aquarium lighting and sleeping?

[NAG]

okay, here's a real noob question

ive only just started out but im clueless about fish + sleeping. first of all, when should i turn the aquarium light on and likewise, when should i turn it off? and once the light goes off, should all lights in the room go off too or is it okay to have the room lights on? are fish very sensitive to lighting outside the tank?

:1zhelp:

 

[J double R]

is your tank planted?

fish need some sort of day/night schedule, same as everything.. they 'sleep' too.

 

[NAG]

theres only three small plants in the tank (i understand that plants need 10-12 hrs of light)

my main issue atm though are the fish. like, if i "put them to sleep" by turning their light off, will the room lights keep them up? once their light goes off, should i try and keep all the lights in the room off too?

 

[Weezer]

Our lights shut off at 8:45 pm, by then the lamp is on so the tank is about 60% dark, we turn the lamp off at about 10:30, thats our normal routeen......

 

[gmh]

I like to make the day/night transition gradual. In the morning I turn on the room lights a half hour or so before the tank lights come on automatically. That way the fish have some warning that the sun is coming up.
Same deal at night. The tank lights go off an hour or so before we turn off the room lights and go to bed.
I try to give them at least 8 continous hours of complete dark.

 

[gingerinaustin]

Yes, fish do react to the light in the room. We started shutting down our computers because the light from the screen savers was keeping our mollies awake! I agree with gmh about making the day/night transition gradual, the fish seem to get less stressed out. If you prefer to keep the tank lights on a little longer at night, look into getting a "lunar light".

 

[stasia8756]

My husband sits up late at night with the kitchen light on so I've started covering up the tank in there with a towel like a bird cage so the fish can have some darkness.

Stasia

 

[Mgamer20o0]

timers are a great idea.

 

[mellowvision]

the coralife digital timer power strip is AWESOME. I have 2, and can't reccommend it enough. really flexible.

 

[rwilliams254]

I'm currenlty using timers from x-mas season.