Turn lights off at night?

[birdie]

I've been wondering if i should be turning my lights in my tank off at night...? At the moment I have the lights on a timer so they turn off at about 9:30pm and switch back on about 7am.

Should i be running the lights 24/7? Its a tropical tank with 2x bristlenose catfish, 1x dwarf neon gourami, 9-10x neon tetras, 4x guppys, 4x platies, and 1x silver shark. If that makes any difference?

[yarra2]

Without eyelids the common view is that fish in a tank need some `complete darkness time'. I'm no expert in this and it could be the start of a very interesting thread `cause I'm sure that everyone has an opinion. Will be following it with interest.

Cheers,

Mike

[Woodsy]

You can set your photoperiod (lights on) to suit your viewing habits, however leaving your lights on for more than 8-10hrs per day will result in continual algal problems. If you have a heavily planted tank (eg. Alasse's beautiful tank - viewable in the showcase) you may even want to go up to a 12hr photoperiod.
Not all fish "need" light, and will do quite well with natural filtered light. So to answer your question Milke, your breeding tanks probably require very little light at all ;)

[yarra2]

Thanks mate - good advice which I'll follow.

Mike

[joz]

I'd agree that fish actually need very little light but would also appreciate darkness for their rest period.

Really, any extra lighting above whats natuarlly available is for your pleasure or the plants.

[johnny5]

Hi I had frog's in a 1ft tank and left the lite on 24\7 and after the frog's were 2 months old they started to deformed with lump's and bump's