day/night light cycle with lunar lighting on timers

[chaibill]

i just bought a blue one for my 55 want to get 2 more to conect wanted to try one first see how it looked
do you like the blue or the white better
i think you should shut off when you go to bed too.

 

[Gouramigirl71]

I have blue ones in my tank, and I like them a lot. They add a serene quality to the tank at night. I have mine set on a timer to go off at 1am. The full lights I have come on at 9am and off at 9pm. (the moonlights come on at 10pm)

 

[Becca3711]

Kimmisc, I have that same timer, and I also have a blue lunar light on all throughout the night for my fish. I works out good, I only have a small beam of blue light at night, so everywhere else in my 10 gal tank is dark. I think it works wonderfully.

 

[kimmisc]

...Second, if you look at your fish w/o the moonlight, guess what....they are still moving...

You are wrong about this. Yes, they're pectoral fins are still moving as they hover, but they are not jetting throughout the tank all night in the darkness the same way they are right now with lunar lights on. It does not take lunar lighting to catch fish doing what they do at night. Alot of my fish settle down behind my driftwood and a few hover by the heater at night. When I get up in the mornings, this is where they'll be, and when room lights come on, they slowly start moving about, bumping in to things for several minutes until they wake up fully. If I turn the tank lights on immediately before room lights, they jet through the tank frantically, bumping into things still, startled and disoriented. If you meant they move they're pec fins, then yeah. If you think they never stop swimming around, you're misinformed.

 

[Milhouse]

You are wrong about this. Yes, they're pectoral fins are still moving as they hover, but they are not jetting throughout the tank all night in the darkness the same way they are right now with lunar lights on. It does not take lunar lighting to catch fish doing what they do at night. Alot of my fish settle down behind my driftwood and a few hover by the heater at night. When I get up in the mornings, this is where they'll be, and when room lights come on, they slowly start moving about, bumping in to things for several minutes until they wake up fully. If I turn the tank lights on immediately before room lights, they jet through the tank frantically, bumping into things still, startled and disoriented. If you meant they move they're pec fins, then yeah. If you think they never stop swimming around, you're misinformed.

First off, they aren't sleeping, they're resting(I guess there is a little debate on that). Also, not all fish rest, and they also don't all rest the same way. Second, they probably don't need to wake up fully. More than anything they are probably startled. This is the only place I've ever heard of people having problems with lunar lights. Kinda dumbfounding. Perhaps the lunar lights you are using are too bright for your tank. I have a biocube 14 with two blue led's(it's a reef right now). I can see my clownfish moving around, but it's not like the led's are that bright. Dunno what to tell you guys.

 

[kimmisc]

Call it what you want Mil, sleep or rest, but they don't swim around the tank all night. Perhaps some fish do (they're called nocturnal), but in your prior post you said "your" (as in my) fish are moving all night. If your fish are staying active all night, perhaps you are having the same dumbfounding problems yourself. They absolutely are disoriented when coming out of whatever you wish to call their resting state, and it's not "startled" when only a room lamp is turned on. As I already stated, they start moving around slowly and bumping into things. Being startled results in quick movements. I have enough common sense to recognize a startled creature when I see one. If you're going to come along and talk to people like they're stupid, know what you're talking about first, please sir, and welcome to ignore. Your first 2 posts ever were here in this thread to toss inaccuracies around as facts and talk down to people for discussing something. You've already gotten off on the wrong foot, and if this is how you communicate on forums, you've come to the wrong one.

And getting back on track, when I woke up this morning, I found most of my fish resting. Oddly, I have a big cave in there and none go in there to do their resting. I think they're going to rest more, and it's just a matter of getting use to the new lighting.

 

[Milhouse]

Call it what you want Mil, sleep or rest, but they don't swim around the tank all night. Perhaps some fish do (they're called nocturnal), but in your prior post you said "your" (as in my) fish are moving all night. If your fish are staying active all night, perhaps you are having the same dumbfounding problems yourself. They absolutely are disoriented when coming out of whatever you wish to call their resting state, and it's not "startled" when only a room lamp is turned on. As I already stated, they start moving around slowly and bumping into things. Being startled results in quick movements. I have enough common sense to recognize a startled creature when I see one. If you're going to come along and talk to people like they're stupid, know what you're talking about first, please sir, and welcome to ignore. Your first 2 posts ever were here in this thread to toss inaccuracies around as facts and talk down to people for discussing something. You've already gotten off on the wrong foot, and if this is how you communicate on forums, you've come to the wrong one.

