Colored bulbs

Tigris

What are some aquarium safe colored bulbs that I can use to light up a tank at night so it's not too bright but bright enough to see...I need to be careful because if it's too bright my catfish will freak out and possibly break the tank

marshallsea

I could be wrong, if i am someone will correct me, but fish may need darkness at night to relieve the stress of the day. How big is your tank? How big is your catfish? That being said, I dont know about bulbs so i raided the kids toy box and got pieces of colored plastic racetrack and laid it under the bulb and on the glass panel that keeps water off the bulbs. It gives a nice subdued orange tint, (or any color you can find laying around.)

Tigris

I wanted it more for daylight ours but a bright light, and no where to hide, scares them and they freak out

marshallsea

i agree , my fish love dark spots , i keep it dim with colored plastics .

Tigris

What about a blue actinic light?
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marshallsea

try it. blues a nice color. keep in mind, fish get an important vitamin from light that is essential for health.

Tigris

I'll try, the blue, white light freaks mine out
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Byron

Dim lighting is what you want, rather than blue. Most of the fish we keep occur in waters with far less light than we put over our tanks. So keeping the light minimal (if you have plants, this has to be considered, but without live plants the light can be very low), and providing shade especially with floating plants, will usually work.

And maintain a regular period of light/dark, rather than turning the tank light on and off sporadically, as this can unsettle fish too.

You can read some of the reasons why here:
Lighting: How It Affects Freshwater Fish

Byron.

Tigris

What kind of floating plants?

Byron

If there are no lower plants requiring light, then a fairly thick carpet of floating plants is fine, as they will significantly shade the light. I have had floating plants so thick the lower part of the tank is almost in darkness.

Water Sprite is ideal for this, it is fast growing and produces daughter plants rapidly. Something like Duckweed is less useful as it will quickly multiply but it is very thin and light still gets through. Amazon Frogbit is another good one, though not easy to maintain for everyone, and similar there is dwarf water lettuce. Some of these are in our profiles, click the shaded names.

Some stem plants will grow well floating. The common Hornwort is a true floater. With enough of this, it will shade the tank. Brazilian Pennywort is one of my favourites as it grows very fast and thick. Green Cabomba is similar to Hornwort but a bit fussier.