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Lighting Up Time

BarryH

Member
Joined
25 Feb 2017
Messages
608
Location
Derbyshire
I know fish and plants need light for a given amount of time but is there a "better" time to give them that light?

Say they need light for six hours a day, would those six hours be best of an evening and make use of whatever natural light there is during the daytime?
 
My tank is placed in a gloomy corner of the room so very little ambient light. My DIY Led lights ramp up until 15.00 and ramp down from 21.00. so 6 hours on a permanent timing regime. I'm totally convinced that the fish benefit from this regime. They know almost exactly when food will appear, 19.00 and I suspect that this would happen in nature, daily, predictable heavy jungle rains etc knocking insect larvae etc into the water. Also, spawning activity seems to occur in the half-light, pre 12.00 ish. HTH
 
My tank is placed in a gloomy corner of the room so very little ambient light. My DIY Led lights ramp up until 15.00 and ramp down from 21.00. so 6 hours on a permanent timing regime. I'm totally convinced that the fish benefit from this regime.

That's great. Thank you for the help, really appreciate the reply.
 
I don't think it really matters too much when your photoperiod starts during the day, it's really about when it's convenient for you to view your aquarium.
6 hrs lighting is fine. It's all most of my scapes have needed to grow to maturity. Although, if you want a longer viewing time it's okay to gradually increase the photoperiod from an initial 6hrs to 8hrs.
 
I have to say that the whole point of keeping any aquarium is to view it, surely, otherwise what's the point?? To that end, I have it lit, as do probably the majority of " 9 'till 5" keepers, when I'm at home. I doubt whether the exact time is relevant to fish or plants, more likely to be intensity / duration or a combo of both?? Tropical sunlight may be intense over a given period ( canopy ) but how much actually reaches the water? If I were to stretch the photoperiod to say 12 hours I'd still ramp up/down and keep the "full" to 6 hours. Just my 2 pen'orth.
Cheers
 
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