# How long do I leave light on?



## Soda507 (Feb 20, 2010)

I know I have seen this question posted before but I can not seem to locate it on the threads. How long should I leave my tank light on? The tank is a 46 gal bowfront with sandstone rock with holes in it. I have one large fake plant in it as well. Thanks in advance.


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## LSBoost (Jan 21, 2010)

What fish? does the tank get any natural lighting (or is it in a dark basement)? If the tank has natural lighting I would only turn the light on one hour a day or as much as you need to view the fish.


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## moto_master (Jun 23, 2006)

Unless you have plants or coral, light is just a luxury. If there's any light in the room my fish wake up and are ready for food. So turn on the light when ever you want to look at the fish; when you wake up, or get home from work/school, etc. Just remember that Algae feeds off of Nitrates and light, so if you do start getting algae problems then you will need to do more water changes, or cut back on the light (preferably do more water changes).


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## Lowryder (Feb 12, 2010)

I have my lights on a 12\12 cycle, never had an algae problem yet.


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## upthecreek (Dec 27, 2009)

Lights 12/12 ..whats the use of setting up a tank if you leave your lights off ?


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## LSBoost (Jan 21, 2010)

Why leave it on if you're not there to see the fish?


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## jordan_101 (Mar 21, 2010)

I find 10 on and 14 off is good don't have alge problems and I find it helped my fish to open up to me cuz when I left the light of all the time and turned it on jus to look at them they were affraid to come out from hiding and now that I use 10on and 14 off they never hide from me even if I was to scare them


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## fmueller (Jan 11, 2004)

Life plants benefit from lights for about 8h per day. More intense light during that period will give you more plant growths. I find 1.5wpg of 6500K light ideal for my setups without CO2 and fertilizers.

Algae can benefit from light pretty much 24x7. The longer you leave the lights on, the more algae you will grow. Of course depending on your fish, they might appreciate some algae as food source - mbuna and tropheus come to mind.

Leaving plants and algae aside, how long you leave on the lights is really a question of personal preference. Your cichlids won't care much about light, but some species are more active during the day and others during the night. As others have described, you can influence their behavior somewhat via the lighting.


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