# Aquarium Lighting



## Simplestmind (May 30, 2012)

My tank has an LED lighting system. It has the white light for day time and the blue light for night time. My question is how long should I leave the lights on for?

Should I turn all the lights off before I go to bed? and should I turn the white light off while I am at work? How much light does a tank need?


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## jrman83 (Jul 9, 2010)

If the room the tank is in gets plenty of ambient light, the fish don't need the light. I would only have it on if I were there to enjoy it. Otherwise, the fish don't care and you just ask for algae issues if you have it on too much. I would do no more than 8hrs. Mostly up to you on the moonlight stuff.


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## snail (Aug 6, 2010)

Do you have live plants in the tank?


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## Simplestmind (May 30, 2012)

Yes, I have two live plants.


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## snail (Aug 6, 2010)

For plants you want the lights on for about 8hrs a day, much more than that will tend to cause algae problems.


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## Gizmo (Dec 6, 2010)

With plants, 8 hrs is a good start, if you ask me. Depends on the brightness of the LED fixture. What kind is it? If it's a BeamWorks or a Marineland Double Bright, you'll want around 12 hours of light (coming from personal experience), as these fixtures put out light that is only marginally more intense than a standard T8 fixture.


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## Simplestmind (May 30, 2012)

It is Marineland with LED lighting. Specs: 42White/3Blue
.11W*LEDs 
Total Watts: 4.62


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## Gizmo (Dec 6, 2010)

I have basically the same fixture (5W total, 54 daylight LEDs). I did 12 hrs and my plants were fine. Didn't have any algae issues, but only because I had an army of RCS and some baby albino plecos in there.


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## jrman83 (Jul 9, 2010)

8hrs is a good generic starting point to see how the plants react or to see if algae appears. If plants are doing well with 8 and no algae is appearing, maybe 8 is good enough. If not doing well, adjust time up in 1-2hr increments and wait a week or two in between changes. changes will not happen immediately so you'll need patience.


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