE do the vid- I'd love to see it!

And yeah, glofish designs everything for small tanks...with fish that thrive in bigger tanks -___- I was wondering about gravel as well.....will our store brand of black with color flecks do the same as "glofish" brand that is sold at a higher price in smaller quantities, but looks the same? Seems like it's a much better idea to invest in the right lighting - then you can buy more reasonably-priced decor and not be so limited.

Pretty sure they were using actinic or a combination of actinic and daylight bulbs from the sounds of it. Here's the old video I mentioned previously prior to my tank upgrade:

I need to grab a new blacklight since I gave my old one to a family member, but I'll try to get an updated video put together

Depending on the store brand, some of those have the same paint flecking/peeling issues as the GloFish gravel, so it's just a matter of finding high quality gravel. As long as it's quality, yes, you'll get the same effect. I went with soft black sand for my substrate and used glass pebbles for highlights. I was torn between those or glow in the dark rocks, which would have worked just as well probably.

 

[CPryor]

0_0 THATSSS SOOOO COOOOOL.


......As I said on my first post on here, I thought they were tacky, but....nevermind. Thats TOO COOL. You need to get a job marketing for them; they do a crappy job

 

[Autumnsky]

You're in luck, I actually have a 36 gallon bowfront set up as a DIY GloTank I considered doing a write up on my findings for what worked/what didn't as far as lighting, fish, and decorations, but I wasn't really sure where the best place to put it was... Here's a summarized version....

Tank - Absolutely get a bigger tank. All of the GloFish types (barb, tetra, danio) require a 20 gallon long minimum since they are very active schooling fish. Do NOT buy the specially made GloTanks. As previously mentioned, they're torture tanks unless you use them for shrimp or a betta.

Lighting - Personal taste and budget, really. I've tried the following lighting setups:
1) Actinic bulb in the standard tank fixture
2) Regular bulb with a Marineland Hidden LED strip
3) Actinic bulb in the standard tank fixture + Marineland Hidden LED strip
4) Blacklight
Option #3 is my preference since you can toggle the LED strip to daylight or nighttime, effectively giving you 3 different lighting mode combinations (nightime LED only, nighttime LED + actinic, daytime LED + actinic). The fish don't care if the light is blue or regular, so if you want you can leave the actinic and nighttime mode on for maximum "glow". Blacklights give a truly alien glow, but far dimmer than the blue lighting options and require you to use 100% "Glow" marketed decor, while the blue lighting lets you use any flourescent decor for neat effects.

Fish: Anything GloFish obviously work, as do any solid white fish. Neon tetras also show moderately well depending on the lighting you chose. You can only see their stripe under the LED lighting only, but they do look nice under actinic + nightime LEDs or any combo of natural lighting + nighttime LEDs.

Here's a pic of what my tank looks like (well, as it was 10 months ago, stock and decor has changed slightly since and haven't taken new pics yet) as an example of how nice a DIY GloTank can look


As far as lighting timing goes, ever since I moved all my live plants into my sump, I've been leaving my actinic bulb on a timer and leaving my hidden LED strip on nighttime mode 24/7 (other than when I feel like toggling it to daytime during the day) to serve as a soft nightlight for the hallway it's in. There's still a distinct difference in day and night so the fish have their usual sleeping patterns, and everyone is just as healthy and normal acting as ever. In fact, I have a few nocturnal inhabitants in there that are far more active under this lighting than they ever were in my other tanks, so I actually get to see them out and foraging under this lighting scheme

0_0 THATSSS SOOOO COOOOOL.


......As I said on my first post on here, I thought they were tacky, but....nevermind. Thats TOO COOL. You need to get a job marketing for them; they do a crappy job

Luananeko thank goodness you posted your tank. It IS the best (and most cool) one I have seen!!! I was looking everywhere for a pic of it to show, but couldn't remember whose tank it was!!!

 

[Luananeko]

Aww, thanks guys

I try to give these guys a little better rep, they really can be a fun change of pace if you do them right! Good to hear I'm doing something right!

 

[RookieFishOwner]

Not realy they tend to be quite nipe

I have been successful of keeping the danios by keeping them in large groups, and I find that the larger the school the less nippy they are