Schedule for Lighting Tank

[sunflower430]

Curious what hours of the day you all have your tank lights on? I had algae problems so I had to cut my hours way back, but now I don't get to enjoy my tanks because they are dark when I am home in the evening. Does anyone shift their lighting schedule to match better when they are home even if that doesn't align with nature? Will that be stressful to my fish?

 

[dcutl002]

You could try 4 hours ON, 5 hours OFF, 4 hours ON.

 

[Sewerrat]

4 pm to 10pm tanks also gets natural light ( close to a window)

 

[Nanonanny]

It doesn't matter what your lighting schedule is as long as it's constant.
You can leave your lights on all night and off during the day. Just have a schedule to benefit your fishes health and wellbeing.
If you want your lights on longer at night, turn them on later in the day. An automatic timer works great for this, or a fluval 3.0.

This is the schedule I use with success for my planted 75.

 

[kansas]

I run my light about 12 hours a day. I have a lot of plants -crypts, vals, anubius, frogbit and duckweed.

When I set it up about 8 months ago, I got a decent algae crop with 9 hours light. It wasn't anything I couldn't deal with during water changes, then I got 8 amano shrimp and the pretty much chowed down on it

I use Thrive liquid fert once a week and root tabs every 3-4 months. I think the plants soak up the nutrients the algae would use. That along w the shrimp and a 50% weekly water change, a bunch of volunteer snails and algae's not a problem.

I'm lucky this worked for me. Good luck.

 

[sunflower430]

It doesn't matter what your lighting schedule is as long as it's constant.
You can leave your lights on all night and off during the day. Just have a schedule to benefit your fishes health and wellbeing.
If you want your lights on longer at night, turn them on later in the day. An automatic timer works great for this, or a fluval 3.0.

This is the schedule I use with success for my planted 75.

Beautiful tank!

 

[attheworld]

Does anyone shift their lighting schedule to match better when they are home even if that doesn't align with nature?

I did for my 10 gallon tank in my room. It's just to the right of my window but the curtain is wedged between the table my tank is on and some shelving, so it blocks most natural light. My lights turn on at 2 pm and turn off at 9 pm. I use an automatic timer, just one of those old mechanical ones. Any major algae issues I've had have not been caused by my lighting.
But as everyone shall say, it all depends on your specific tank's needs and environment. Don't fret if it takes a lot of experimenting until you find a lighting schedule that works, and perfect doesn't exist.