Light below fish tank, OK? or not?

[dannyboy]

Hey, i have a three footer with guppies, angels, bristlenoses and apple snails. I want to set up a planted tank, it would be a four foot tank, but it would be lower than the three footer, and so the light on the planted (4 ft fluro) would also be below the three footer fish tank

Is this a no no? as fish orient themselves with gravity and light etc?

Thanks for your help

 

[Bderick67]

i don't know if it will hurt the fish, but it is kinda unnatural. I've got the same issue, so I just taped blak paper to the bottom of the top tank to block the light.

 

[Gr8KarmaSF]

They should be fine.

 

[WyldFya]

I'm having a tough time understanding what you are asking. One thing that I noticed about your 4' tank, it should have a lot more than a fluorescent bulb for a planted tank. You can post specifics about the light and tank in the planted forum if you have more questions.

 

[AquataHolic420]

no substrate or sumthin??

 

[dannyboy]

I have been searching through the planted forum for info, but this question is about the fish:
the 4 footer planted is on the left, the yellow thing is the light. So the tanks to the left are bare bottom, and will be recieving light from the side and below. But i have read that this causes the fish to swim sideways and you should only have light coming from above....so i was checking if that is true

 

[Lupin]

It is indeed true that the fish tends to orient itself to gravity and the light. If the light is not positioned in vertical axis, obviously the fish will swim sideways. I noticed my arowana swimming sideways only if the room light is on whereas the aquarium light is off. Its tank is below my community tank anyway.

 

[chrisdef15]

Im not saying anyones wrong as im only having a guess but i would of thought while being unnatural and maybe slightly confusing most fish using there swim bladders and lateral lines ect would easily be able to work out which way was up. Even a slight change in depth increases pressure so it would know what was up and what was down.

 

[moxxommox]

if there is no substrate, then it may all turn funny, when I clean my Oscar tank, I put the fluro t5 light on the side of the tank, it makes the O's tilt as though the light is on the top of them, it freaks them out, but if there is gravel and they can see a reflection of the light, it should be okay!

 

[Euge]

i dont think it'll matter at all. They tan asian aro's by putting a florecent bulb underwater on their side. i've never seen an asian aro swimming on its side cos it thinks thats light.