Advice Please - Should I Add Lighting?

[Mr Bee]

Hi, I've had my current tank and stock for about 1 - 1.5 years and the light never worked from buying it, but I wasn't bothered about using it really. This is mainly due to my previous experience when I had a goldfish and a few white cloud mountan minnows - whenever I switched the light on or off it seemed to shock the fish and make them go crazy for a few minutes.
This is why when I started my tropical tank I never bothered to repair or replace the built in light, and have since just removed it all and cut all the cables!!


Anyway, last summer I got some RCS and then put some spiky moss and a cladophoria (sp?) ball in for them. They loved the moss, and during summer it was coming on nicely, and spreading and bushing out. But since the days have got shorter and darker around winter, and less daylight, it has gradually died off, and now I only have a couple of tiny bits left

Should I add some lighting to bring it back, and if so what sort of lighting could I use? - would have to be something easy to attach and be a kind of stand alone unit really. I've seen this LED light bar on ebay, what do you think

LED light


Would turning lights on and off shock or scare my tetra's or the shrimp?
How long does a light need to be on each day?
And do you need to wait for it to be generally daytime (i.e.- light) before switching on, so as to avoid a kind of "Oh my god! - Its suddenly very light in here!!" feeling from the fish?


Please help, I'd love to revive my moss, but also want to be nice to my fish and shrimps too!

 

[Underwurlde]

Hi, I've had my current tank and stock for about 1 - 1.5 years and the light never worked from buying it, but I wasn't bothered about using it really. This is mainly due to my previous experience when I had a goldfish and a few white cloud mountan minnows - whenever I switched the light on or off it seemed to shock the fish and make them go crazy for a few minutes.
This is why when I started my tropical tank I never bothered to repair or replace the built in light, and have since just removed it all and cut all the cables!!


Anyway, last summer I got some RCS and then put some spiky moss and a cladophoria (sp?) ball in for them. They loved the moss, and during summer it was coming on nicely, and spreading and bushing out. But since the days have got shorter and darker around winter, and less daylight, it has gradually died off, and now I only have a couple of tiny bits left

Should I add some lighting to bring it back, and if so what sort of lighting could I use? - would have to be something easy to attach and be a kind of stand alone unit really. I've seen this LED light bar on ebay, what do you think

LED light


Would turning lights on and off shock or scare my tetra's or the shrimp?
How long does a light need to be on each day?
And do you need to wait for it to be generally daytime (i.e.- light) before switching on, so as to avoid a kind of "Oh my god! - Its suddenly very light in here!!" feeling from the fish?


Please help, I'd love to revive my moss, but also want to be nice to my fish and shrimps too!

.) Plants need a specific spectra of light in order to flourish. Ignore that LED thing for plants I'm thinking. Flourescents are what you need.
.) Yes, time lights to come on in the day! Mine go on at 10am, off at 7pm. My fish seem happy enough with them going on & off, but then again, I can't ask for their opinion.
.) Now, algae. This will now be a problem perhaps! And the one thing to kick start alage are sudden changes in the tank, i.e. floods of light all of a sudden & bash, algae bloom. When you get your lights, time them in increasing intervals, week to week: e.g. week 1, 1hr, week 2, 2hrs etc. This said, you don't have many plants in there anyway and hence regardless, the addition of lighting may create algae anyway....

GL

Andy