Coffey5030

Can I leave the nightlights on all night?

KonaBoy

You may eventually run into algae problems, but if you have a good algae team, you should be okay. However, if you want your tank "natural", you should have a night and day cycle, fish know that there is a night and day.

Lucy

It's best for the fish if you can simulate day and night for them, just like us, they need to rest, plus too much light would cause an algae problem.

pepetj

Coffey5030:
I don't know for sure what is best for fish. But I have read on DIY projects using LEDs that are/could be kept on around the clock, since the day/white light makes its light invisible when turned on; but also read about DIY cathode lights that I guess would be better to turn off at some point.
There are different types of commercially available night lights (moon lights), and their price range suggest that you get what you pay for, from simple/cheap fixed output designs, to complex/lunar phase output simulators.
As Lucy says, the best is to simulate the day/night cycle we experience ourselves. If you figure this out, let us (me) know.

Pepe
Santo Domingo

GreenMan13

What kind of night lights are they? Like pepetj said, if they are leds they can be since the light coming from them will be insignificant compared to the day lights.

dking271

I run my lunar lights from dusk to about midnight, and then go comletely dark for the rest of the night. My angels don't settle down compltetely with the lights on all night. I will keep the lunar lights on all night if my fish are on eggs, as it tends to calm them, and keep them from eating their own eggs. I also try to simulate a new moon about once a month, by not using the light for a few days. Some say this practice stimulates spawning, but I have not had any conclusive results.

Coffey5030

I am using three l.e.d's, two green and one blue. They are obviously much dimmer than the daytime lights but still give off a decent glow. I have been trying to turn them off after my 3 a.m. bathroom trip. Will this cause problems for nocturnal fish?

Alessa

ah... during the summer there is less night, and if they are close to a place where they can get some sunlight, they wouldnt be getting enough rest. I would suggest that you turn off the lights, the lattest, at 10pm ish...

It happened to me once, I went out and left the lights on when I wasnt going to come back for the night... The next day my buddies didnt look right and i felt guilty the entire month.