[Tracy]

I have some live plants in with my African Elephant Nose fish. He is a shy, nocturnal fish that prefers subdued lighting and as such I have a 'marine glow' (blue light) in the aquarium. Is that sufficient for the plants? I do not leave the light on 24/7, it is turned off at night.

 

[Lupin]

Hi Tracy,:wave:

From what I have research about lights, blue lights are bad idea.

You would be better off with pink lighting which is dim but may help plants requiring subdued lights.
As the name suggested, blue lighting is only for marine tanks.

 

[dahcmed]

Is there such a thing as overlighting? I mean can I leave the lights on for as long as I want for the plants that is?

 

[Claude]

I have some live plants in with my African Elephant Nose fish. He is a shy, nocturnal fish that prefers subdued lighting and as such I have a 'marine glow' (blue light) in the aquarium. Is that sufficient for the plants? I do not leave the light on 24/7, it is turned off at night.

I don't think so...

What plants? and how many watts is the light?

Also how deep is the tank?

 

[Lupin]

Is there such a thing as overlighting? I mean can I leave the lights on for as long as I want for the plants that is?

12 hours is most sufficient, Dahcmed. Your fish will need rest so it's best to limit the light.
Prolonging the light on will cause you algal problems.

Most likely green water caused by floating green algae. Removal is done by UV sterilizer or blackout.

 

[Ziek]

blue_gourami, you are correct in elephant noses prefuring it a bit darker however a better way to go about it is available. if the light isn't strong enough alot of plants won't grow so i have two possible suggestions that i thought of along with many more i'm sure are out there.

1. Use a less powerful light and look into plants such as java fern and anubias. anubias gets large leaves that cover alot of ground and jave fern grows fairly tall and spreads very well, you could also use decorations like driftwood. these things don't require much light at all so you wouldn't have to blast the fish with light.

2. more of just an addon than another idea. if you want some of those higher end plants try something like the driftwood and/or taller plants to kindof grow over the surface of the water or atleast provide large shaded areas in the tank. this way you can have the powerful light and still give the fish its needed darkness

oh, and no tank should have light 24/7 i would aim for about 8-10 hours a day consistently it seems to work well from experience.

 

[Andrew]

OK i have to interject- do people forget biology when they leave school-plants need rest just like fish, infact its not rest, when its dark plants enter their second phase of the 24 hour day whereby they respirate.

If you have plenty of strong light in your tanky you can tell when your plants have had enough light, they turn away from the surface- amzingly true ahve seen it in so many tanks!

 

[Amphitrite]

If you have plenty of strong light in your tanky you can tell when your plants have had enough light, they turn away from the surface- amzingly true ahve seen it in so many tanks!

That's interesting, I'm going to watch out for that.

 

[fish_4_all]

Here is an idea that I am in the process of actually putting into action. I am getting some frogbit and also gonna try to find either Riccia or red red floater. With them going well I am going to plant crypts and anubias on the bottom as they don't need the high levels of light to grow. This way, I can have a bright light above and also allow my BN to feel secure with less light getting through the floaters.

As for the actininc/blue light. It is good for plants because it does provide a descent specturm but the lumens is so low it doesn't penetrate far enough to be useful for bottom plants. I don't know if it will grow floating plants but I would recommend a brighter light.