In order to bring the living conditions of fish and algae in the aquarium as close as possible to natural, you will need to fulfill several important conditions. One of them is lighting. Perhaps the population of the home reservoir does not really need it: fish and other inhabitants of the aquarium live at a depth underwater, where sunlight does not penetrate. But if there are living plants, then you need to be very responsible about this issue.
To choose the ideal lighting mode for the aquarium, you will have to experiment a lot, observing the behavior of the inhabitants of the tank and vegetation.
Optimum aquarium lighting time
The aquarium does not need constant lighting. The operating time of the backlight is selected individually, depending on the types of fish and plants, the arithmetic mean value is from 10 to 14 hours. An important role in determining the duration of daylight hours is the time of year, since the daylight hours are shorter in the autumn-winter period and this means that the regime should be adjusted.
As already mentioned, plants need more lighting. In order for algae to develop correctly, you should constantly monitor the operation of the lamps. If the daylight hours are longer than in natural conditions, algae will develop faster than necessary, water bloom and more rapid propagation of harmful bacteria will begin in the tank, which will affect the behavior and health of its inhabitants.
To optimize control over daylight hours, you can use light sensors, alarms or timers. Using these devices, the light will turn on and off at the set time.
There are some rules that require compliance with the operation of lighting aquariums.
- Lighting in the aquarium must be turned on and off daily at the same time.
- The transition from light to dark should be gradual.
- The duration of the lamps by season should be constant, but not more than 14 hours.
Compliance with these simple conditions will positively affect the atmosphere of the aquarium, and at the end of the month it will even bring a pleasant bonus in the form of energy savings.
Who needs night illumination
Each for himself makes a choice whether lighting in the aquarium is necessary at night. But before making a final decision, the advice of experienced aquarists and the species composition of fish living in a home reservoir should be taken into account. Violation of the conditions for caring for pets can lead to diseases of living creatures and premature death.
For the inhabitants of the aquarium, the presence or absence of illumination at night does not matter much. When feeding fish, lighting is not required: they find food using other senses. Plants also do not need constant lighting. The light in the tank should not light around the clock. You can leave it at night if the aquarium is in a windowless room.
If the backlight works in the dark, then the aquarium should be dark during the day.
There are several species of fish that are nocturnal. In the daytime, they mostly hide in shelters, behave sluggishly and unnaturally. If you breed such fish and still decide to use night lighting, then you should pay attention to the natural night illumination under the moonlight. It imitates the natural light of the moon and perfectly affects the biological activity of plants and nocturnal fish species.
In the dark, as a rule, predatory fish, catfish, loaches and some others lead an active lifestyle. It is not recommended to keep day and night fish in the same aquarium, as they will experience inconvenience from living together, and peaceful fish will suffer from predators.
Is it possible to do without light at night?
In the natural habitat of fish, round-the-clock lighting does not exist. Many species of fish live underwater at great depths, where sunlight cannot get in any way. There are some groups whose development is inhibited from too long daylight hours.
An excess of light adversely affects the well-being of pets and other inhabitants of the aquarium. Without rest, the fish will be sluggish, lose their appetite, may begin to hurt or be aggressive towards their neighbors.
The main types of exotic fish come from warm seas, the sun shines there brighter and longer than in our climatic conditions, but the lighting that they receive during the day is quite enough for them. To understand whether fish can do without lighting at night in an aquarium, you just need to imagine their natural habitat.
Living conditions that are as similar as possible to natural ones allow residents of a freshwater pond to develop better, and their life expectancy will not be reduced.
Nature laid the change of day and night, pets also need rest, so uncontrolled night lighting can interfere with them. From all that has been said, it can be concluded that there are no significant arguments against turning off the lights at night.
See how to properly calculate lighting in an aquarium in the next video.
