How long do you leave your lights on for?

[souly]

I'm curious what everyone usally runs their lighting for? And if you use Lunar lights.

Like example:
from 8am-10pm etc

Since I don't have a timer, I turn them on when I wake up, and usally off around bed time.

[AmyLynn]

I use a timer for all of my lights. It's more consistent for the fish. The daylights come on at 8 in the morning and go off at 8 at night. The moonlights are set to come on at 7 at night at go off at midnight.

I know many say that the lights are simply for us, but I know I certainly wouldn't want to live in the dark to near dark. Nor would I want to have the lights go on and off randomly. So I try to keep their schedule consistent.

[Lab_Rat]

I turn mine on when I get home from work, turn them off when I go to bed. Weekends they're usually on a bit longer.

[Northernguy]

12-14hrs a day.
I have night lights for night veiwing.

[cfgsteak]

I was starting to have high phosphates...I cut my lights back from 14 hours a day to 10...and gradually continuing to move the lighting time back to 8 hours. Plants seem to be doing better already, which I wasn't expecting right away.

[aspects]

8-10hours for most tanks. Any longer and you're just asking for algae.

[korith]

For me all the tank lights are on timers. The amount of light varies in each tank, took me a while to figure out how many hours worked best in each tank. Most of the tanks have lights on 6-8hours. Just enough light so they grow, but not too much that I have algae to deal with.

[wolf_eyes]

I used to have my lighting on from 9am to 11pm (14 hours) but I have a bad hair algae problem so right now i cut it down to 10 am to 10 pm. I'm going to see if that takes care of the algae, otherwise I'll cut it down again. My biggest tank, however, is the only one with a timer. The other one are usually turned on when i get home from work to when I go to bed.

[aspects]

at 12hrs, you will probably still have an algae problem.

[rhonin]

I turn them on generally about the same as daylight

For now (winter) on at 7, off at 5
For summer, on at 6, off at 7

I may adjust this if I need.
Also I will frequently turn off the light in the afternoon for those tanks that get a fair bit of natural light (indirect).

:22:

[souly]

I used to have my lighting on from 9am to 11pm (14 hours) but I have a bad hair algae problem so right now i cut it down to 10 am to 10 pm. I'm going to see if that takes care of the algae, otherwise I'll cut it down again. My biggest tank, however, is the only one with a timer. The other one are usually turned on when i get home from work to when I go to bed.


You'd wanna cut it down to about 6 hours a day to help with the algae. Im going to be getting timers for my SW tank, and figured I'd buy one for my FW one.

[lahlumdi]

Mine is 10 AM to 9 PM. Better for controlling algae population. I've even thought of cutting it back further.

[jcarr71]

I have a timer set for 3 PM to 10 PM on weekdays, and 9 AM to 10 PM on weekends. I know it would be better for the fish to keep the timer consistent, but if I was worried about what was best for the fish and not for me then I wouldn't have them in glass prisons at all.

[-Lp]

My planted tanks get more light than non-planted tanks. 7am-10pm planted and 4pm-10pm non-planted.

[LadyHatred]

It varies from tank to tank.

The 60 gets 12 hours of light, the 25 gets 8 and the 10 gets about 3. The 60 and 10 get natural light and the 25 is in the pc cave so, no light other than it's bulb.

[Lady Hobbs]

I leave them on anywhere from 10-12. Should have a timer but I'm home all day so it isn't necessary.

[sailor]

My salt water 10 hrs a day. Now that none of the others are planted the lights are only on during wc etc or when we have company that wants to see.

[gadget228]

Lights on a timer from 8am to 8pm, have 2 led nightlights that have the photocell and they are mounted inside the light fixture so when the tank light is on they are off and when timer shuts off the tank light, led come on.

[Scrup]

13 hours of light a day on all the tanks. 7AM to 8PM, and the big tank has an LED ropelight for nighttime use, soon the rest will as well.

[smaug]

My lights are on 12 hrs a day.No algae,no problem,beautiful plantsthumbs2:

[kaybee]

My lighting schedule is very similar to Lab Rat's, they're on from when I return home from work to when I go to sleep, approx 6pm-11pm), or from dusk to when I go to sleep late on the weekends.

Except for my reef tank which is on timers 11-12hrs (10:35am-10:35pm).

[rich311k]

Mine are on from 2 to 12. Ten hours a day.

[lowlight]

8:30AM to 8:30PM very lightly planted no LED's and I do have a small amount of Algae. I also have 2 SAE and 3 Oto's that do a fine job of keeping it under control.

[Commodore 64]

~160 watts into 75g

7am to 7pm

No algae, main plant mass is elodea (which outcompetes the algae). No ferts, No CO2.