Lights on 24/7

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
Why would you do this ????
Fish in the wild have day and night cycle..
Onky at weekend do I leave my.lights on for 12 hours.. so I can watch my fish less in the dark.
During monday to friday lights only come on for couple hrs a night when im home from work.

If I always lived in lit environment I think id go potty!;)

Sent from my GT-I9300 using MonsterAquariaNetwork App
 
Well I read it on here somewhere (cant find it now) somebody was saying it was better, something to do with the rays always being ready for food? I originally did it because my timer broke and then I read that article so thought no need for it. but got a new timer last week and now is all sorted.
 
Rays are more active when lights are off.
Mine eat much more when lights are off too.

Sent from my GT-I9300 using MonsterAquariaNetwork App
 
DavidW said:
I don't think there's a real problem with it except for your power bills and bulb life.
Some rays may get lighter in color
Click to expand...

the following comment is in reply to : "soupa2
Too much light will cause ur tank water to turn green and it will create more algea on glass. Its not healthy for fish either."

DavidW said:
fail
Algae grows where it has food,( usually phosphates).
a long photo-period , 12 hours plus will result in green algae, short will result in brown algae, either way you have algae. If you have good UV properly installed and limited phosphates ( don;t use buffers) and you will rarely have any algae at all.

Why should this have to explained in what is an advanced fishkeepers part of the hobby (rays)
Seriously, if you don;t know this basic stuff should you be keeping rays?
Click to expand...

i just wanted to say that im suprised at this comment from davidw as i think lighting and the descusion of lighting times and the effects of lighting would be a topic that SHOULD be descussed in and ADVANCED area of aquatics as well as at a basic level of course.

maybe im taking it in the wrong context but its comments like these that keep the forum alive and thriving. im not sure myself of the benefits of uv as david has indicated but there are users on here that use them.

to put my two cents in regarding the lighting on for humans versus fish, well . i think most humans would sleep very well once they had adjusted to having the lights on 24/7 im sure lots of people can hapily sleep during daylight hours and im sure even more would sleep happily if that were the norm for them. so i guess im on the side of ..... regularity. keep it the same rather than change it all the time.

lighting is an erea that ive not explored that much but the levels of light and the lighting time i think are reasonable to be asked in an advanced section.

:stick tongue out smiley:

as a complete opposite, what if the sun went out ? would life still exist ? .... yes , yes it would !

so could fish be kept in light 24/7 ... why not ? there maybe and adjustment period but i dont see why not.
keep in mind there would be an adjustment perioud if you changed any light schedule just like they do in the uk twice a year with daylight saving etc.

let us know how you get on :)
 
First of all, there is no need to be rude to this guy (sam_everist) for asking a question. He is trying to find out how to best take care of his fish, so leave the attitudes out of your replies.

Second, I don't raise rays, but I have found that fish do not thrive well with the lights on all the time. Fish, like people, need to have a proper sleep/wake cycle. Also, darkness cues nocturnal fish when it is time to be active just as daylight cues non-nocturnal fish when to be active. Another thing I like to do is aclimate my fish slowly to changes in darkness/light, just like at dawn or dusk. When I get up in the morning and my room is dark, I turn on dim lights first, then turn on bright lights, then turn on the aquarium lights, because those are brightest. I find that this decreases fishes' stress when the lights come on, and decreases incidents of "startling" when the lights are turned on. Think how you would feel if you were asleep and someone forced your eyelids open and turned on the lights, it would hurt your eyes until they adjusted. Keep in mind they dont have eyelids to control the light that they see :)
 
Well as I say, I have since put my lights back on a timer to help keep it regular. However I must say that I did not have ANY alage grown in the time that I had the lights on 24/7 ... I have been told int he past that Algae tends to grow more with lower K lighting I.E 2000k - 3000k ? is this why mine didnt grow so much at 10,000k?

Cheers
 
With 10K you will still get algae growth it all depends on your water perams like nitrate and phosphate among other things. If the tank is relatively new it may take a period of time before algae sets in. But yes you are right the lower k rating will promote growth more than a higher k rating. There are tons of variables when it comes to algae.
 
blauaugigengel said:
First of all, there is no need to be rude to this guy (sam_everist) for asking a question. He is trying to find out how to best take care of his fish, so leave the attitudes out of your replies.
Click to expand...

Firstly I know sam in person. We talk /text loads... im pretty certain he's not taking any offense from any replies. Hes got a great attitude to fish keeping and is expanding his set up amd stocks really well. So I think all points of view would be welcome.

Why should all posts be happy happy happy talk:screwy:

It's a forum for discussions .. positive and negative views...


Sent from my GT-I9300 using MonsterAquariaNetwork App
 
if you change the color temperature of your lighting ( i.e.: using lights at around 10K) then you will only change the color of any algae you get....you will notice it is much more blue.
As you reduce the color temp of lights so you will change the color of algae through blue/green , light green, to dark green, down to brown. This is the algae responding to the available light energy source wavelength .


Now...for the extreme advanced phd research scientist aquarist, there are scholarly papers that suggest that extending the photo-period can have an effect on ovulation and fertility in some species of fish. ( "some"!)
These all seem to be egg laying fish.
As a practical matter it has no significant effect on the average hobbyists fish to leave lights on 24/7.
IMO it is a bigger problem to have the lights come on all of a sudden and surprise (shock) the fish. If you seriously want to argue about possible negative effects, then I recommend that you get 'fade-on/fade'off' lighting from a round light housing ( instead of strip lights) and to be true to the Amazonian photo period keep it a simple 12hour on 12 off. +/- 1/2 hour or so. You can even buy light systems that will track across the tank or a ceiling to imitate the movement of the sun.

IMO you should worry much more about water quality.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
MonsterFishKeepers.com
Top Bottom