Bright lights on at night?
- Thread starter juztin
- Start date
sk8shorty01
Active Member
The timing isnt a problem, the only thing that I would say could be a problem is keeping your daylights on for 11 hours. I am not sure what most people have theirs on for but I have my daylights on for 8 so I am not sure how much that would have an affect the fish or inverts. Can anyone else chime in?
lexluethar
Active Member
Ya i agree, 11 hours is on the long side. I've read between 8 and 10 hours - i have my MH on for 9 hours, then a mixture of LED lights for evening / morning.
Only drawback i see is acclimating the fish to the new cycle, and new feeding times.
Only drawback i see is acclimating the fish to the new cycle, and new feeding times.
scopus tang
Active Member
I would think that with a 11 hour cycle on 10K, you are going to dramatically increase the likelyhood of algae blooms, unless you can truly keep nitrates and phosphates at zero. JMO
danieljames
Member
What kind of lights do you have? PC/MH/T5? If it's fish only, your fish are definately not gonna notice that your timing is different, (unless you have natural light hitting the tank.) I usually have Actnics ONLY come on at 9am....Daylights come on around 10:30am....go off again at 8:30PM when the actnics come back on...Lunar LED's come on at 10PM....I find this to be a pretty good cycle.....Im also using PC lights....a 10-12 hour light cycle with HO or VHO lights may result in a lot of algae growth.....I really don't think the extra hour will be a big problem...unless like I said you have natural sunlight hitting the tank during the day when you have your lights off...and even if this was the case....I don't think it will be that bad....what is your current light cycle?
juztin
New Member
It is a FOWLR tank. The lights are t5s. New setup, I have no fish at the time just live rock. I would like to use a timer and have the lights on say noon to 10pm and lunars on there after, but the tank runs off a single cord. I guess I could splice the light's wires and have a second cord for just the lights. Any ideas on how to go about doing this? Perhaps I should just hire an electrician.
earlybird
Active Member
You are GOD to your fish and tank. You can decide when the sun rises and sets. Fish don't care about light really. You should have your photoperiod on a schedule that you can enjoy your tank. Remember most of us keep tropical species and tanks which are used to 12 hours of light. My lights are on for 11 hrs and I have no algae. My lights are on from 12 noon until 11:00 pm.
I keep my lunar lights on all the time. No ill effects.
I keep my lunar lights on all the time. No ill effects.
scopus tang
Active Member
Originally Posted by Juztin
http:///forum/post/2523247
It is a FOWLR tank. The lights are t5s. New setup, I have no fish at the time just live rock. I would like to use a timer and have the lights on say noon to 10pm and lunars on there after, but the tank runs off a single cord. I guess I could splice the light's wires and have a second cord for just the lights. Any ideas on how to go about doing this? Perhaps I should just hire an electrician.
Do you have everything on your tank plugged into a single cord? Or are you saying that your lights only have single cord? Your moonlights should have a separate plug, and the coralife 2 stage timer would allow you to run them on opposite cycles with only a single plug. Just a thought.
http:///forum/post/2523247
It is a FOWLR tank. The lights are t5s. New setup, I have no fish at the time just live rock. I would like to use a timer and have the lights on say noon to 10pm and lunars on there after, but the tank runs off a single cord. I guess I could splice the light's wires and have a second cord for just the lights. Any ideas on how to go about doing this? Perhaps I should just hire an electrician.
Do you have everything on your tank plugged into a single cord? Or are you saying that your lights only have single cord? Your moonlights should have a separate plug, and the coralife 2 stage timer would allow you to run them on opposite cycles with only a single plug. Just a thought.
scopus tang
Active Member
Originally Posted by Juztin
http:///forum/post/2523317
I have one power cord; runs the lights, powerheads, and heater. Therefore, I can't put a timer on the power cord b/c it will turn off everything.
I assume that you are running a powerstrip to accomplish all this?! Or are you saying that all everything runs off of a single powercord on the tank? If the first, go to your local hardware store and purchase a three-prong direct plug timer plug into the end of your powerstrip and plug your 10K lights into the timer. If there isn't room on your currant powerstrip, replace it with one with more plugs (If you get the timer that plugs into the side, it will usually cover more than one plug in on the powerstrip, but if you get the one that plugs into the top of the timer, it should only cover the one plug in). If the second, somewhere inside the tank all the wires from the different units have to join somewhere. I can't image all this stuff is hard-wired, how do you change out the heater or powerheads if/when they go bad?
http:///forum/post/2523317
I have one power cord; runs the lights, powerheads, and heater. Therefore, I can't put a timer on the power cord b/c it will turn off everything.
I assume that you are running a powerstrip to accomplish all this?! Or are you saying that all everything runs off of a single powercord on the tank? If the first, go to your local hardware store and purchase a three-prong direct plug timer plug into the end of your powerstrip and plug your 10K lights into the timer. If there isn't room on your currant powerstrip, replace it with one with more plugs (If you get the timer that plugs into the side, it will usually cover more than one plug in on the powerstrip, but if you get the one that plugs into the top of the timer, it should only cover the one plug in). If the second, somewhere inside the tank all the wires from the different units have to join somewhere. I can't image all this stuff is hard-wired, how do you change out the heater or powerheads if/when they go bad?
juztin
New Member
The tank has a control center/unit, for lack of a better term, where every everything is connected. So I guess you would say everything is hardwired to the unit. I am not sure what you would call it. So, to replace a powerhead I would unscrew the the old powerhead wire from the terminal and connect the new ph wire to the assigned terminal.
The light has two cords, each with a square plastic end that run from the unit and clip into the light housing. I suppose one for each bulb. Hope that makes sense.
The light has two cords, each with a square plastic end that run from the unit and clip into the light housing. I suppose one for each bulb. Hope that makes sense.
sk8shorty01
Active Member
What size tank is this?
Is it a BioCube or something similar?
Just seems weird that everything is hard wired like that.
Is it a BioCube or something similar?
Just seems weird that everything is hard wired like that.
scopus tang
Active Member
Ok, very strange, but there is away around it. Have any wiring experience? You could, if you know what you're doing, clip the wire terminals off the light cords and replace them with three prong plugs ~ most hardware stores have the ones which you just
[hr]
the striped wire into, then slide the plug up and into place. They also make what are called pigtails, which include a short cord with the plug already attached, and you just cap and twist the stripped ends of the wires together (probably what you would need in order to extend the wires to reach a plug-in; black to black, white to white, bare wire or green to bare wire or green). If you do this be sure and tape over the connection so salt creep doesn't short out your wires. Then each light can be plugged into timers independent of your tank. If you're not comfortable with this you could hire an electrion, but thats usually pretty expensive, and it would definitely be cheaper to run with a night time cycle (course then no lights on the tank on the weekends and days off, which is kind of a bummer)
[hr]
the striped wire into, then slide the plug up and into place. They also make what are called pigtails, which include a short cord with the plug already attached, and you just cap and twist the stripped ends of the wires together (probably what you would need in order to extend the wires to reach a plug-in; black to black, white to white, bare wire or green to bare wire or green). If you do this be sure and tape over the connection so salt creep doesn't short out your wires. Then each light can be plugged into timers independent of your tank. If you're not comfortable with this you could hire an electrion, but thats usually pretty expensive, and it would definitely be cheaper to run with a night time cycle (course then no lights on the tank on the weekends and days off, which is kind of a bummer)