Lighting Techniques

One of the most important things that will effect the performance of your tank is the type of lighting and the amount of time the light is on. Some people will buy their tank and start with an incandecent light. The incandecent light is one like you would use in your house. There are many problems with the incandecent lights that I have encountered over the years. If you leave the light on for any amount of time it will start to raise the temprature of the water!

If you have that type of light you will not be able to keep most types of live plants because you will not be able to leave the light on! For this reason it would be best to switch to a flourescent light. You can buy a flourescent light hood for about $25. This is a good investment because you can leave the light on as long as needed. Flourescent lights are energy efficent and they stay cool even after long periods of time.

As with any type of lighting you don't want to leave it on too long. If you leave the light on too long you will get excessive plant and algae growth. There are also people who leave their light on all day which is very unnatural for any living thing. The ideal amount of lighting is about 12 hours a day. If you want to simulate the seasons and have longer lighting in the summer and shorter in the winter that would make it even more natural!

Another good piece of equipment that would help is to get a timer on your light. You can get a timer from any electronics store at a reasonable price. With the timer you can set the exact times to have the light go on and off which would be one less thing for you to have to do.

Another thing you can do is to get a special light that is colored. Some lights are said to help enhance the pigments on your fish and make them look better. There are even lights that help with breeding. Your local aquarium shop may have some of these lights available. I have seen some of these types of lights at my aquarium shop and they might work well to experiment with. If you try one of these out e-mail me and tell me what happens and if it's worth it. These lights seem to me like a fairly new technology.

Try all of the different types of lighting and experiment to see what will work best with your tank setup. Experimentation is a good way to get the best possible setup in your tank. You may want to read for further information about lighting by doing a search for it. There are several other sites where you can get more information on lighting. I currently don't have any links to any such sites. You may want to check out Albert Thiel's Aqua Tech Site

Final Things To Remember

Don't leave the light on too long!
- This will cause excessive algae and plant growth
- Leave it on for no more than 12 hours
Don't leave lights on for long periods of time if they heat the aquarium up
- Incandecent lights are known for this
- Only turn them on for feedings and for short periods of time otherwise
It would be a good idea to get an inexpensive timer that turns the power to the light on and off

If you do all of the reccommended things above you will have no problem with excessive algae and plant growth etc. You may also want to have a spare bulb for your light in case one burns out. If you have a spare you won't have to worry about having to go to the pet store the next day because you will be able to wait until it's convenient.

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