Lighting

[Tempestuousfury]

I've got a tube/shop light for my 50 gallon. It emits a bluish/ whitish light is that ok for the plants if I leave the light on for 10-14 hrs.? Will Amazon swords be ok in there?

 

[fishgeek]

my amazons do pretty well with minimal light
think that other parameters are important too
i peat filter so this gives them som nice nutrition

andrew

 

[Lateral Line]

Swords aren't the most light demanding plants out there. Doesn't need to be on 14 hours, 12 is enough. The plant metabolism requires dark periods to respire and exchange waste metabolites, (there are a few plants that can operate in 24 hours of lights but these are the exception).

Spectrum wise, chlorophyll absorbs in the red and the blue parts of the spectrum. What rather stark blue/white tubes tend to do is wash out the colours in some fish. If you are happy with it - I expect your swords are.

 

[dirty332]

Ok 14 hours might be a little longer then needed but i dont belive it will hurt anything, your plants will be fine and they will grow quite a bit i know that, but if theres a time like on the weekend only have the light on for about 4or 5 hours just like 1 or 2 days that seems to help me plants but my plants are the hardest to grow well good luck

 

[Tempestuousfury]

Actually, I'm going to turn it on at 5 AM and turn it off at 3-6 PM. That might work. I wanted the swords to grow and spread quickly, and I'ge got another plant in there that I'll get the name for...

 

[Lateral Line]

>>> to turn it on at 5 AM

Where you are - is it daylight then? If it is dark, as it certainly would be here, flooding your tank with full light from total darkness will certainly stress even panic your fish. Similaly, plunging your tank into total darkness is not a good idea. When the lights go out, if it is dark outside, at least have the room lights on.

 

[Tempestuousfury]

Whoops. I meant six b/c I turn on all the lights in the living room, take a shower, and then turn on the tank light. When I turn of the lights, it's tank light and then living room light. (My brother has a night light that he plugs into a living room outlet, so it's never dark, anyways.)