Thoughts on the 24/7 LED lights now - Moonlight good or bad?

I just bought a new light to replace my standard LED blah canopy hood light. I got this LED light that has a 24/7 day/night cycle so at night it is a blue color very faint to simulate moon light, in the morning an amber soft light for sunrise and intensity increases through day and decreases through afternoon.

What are thoughts on this type of lighting? Is the nighttime moonlight good to simulate the real world or too bright for when the fish should be sleeping? It is a livebearer tank and mostly mollies in it. I thought that I can see them in the shadows but it is not pitch black and I am not sure if that is good or not, they seemed to still doze off last night with it on.

I got it for better lighting on the fish and much better lighting for my plants as I think they needed it.

 

It's "Hollywood movie light". Real moonlight is red but very dim. In any case, it's a total gimmick.

Animals and plants have circadian rhythms. It's best to have lights turned off completely.

To enjoy an aquarium in the evenings; simply have your normal lights very dimmed. This actually resembles real moon light better than "Hollywood movie light".

Aquarium suppliers design stuff for people to buy. Not for fish or plants.

 

I agree with the above post. I don’t see any benefits at all. Better to have the light turn off. Also it does not replicate nature at all - nights are not consistently moonlit, the amount of moonlight varies nightly and monthly depending on the phase of the moon, it’s position in the sky, the amount of cloud cover etc.

 

What brand/model 24/7 led light did you buy? What plants are you trying to grow other than Swords?

 

I’ve been using 24/7 lighting for about 5yrs now without a problem. Just plug them in and set to 24/7 and your good to go. As to the blue light it’s done nothing bad to the tanks. Most of the 24/7 lights are programable. So you can stop the blue light or keep it on for less time. In the last year I’ve bought the hygger 957 lights. They were cheaper. But these lights are fully programable very good lights that I program for 6hrs off 12-6 with blue light from 11-12. I’m very happy with these lights. Fish and plants also like them .

 

the main purpose of that moonlight cycle of the lights is so you can watch nocturnal fish doing their thing in the low light.

I don't see any plant or health benefit at all, and a higher electric bill running the light 24/7 unless you have nocturnal fish, and even then I don't think the light should stay on 24/7 and can be shut off when you aren't viewing the tank.

I would think in general, whether the light is blue, red, or green, it's all going to interfere with the normal fishes sleep cycle and cause stress from sleep deprivation on the fish that aren't nocturnal unless they have dark spots to go into to sleep also like you'd give a nocturnal fish to hide during the day and sleep.. Same way leaving a white light on 24/7 would be a problem for Both nocturnal and diurnal fish.

Maybe the blue light is OK, I don't really know. What I know is leaving the light on 24/7 runs up the electric bill and burns a light out faster than shutting it off for 8 hours a day, I think the blue light would be useful from like say 7-11pm, and 7-11am, with run up from 7-7, and an off period between 11pm and 7AM But I think a period of darkness is a good thing.

 

Ok they are called 24/7 cause they run on a constant cycle. They ARE off during the night. There is a period of blue light before they shut off. As to electric use they are all LED and use very little electric. Probably less than a fluorescent run for 6hrs a day. My lights go on at 5am at 10% light ramp up to 100% by noon. Stay there till 3 than ramp down to 10% by 10pm next 30min of blue slowly decreasing in a 15 min period to dark. I’ve had less algae and no problems with fish for 5 yrs now. As to plants they grow fine. I’ve changed my tanks many times over the years but the plants go from one to the next.

this is my plant tank.
these plants get moved where I want them from tank to tank. All on 24/7 lights .

 

I like the blue moonlight feature on my programable Aquasky lights. Like 86ss I also run a long sunrise / sunset. 5 hours up, 5 at steady intensity and 5 down. The beginning and ending hours the light is quite mild. In addition I run blue "moonlight" at 15-20% for 30-60 minutes at sundown depending on the tank.

I enjoy seeing my fish all day, and on the bedroom tank as I go to sleep at night. All tanks get 8-9 hours of full darkness and all fish are doing great. No algae problems here either.

 

Sorry for the slow response! Crazy day today! So yes to clarify they are 24/7 because they are auto programmed. They do turn off at night I think at about 10:30 at night or so. They stay on blue light up until that time. In the morning they had a really nice amber glow to them for “sunrise”

Might be gimmicky might not be but I can say the tank looks beautiful with them. The fish are WAY more vibrant than my basic led light that came with the starter hood and the dynamic lighting through the day is pretty cool to observe the fish that way. I would think since it shuts over night there is no disruption to the fish. And LED as mentioned earlier barely uses any power. I’ll watch over the next few days but it seems like this works well and gimmicky or not might be a nice effect for a natural variation throughout the day.

 

When you said 24/7 I didn’t realise that it turned off overnight. If that’s the case I see no issues. If you like how it looks that’s reason enough to use it.

 

I have had it on a few days now and everyone in the tank seems fine and the fish certainly look way more vibrant with this new lighting.

 

Who makes the lights you have? I think they are the greatest thing in aquarium lighting since the fluorescent blub .

 

Who makes the lights you have? I think they are the greatest thing in aquarium lighting since the fluorescent blub .

hygger. Gimmicky or not I love them. I think it looks SOOOO cool and the fish in general look so much more vibrant under this lighting. I am also seeing more bubbles in my tank so I know the plants are liking it.

 

I e got the hygger 957 on both my main tanks. I’m very happy with them