And getting back on track, when I woke up this morning, I found most of my fish resting. Oddly, I have a big cave in there and none go in there to do their resting. I think they're going to rest more, and it's just a matter of getting use to the new lighting.

Wow, you seem a little tense. Reread my first post, I don't think there was anything rude about it. I guess your fish must be different than any I've ever owned. I have 4 tanks set up right now. Once the lights turn off, most all of my fish are still moving or doing something(not all, but most....my rainbows and my gourami's for example). Occasionally I'll catch them leaning up against something, but that's also not to say that they do it the whole time(some do, but not all of them). Again, you didn't answer my questions. Perhaps your moon led's are too powerful for your size tank. My Biocube has 2 blue led's and I can't make out too much detail in my dark room. I can see my clownfish moving around, which he always does. Do I think it's the moonlights causing him to do so? Nope. My FW tank, with no moonlights, if I walk in the room I can see my fish moving around(like my rainbow fish for example). I guess your experiences are just different than mine. I've been keeping fish for over 20 years. I've never run in to the problem of having my fish run in to things when the lights turn on in the morning.....never even heard about that. Seems kinda odd to me. Back to the question at hand.....never had a problem with my moonlights and this is the first bad experience I've heard about them.

Sorry we got off on the wrong foots, perhaps it was just that it was late. I'm just glad that you disciplined me for the boards sake

 

[cah925]

I have 3 lunar lights for my 55 gal. I keep them at the end by the filter for a dazzling effect. I leave the other end of my tank dark for the fish that don't want any light. My loaches are active during the day, but at night, they go nuts. It's fun to watch the nighttime activities. I feel like I have a new toy with these lights.

 

[kimmisc]

When I got up and left for work this morning, they were all resting (except for the pleco of course). I am excited that they have gotten use to it, and I love how it looks with the soft blue ambience at night. I noticed this morning when they were resting and the lunars were still on, they didn't become disturbed when I turned on the lamp in the room getting ready for work. Normally they start swimming around. I guess it's a smaller "change" now. I'm kinda glad for that, too.

For reference, incase others land here in the future wondering the same thing, mine settled down and rested normally on the 3rd full night with lunar lighting... lights tilted up above the water line aimed at the reflector in the main light.

Soon, I may get different timers and set the lunar lights to turn off after a while, then come back on for a while before day lights, but for now they're on a 12hrs day, 12hrs night schedule. I could just hook the lunars up on a seperate, simple timer of their own.

 

[kimmisc]

Mil, I apologize for being snippy. Yes, it was late at night, and I had a long weekend of work staring me in the face, but that's not a good excuse. To clarify the bumping around thing, it's not a roughhousing kind of bumping around. For instance, my biggest fish, one of my female swordtails, when first aroused in the mornings, will just seem a bit tipsy and clumsy. She'll do things like put her mouth down as if picking out of gravel, and seem to hit it harder than usual and bounce back up, but not in the normal, controlled way (kinda hard to explain)... differently than during the day. She'll bump her nose into driftwood when swimming by it. She'll get still again for a few moments, then begin moving again. The first time I saw this, I thought she was getting sick, but in time realized this was morning behavior.

I tried to get pictures of them in the lunar lighting, but my camera is a pretty old digital and isn't able to capture the images in lighting that low.

What hit me wrong was that it seemed you were saying I was having problems resulting from doing something obviously very wrong, when the way I see it is that there have been no major problems. I was simply wondering what others experiences with lunar lighting are like and what kind of schedules they keep. And mostly, whether others have fish that actually rest with the lunars on. My own schedule is a very irregular one, and yes, I want to make sure my fish are on a regulated, healthy schedule. From what I've read, day/night cycles and rest are just as important to them as to humans. You're right that your first post wasn't rude in the least, and I probably took your tone wrong in the second one.