How much light do fish need?

[sen5241b]

I've read numerous discussions on how much light corals, anemones and clams need. But how much light do fish actually need? (I have a Biocube 29 FOWLR that is having heat problems and I am thinking of going with less light. I do 9 hours now.)

 

[LionFish]

Fish dont require the Light
Heat probs? are you running a heater?

I personally havnt seen the need for a heater on the 220
The lights keep the water warm I do have a fan on a timer that kicks on and off mid day and early evening...

 

[Bifferwine]

Fish don't require any special light or a long photoperiod.

How hot is your tank getting?

 

[fatman]

Surely your not running incandescent light bulbs? They surely do not put those in any aquarium hoods anymore do they? If I put a heater in a Nano if would have to be like a 10 watt heater. They are made for around a 5 to 10 gallon tank, but I would not trust a larger heater in a Nano. Just to easy to overheat such a small amount of water. Problem is, a really good aquarium heater controller runs around $100 as they are made for up to 500 watts, the cheap ones are not much better than those built within the heater itself. Most fish actually prefer little to almost no light. Most are prey and very paranoid by nature and therefore like dark shadows and hidie holes always nearby. The predators are often nocturnal so they have eyes adapted to little light. Lion Fish love shadows and hanging under ledges and are often upside down under ledges to take best advantage of lights absence there. Morays stay nearly entirely in the dark. Nearly all fish like moonlights.

 

[sen5241b]

I put a visi-therm in there which is supposed to have a accurate thermostat and just shut off if the temp gets to hot.

I left the blinds open all day with indirect sunlight coming in, lights on all day, hood closed up and outdoor temp of 82 --the tank rose to 82.

The BC29s have heat problems but I think its because of the mods people do to them. My theory on the whole business of tossing out the bioballs and making a fuge out of the back chamber 2 -a very popular thing to do with the biocube tanks. (You replace the bioballs in the back chamber with live rubble, chaeto, little lights etc.).

My theory: bioballs may do a poor job of holding nitrifying bacteria but because water trickles across them constantly, I'm thinking they are doing a good job of cooling the water. They also oxygenate the water!

 

[sen5241b]

BTW, my lighting:

72 watt canopy
lighting includes:
(1) 36 watt True Actinic 03 Blue straight pin
(1) 36 watt 10,000K Daylight straight pin
(3) 0.75 watt Lunar Blue-Moon-Glow LED

 

[fatman]

Your having a problem that is quite typical to nano tanks. Little water mass with high wattage lighting means heat. Top that with some high room temperatures means more heat. Too much for a small amount of water to deal with . However 82 degrees is not all that bad unless you have your low temp lower than around 78. As far as bio ball filtration. They have there places, but unfortunately reef aquariums are usually not a good place for them as the weekly or even twice weekly cleaning of a part of the bio balls continuously is not what most people are willing to do. Corals and invertebrates will not tolerate the high nitrate levels associated with bio balls that are run constantly without being cleaned often. Bio balls do too god a job of nitrifying, that is part of the problem, however that makes them good for fish only or fish only with live rock tanks. Aeration is pretty minimal because the water flow is usually minimal. Skimmers, now they aerate water.

 

[Bifferwine]

If 82 is the hottest it's getting, that's really not bad. Like Fatman alluded to, it's more important to avoid large temperature swings than extremes. As long as your tank is staying within a few degrees over a 24 hour period, 82 is not going to hurt things. My tank ranges between 76 and 82 (unless I forget to close the windows at night or if I forget to turn my cooling fans on. There have been times when it's dropped as low as 67 at night and into the low 90s in the daytime).

Try propping the hood open (if you don't have jumping fish). Try unplugging the heater for a day and seeing if that makes a difference (all heaters have internal thermostats, very few, even the expensive brands, are accurate).

 

[fatman]

Alluded. I like that word. Alluded.

 

[sen5241b]

I am continuing to experiment with eliminating potential heat sources one at a time and observing temperature changes. (This brings up an interesting issue. When tank owners talk about what worked and what didn't with respect to some problem, how many can claim they really had a controlled experiment!)

 

[fatman]

Any experiment need to be repeatedable. Any experiment needs to be able to be repeated by others and get the same results. Any experiment must be ble to stand up to peer scrutiny. Ussually in the peer scrutiny there is much discussion over best ways to have done the experiment and control elements are often oine of the most argued element of experiments. Simple things can often make huge differences. With thermal experiments, such things as water mass, air movement, water circulation, humidity, air temperatures, evaporative surfaces, radiation surfaces, color of surfaces, solar aspects, lighting duration, lighting types, and distance (even reflector cleaniness) can make large differences. This is just an example why in the science field it can take so long for the full development through the stages of Hypothesis, Theory and Law. Always in the beginning there is disbelief, doubt, argument. There are a lot of huge Egos in the field of science also. Scientists seem to not like being bested by anyone, especially their peers.