A Question about Light Cycles (hours of light in a day)

Poonagi · 02/15/2016, 02:44 PM

Here's the situation: I have my tank in a room that gets a decent amount of natural light (but not direct light). I don't actually get home from work until 6pm or so, so I currently have my lights set up to:

3pm ramp up
5pm fully on
10pm ramp down
12am fully off

This way I get to enjoy my tank for the entire time I am home and awake (I'm usually in bed between midnight and 1am).

My question is: Is this enough time for my tank to "sleep"? I don't want to stress out my fish and corals too much. The tank doesn't get a ton of light in the morning but probably enough where some things will be "awake". So let's say by 6am there's enough natural light to wake some things up, that means the tank only got a few hours of darkness.

Any thoughts on this? So far the tank is ok but just thinking about long term prospects here...

cloak · 02/15/2016, 03:06 PM

The ambient light the tank gets along with the 5 or 6 hours of total darkness is fine IMO.

CStrickland · 02/15/2016, 03:20 PM

That's pretty close to my schedule. Sometimes the fish are awake before the lights come on, but I don't think the coral notice. Different fish have different sleep patterns too, my wrasse buries in the sand for a complete rest, but I don't think my Blenny is ever totally unconscious.

Poonagi · 02/16/2016, 06:06 PM

Thanks guys. I'll keep an eye on it. I was just worried about everything getting enough darkness and time to rest.

Right now the tank is only in total darkness for about 5 hours from midnight-5am.

02/15/2016, 02:44 PM	#1
Poonagi Registered Member Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Torrance, CA Posts: 104	A Question about Light Cycles (hours of light in a day) Here's the situation: I have my tank in a room that gets a decent amount of natural light (but not direct light). I don't actually get home from work until 6pm or so, so I currently have my lights set up to: 3pm ramp up 5pm fully on 10pm ramp down 12am fully off This way I get to enjoy my tank for the entire time I am home and awake (I'm usually in bed between midnight and 1am). My question is: Is this enough time for my tank to "sleep"? I don't want to stress out my fish and corals too much. The tank doesn't get a ton of light in the morning but probably enough where some things will be "awake". So let's say by 6am there's enough natural light to wake some things up, that means the tank only got a few hours of darkness. Any thoughts on this? So far the tank is ok but just thinking about long term prospects here...

02/15/2016, 03:20 PM	#3
CStrickland Registered Member Join Date: Jan 2015 Location: New England, U.S. Posts: 4,595	That's pretty close to my schedule. Sometimes the fish are awake before the lights come on, but I don't think the coral notice. Different fish have different sleep patterns too, my wrasse buries in the sand for a complete rest, but I don't think my Blenny is ever totally unconscious. __________________ If you're havin tank problems I feel bad for you, son. I got 99 problems but a fish ain't one Current Tank Info: 3/2016 upgrade to 120g. Chalk bass, melanurus, firefish, starry blenny, canary blenny, lyretail anthias, engineer gobys, kole tang. Softies / LPS / NPS. <3 noob4life <3

02/15/2016, 03:06 PM	#2
cloak Moved On Join Date: Jul 2000 Location: Stockton, CA Posts: 14,854	The ambient light the tank gets along with the 5 or 6 hours of total darkness is fine IMO.

02/16/2016, 06:06 PM	#4
Poonagi Registered Member Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Torrance, CA Posts: 104	Thanks guys. I'll keep an eye on it. I was just worried about everything getting enough darkness and time to rest. Right now the tank is only in total darkness for about 5 hours from midnight-5am.