Lighting Schedule???

[scmelik]

Back in November I lost my job and subsequently decided to tear down my 10gallon tank. Now that I am employed again and making good money I am trying to decide if I want to start a tank back up.

Here is the problem though. Right now (and it won't ever change), my work schedule is very long, I leave the house at 5:15am and don't get home till about 6:45pm. The whole point in having a nice looking fish tank is to be able to view it and enjoy it. Is it possible to adjust the schedule that I have the lights on to say come on at 9 am and go off at 9pm? Will this effect the fish and their schedule and happiness? Will this affect my plants?

I am just in the planning stage of this right now so before I get to carried away with this I want to make sure this won't be a problem, if it will be then I am going to forgo this venture for now.

[Cliff]

I would suggest about a 8 or 9 hour lighting period. The exact hours this starts and stops is really up to you. I've always planned lighting period in my tanks around my work schedule as well so I can watch the fish when I get home from work until I usally go to bed

[madagascariensis]

hey, same here!
I leave home at 8 AM and come back at 4, which is about 8 hours.
If I were to follow an 8 hour photoperiod and turned the lighst on when I leave and off when I came home, I would never get to enjoy my tank, so I put the lights on a timer for 11AM to 8:30 pm. I would not say that the staggered lighting period matters as long as it is consistent. changing the lighting period around too much would put the fish and plants in a perpetual jetlag.

[scmelik]

thats good to hear. I was worried about the natural sunlight of the day starting off the lighting of the tank and then the actual lights coming on later screwing with the fish. Sounds like things will be a go. Now time to start planning and buying!!!!!!

[Lab_Rat]

I don't have my lights set on timers. I turn them on when I get home (any time between 4:30-7 or 8) and turn them off when I go to bed (usually about midnight). My fish are fine and the plants are doing ok with that lighting schedule. If I had high-light plants I'd set the timer for 3pm-midnight.

[~firefly~]

Sorry to jump in on this thread but I've also wondered about lighting schedules and what is best for fish/plants. I have two 15W bulbs on my tank (energy saving style bulbs) that are fitted and I cannot really change them. Because the light levels (I think) are a bit low for the plants I've had my lights on for 12-13 hours a day.

I do get a bit of brown algae on the glass but stay on top of it by scraping the glass at least twice a week. I also do 25% water changes twice a week.

Am I allowing too much light? I'd worry about my plants if I reduced the time as although they look ok, I wouldn't say they were thriving.

[Gogi]

12 to 13 hours is way to long.The max i would leave them on is 10 hours.

[~firefly~]

Even for low wattage lighting? Is my reasoning off then?

What's the reason for the 8-9 hour rule of thumb? I don't have an algae problem and the water parameters are spot on.

How can I measure if my plants are getting enough (or not enough) light?

Sorry for all the questions...

[~firefly~]

Hmmm...I've just Googled it and many articles recommend around 12 hours for planted tanks. I'm confused.

[Cliff]

The biggest difference between leaving your lights on for 8 hours or for 12 hours, is the energy you will use, the potential growth rates of the plants, and the longer the lights are on, the more algae you could get.

Unless you have plants with real specific requirements, they will do fine with both