New Tank Owner. Question On Lighting When To Turn On And Off ?

Good morning everyone. First I just want to say thanks for letting me be apart of the forum. I am new here. I have many hobbies, which include wood turning , surfcasting, and muscle cars. Starting a new freshwater tank with live plants and fish is now another new hobby I want to learn about. I had a few tanks asa kid but with no knowledge.
So I started a 10 gallon tank. Which I have 5 danios, 4 red tail tetras, 1 Chinese algae eater. Plus I have live amazon sword plants in the bakc of the tank , and a Java on wood in the front. My water levels are good. And the water is clear. I regularly do water changes and filter changes as well ph testing.
So my tank is in a area in my living room that is away from sunlight. But I have a good source of natural light during the day in the room. My question is when and how long should I turn my and keep my tank light on for the plants and my fish. ? I was turning the light on before I left for work at around 6am and leave it on to about 6 pm. Being it’s summer the daylight hours are longer. I did start to notice some small algae dots growing up my glass in the tank. As I change the water (not all of it at once) I scrape it off. Here is a picture of my tank

 

Well first of danios do a lot better in a minimum of 20+ gallon. But as far as lighting goes I have mine on automatic timer since I have plants as well, natural sun light comes in the morning and around 1 pm lights are on until 9:30 pm everyday

 

Buy cheap mechanic timer and set it to be on 6-8h per day that's it

 

Welcome to FishLore! I hope you enjoy the site.

I leave my lights on for about 16 hours a day.

But you have a larger issue looming. It says in your aquarium info that you are unaware of the nitrogen cycle (blue words will be link to article explaining it). I highly recommend you read up on it and fully understand it as it is the most important thing to understand when keeping fish and your fish's lives depend on it.

Once you read up on the nitrogen cycle, feel free to ask any additional questions you may have.

 

Sorry I did not mean to click that. Doing all this on my phone. My nitrogen cycle is fine. I let the tank cycle properly and tested it before I added the fish

 

Sorry I did not mean to click that. Doing all this on my phone. My nitrogen cycle is fine. I let the tank cycle properly and tested it before I added the fish

Your always gonna have some sort of algae start growing. I was always suggested to only turn them in during “viewing time” personally me I don’t really limit my light in any way and I run a led light. I run my light now from about 10-830 or 9 so good 10 hrs or little more. I haven’t had an algae issues with my tank and it’s been going like that for months now. I know there will be a comment that it’s to much for the tank but mine is doing fine. No natural light hitting it. 5 platies 4 mollies a Assasian snail and a couple pond snails. But that’s just how I run my tank

 

Your always gonna have some sort of algae start growing. I was always suggested to only turn them in during “viewing time” personally me I don’t really limit my light in any way and I run a led light. I run my light now from about 10-830 or 9 so good 10 hrs or little more. I haven’t had an algae issues with my tank and it’s been going like that for months now. I know there will be a comment that it’s to much for the tank but mine is doing fine. No natural light hitting it. 5 platies 4 mollies a Assasian snail and a couple pond snails. But that’s just how I run my tank

You can light for 16 hours if you want. But everything depends on what light, how close is it to tank, how many plants, what plants, what fertilizer, footprint of tank, size of tank, how many fish...
nothing I black and white and then it is better to start with 6 hours per day and later adjust by 30 minutes weekly, if you see problem you can lower it back down etc. but if you start with 12 and you get massive algae outbreak then you are in bad spot and you will spend so much time battling them.

Btw. if I remember you did have problem with one tank going green was it because of light or something else I don't remember.

 

You can light for 16 hours if you want. But everything depends on what light, how close is it to tank, how many plants, what plants, what fertilizer, footprint of tank, size of tank, how many fish...
nothing I black and white and then it is better to start with 6 hours per day and later adjust by 30 minutes weekly, if you see problem you can lower it back down etc. but if you start with 12 and you get massive algae outbreak then you are in bad spot and you will spend so much time battling them.

Btw. if I remember you did have problem with one tank going green was it because of light or something else I don't remember.

Yup I did when it was near a natural source of light in the beginning. I ended up having to restart the whole tank after that had happened. I shouldn’t have said no issues. My bad I haven’t had issues since I moved my tank away from natural lighting.

 

It does depend on a lot of factors including what type of light you have. I have a beamswork LED that I keep on a timer from 2pm to 10pm.