Lighting at night?

[Ocellaris PDX]

SO SORRY, I looked up lighting at night and whether any lights are supposed to be on at night but am not really understanding it completely, so I'm making a thread.

 

My question: Do I need lights to be on at night?

 

I'm planning a 20g tank that'll have a few lower-light corals (zoas, frogspawn, sun, something along those lines...) that'll be in my bedroom. Do they need a blue light on at night? How bright will it likely be? If I need a light, any ideas on reducing the brightness in the room?

[mcs]

3 minutes ago, Ocellaris PDX said:

SO SORRY, I looked up lighting at night and whether any lights are supposed to be on at night but am not really understanding it completely, so I'm making a thread.

 

My question: Do I need lights to be on at night?

 

I'm planning a 20g tank that'll have a few lower-light corals (zoas, frogspawn, sun, something along those lines...) that'll be in my bedroom. Do they need a blue light on at night? How bright will it likely be? If I need a light, any ideas on reducing the brightness in the room?

No you do not need light at night.

 

[Ocellaris PDX]

7 minutes ago, mcs said:

No you do not need light at night.

 

Blessed be! I'm so glad. I can deal with the noise, in fact I find it very disturbing and empty when the power goes out and the freshwater tank goes silent, but light would be almost too much.

[Fish_Wiz]

Nope, but moonlights can simulate breeding in some corals and fish. I've had moonlights on many of my tanks and loved it. They don't run all night but say 2 hours after main lights go off. Currently looking for some for my new setup.

[Ocellaris PDX]

15 minutes ago, Fish_Wiz said:

Nope, but moonlights can simulate breeding in some corals and fish. I've had moonlights on many of my tanks and loved it. They don't run all night but say 2 hours after main lights go off. Currently looking for some for my new setup.

That makes a lot of sense. I think if I was breeding I'd get moonlights, but I won't be able to breed anybody until I'm on my own, which is fine. But for now, seeing that the tank will be in my bedroom, I'm just so relieved I don't need a nightlight.

 

My bedroom is the only space in the house I can keep a tank. The only other nice place is us kids' ''playroom'', a garage space that was renovated into a normal room after our house burned down in 2008. Its where we usually hang out and do homework or art. There's plenty of shelves and outlets in there, but my older college aged sister has covered every surface except the guest bed and my desk with snake and gecko tanks (She breeds ball pythons) and she's not willing to give any of the space up. :')

[MrObscura]

Not needed  but I run a moon cycle, just so I can see the tank really. It's set to 3% max and lowers or intensifies based on moon phase. I run it for 8 hours after lights off and then give the tank 4 hours total darkness before lights start ramping back up.