2x/day light cycles?

[treesprite]

This probably sounds crazy. I am wondering about how coraks and fish would be affected if I run 2 short cycles in a day rather than one long one. I'm thinking about this because I noticed that one of my firefish is looking thin and I want to be able to feed it twice a day, but I also want time to enjoy light in my tank when I come home at night. Leaving the lights on 14 hours a day is not an option, especially since I have had big cyano ever since I put a new light fixture on my tank.

[Grav]

I did that once in a nano tank. Customer wanted to see / feed fish in AM and PM, it was never a problem for the fish or corals. Have no idea the impact on you coraks.

[El Camaron]

I also did it on my first nana after i had installed a new meatl halide light, the break was one hour around 1 in the afternoon and it seemed to speed up the growth in some corals, fish did just fine too.

[mogurnda]

The circadian clock is reset when the light turns on, so it may not be so good in the long term. It's not going to be a big deal if they are not in total darkness with the lights off, and fish are adaptable, I suppose.

 

My solution was to get a little LED strip light to light the tank in morning and evening, then have the main lights on during part of the day. It's enough to see the fish and have them awake and eating, but uses only a few watts and doesn't promote algae.

[WaterDog]

I did that for a bit over the summer to cut down on heat, and it didn't seem to have an effect on the fish or coral. However, the wrasse would come awake only during the first light cycle, then sleep in the sand once the lights went off, sleeping through the second light cycle, which was when I usually fed.

[trockafella]

Get an auto fish feeder and leave your light cycle alone, or feed more frequently when your home.

[treesprite]

Autp fish feeder does not work for frozen food. My fish are spoiled. I had been feeding them within 15 minutes after day lights go out every day.

 

My fixture has LEDs for actinic (w/ brighter/dimmer switch). What I did today was turn the days on, fed fish after 20 minutes, waited about 15 minutes after feeding, turned the days off, left the actinic on all day. Came home turned the days on.

[OUsnakebyte]

Can you just adjust your day bulbs so that they come on later in the day and go off at night? My actinics go on around 10:30-11am but the halides don't go on until 2:30pm and then shut off about 9:30-10pm. Then, actinics about an hour later.

 

Cheers

Mike

[treesprite]

I already have them not coming on until like 4pm because I work later in the day and don't get home until around 10pm most days. I don't go to sleep until after 3am, so lights go out around 2am. That doesn't help with needing to feed the fish both before and after work when I'm gone for 10 hours every day.