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I have timers on all three of my tanks. It is so much easier - you don't have to worry about forgetting to turn the lights on or off. I even used a timer on my Christmas tree lights!
I have mine set to go on at 8AM and off at 8PM.

You have timers so you don't forget your lights??

You must be on some odd sort of working & feeding schedule, I'm thinking?

My schedule is easy. I turn the lights on in the am. & shortly thereafter feed the fish. At bedtime (at night) I feed again & with sinking food for the bottom dwellers & turn the light off & go to bed. I guess my life is just less hectic than the rest of yours.

My feeding schedule corresponds to my light schedule, so I don't forget either. Lucky me I guess?

Yep, I have about 7 timers distributed between 3 tanks.

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Critical Fertilator: The Micromanager of Macronutrients

No I don't use them.

I work nights so the tank lights are turned off as I'm leaving. I either turn them on when I get up in the morning or my daughter does before leaving for school.

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There is water at the bottom of the ocean

Thank you Theresa!

Not that your vote will keep me from drowning here, but I appreciate the effort anyway!

Technically, I'm already dead in the water, so I give up.

But I still don't think we heard from hardly any of the new one tank owners like me.

Theres people alive that only have one tank? wow, didn't know they exsisted

Fish tanks are an expensive addiction

Hi,
Those of us who are CONFINED to one tank are frequently
done so not by choice, but by mandate.

I see these larger tanks and want one so bad... but alas,
every time I pick up a tape measure, my wife hollers "NO."
We simply don't have room for another tank.

However When we retire in a couple of more years, to
our home in the mountains, I will have room for two
240G tanks

Frank


-->>> The Confidence of Amateurs, is the Envy of Professionals <<<--

Frank, I ran out of space to, thats when I started finding ways to stack my tanks. So now I have my 40g tank under my 250.

and if I would have had 12 more inches of depth, i would have been putting my 55g under a 120g I could have got

Fish tanks are an expensive addiction

i personally don't think that i need one. some may need it, some may not, i think that it isn't a question of importance it's a question of opinion and whether or not people wnat them. if i get more tanks like 4 or 5 i may invest in some light timers.

Renegade545,
king of the frontosa

I have one on my 29 gallon tank. I only bought one because I found one on sale. Now that I have been using it though I see the benefits. I have not hade an algae bloom forever and my fish seem happier; is that not what it is all about? Oh, and everyone in the tank knows that when that light comes on it is feeding time so they gather around the top. This helps me to see who may be ill if they do not come to the top.Great investment and you can find good quality ones for cheap!

"Talk is cheap. Action can be almost as affordable"

I have light timer on all my 3 tanks. At one point my 75G was set with light on for 4 hours, off 1.5 hours and on again for 4 hours. An experiment in attempt to fix the algae problem.

We do use light timers when we go away for a long weekend but normaly we are always at home so dont use them then.

I have timers on my tanks. They are on from ~10:43am-10:43pm. I have such an irregular schedule with college and work that they would never get turned on/off anywhere near the same time everyday. I think the fish benefit from this overall, they seem less stressed out.

What does that mean, Bob? "Till the cows come home." Where have the cows been?

yeah me to,i use light timers on all my tanks.when i started out,i didnt use them,but as i work shifts,and all sorts of weirdo hours,they suited me perfect...

If timers are an option id go for them every time. Fish are so linked to light cycles on this planets, as are plants too. The rythmic stabilty or regular day and night hours helps to regulate normal fish behaviour , and causes subtle and completely natural variations in gaseous exchange. Light can be important for breeding, and when I can, I like to mirror conditions that cycle with the seasons appropriate to the fish's place of origin. I think controlling light correctly can have a huge beneficial impact on the behaviour, life quality and health of both diurnal and nocturnal fish alike. Its not required for all species particularly those fish that experience very little natural light due to their habitat, but for the rest , and that has to be 95% of all hobby fish there can be a positive impact. When you take into account timers are dirt cheap, readily available and usually very reliable it seems to me almost pointless not to use them.

its funny u say that longhair,becasue about ten mins b4 my lights go out you can see my fish heading in to there caves,from being in a light cycle,i swear by the timers

Yeah I get that a lot too, the rainbows start forming loose and lazy shoals in preparation for the night,the tetras start to pale and head for midwater where the night dwellers wont disturb them. The flying foxes start to settle in all sorts of weird positions, even upside down on plants or in water flow for their odd sleeping habits. Some of the cichlids head for the caves too, just like yours.

The doradids, plecs , banjos and shrimp all start making quick appearances too just before the lights go out, taking the change to come out and be the first to scavenge on the leftovers of the days feeds, just as they do in nature, in that golden half hour when the other fish are too sleepy to compete with them, or two drowsy to bother predating on them. The senegal polypterus starts getting ready for the night feeds too. Its really interesting to watch the day and night shifts swap over at the end of the evening in the tanks. I have been known to sit there with a small led torch watching the behaviour after lights out.

When you give them timers its as if fish calibrate their own internal body clocks too them, and fish really do seem to know the time down to the last second. Having seen the ounced effect it has on the fish and their daily routines id never be without them now. The fish seem so very comfortable with such stable daily routines. A lot of the big lake cichlids in particular seem to have remnant behavior to hide and find secure places before (as in nature) the big night predators like dolphin fish etc come out to scout for food. Pretty much any cichlid that isnt large enough to defend itself against the major predators seems to have a really ingrained urge to find cover before lights go out .

This to me is all fascinating stuff, highlighting the differences between learned and instinctive behaviour, after all any given cichlid in a nicely balanced tank doesntreally have to find cover at night,they certainly havent learned this behaviour as individuals, having never been in the firing line of bigger predatory fish on a personal level. This is what fishkeeping is all about, watching them do their thing. If I didnt have timers , I might have missed out on all this good stuff!

This thread just won't die will it?





Na, just teasin'. Thanks for your input everybody.

I have mine controlled via my home automation PC (Insteon based controls.)

This way I have the timers set to a Miami, FL sunrise/sunset schedule. Sorta fun to know when the sun is up and down there, especially when we have so little real sunshine in the winter here

~Michael