Light managment

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Hi,
I have a new question for this newsgroup about light management in
freshwater tank.
I have asked to my reseller how much light a tank will need. He answered me
that I can switch on the light in my tank when I am at home so I can enjoy
it. In fact, he said, in nature the amount of light that normally plants and
fishes receive from the Sun is very low so tank could work also with ambient
lights.
Actually I switch on the light (neon tube) a couple of hours in the morning,
to feed fishes, and about four-five hours in the evening. Everything seem to
be ok, but I would like to avoid that fishes become stressed.
So the question is how much and when should I turn on the light? Do I need a
special type of light?
Thank you very much....
Max from Rome

[Iain Miller]

" > wrote in message
...
> Hi,
> I have a new question for this newsgroup about light management in
> freshwater tank.
> I have asked to my reseller how much light a tank will need. He answered
me
> that I can switch on the light in my tank when I am at home so I can enjoy
> it. In fact, he said, in nature the amount of light that normally plants
and
> fishes receive from the Sun is very low so tank could work also with
ambient
> lights.
> Actually I switch on the light (neon tube) a couple of hours in the
morning,
> to feed fishes, and about four-five hours in the evening. Everything seem
to
> be ok, but I would like to avoid that fishes become stressed.
> So the question is how much and when should I turn on the light? Do I need
a
> special type of light?
> Thank you very much....

Best plant growth is normally achieved with about 0.3W of light per litre of
water in the tank. More if the tank is unusually deep. Convention says you
should run your lights for about 12 hours per day continuously - the easiest
way is to use a time switch.

Switching the lights on and off a couple of times a day won't bother the
fish much but will not favour growing plants - although different plants
need different amounts of light so it depends what you are trying to grow.

rgds

I.