The Puffer Forum

Personally I turn mine off at night. Just to give the bulb a rest and I feel that my puffer needs some night night time too lol. What do you do?

Fish need a dailey cycle just as any other animals does. I keep mine on a 12 on 12 off cycle although its off timed so that it matches my veiwing ability. My house stays pretty dark even dureing daylight hours so its backed up about 3-4 hours. I dont turn the tank lights on as soon as i get up though. The window curtains stay open when i leave which leaves plenty ambient light and then i turn the tank lights on when i come home. I turn the tank lights off a couple hours b4 i go to bed and then all the lights when i go to bed. So there not under direct light probably no more then 6 hours.

to me i think off due to leaving it on all the time can cause a bad algea problem, and if your tank is planted to much light can be bad for em.

I only run mine for two 4 hour periods

Always off at night. Fish need sleep, too!

Pufftastic wrote:Always off at night. Fish need sleep, too!

Agreed. Besides, you use less electricity, get less algae and less heat is produced (heat is a big problem in my house during summer). I have a timer to regulate the hours the lights are turned on. Then I don't have to think of the lights at all (which is very nice, as I have 25 tanks running these days). I also have one hour without light in the middle of the day, because of the same reasons as described before.

All very good replies Id never thought of the algae problem!

I've noticed that my puffer doesn't seem to sleep much at night though. If I wake up to go to the bathroom and happen to glance in my tanks direction, i'll see her up and about swimming around. Does anyone else see this?

a lot of puffers are more nocturnal, and prefer to sleep during the day

Troender wrote:I have 25 tanks running these days

OMG!! and I thought I was crazy

i run mine for 4 hours before i go to work and then they come back on from 11p-3am for when i get home.

I leave mine off 24/7. I get enough ambient light. But definately turn off during night.

J-P wrote:OMG!! and I thought I was crazy

Actually I've cut down a bit. I used to have 28...

I have a set schedule, on at 10am and off at 8pm. I definitely think, as others do, that fish need a cycle of light and darkness.

I have quite a bit of natural light where my tanks are so I just have the lights on a timer from 8pm - midnight. In the winter I had the timer set from 6pm to midnight.

I strongly agree with the need for a regular and regulated light cycle. All of my tanks are timed -nobody with MTS should be dumb enough to turn everything on and off manually, automate everything you can.

My tanks get from from 10-12 continuous hours of light daily if planted, unplanted which receive natural bright light may have fewer hours of "tank light on" than that but approximately the same total hours of light.

RTR wrote:nobody with MTS should be dumb enough to turn everything on and off manually, automate everything you can.

I hate to admit this but it's part of my bedtime routine to turn all my tank lights off manually. About an hour before bed I thaw some sort of crustacean and soak it, cut cotton thread to dangle it in the tank, feed my "kids", and shut off each individual light. I know I am a true MTS sufferer because I can't sleep if I don't carry out this routine. The tanks all get roughly 9-10 hours of light (combined natural and artificial) per day depending on the season and how the sun hits the rooms plus low moon lighting for a an hour or so.