# lighting time?



## xpistalpetex (Mar 31, 2008)

due to the circumstances that my parents are giving me, they are saying to me no more light during the day which i can understand, but however i recieve little/no direct sunlight, so i was wonder what solutions would be good to resolve this issue. :whip:

and i know this is a planted forum, but i was wonder if theres any fishes i could use in a 30 gallon a friend gave me w.o using little/no artificial light and just mostly hard scape. :blabla:


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## davemonkey (Mar 29, 2008)

There are several fish species that appreciate dimmed situations, like a floating cover of plants to dim the lighting. And if you have a window in your room that lets in some light, even indirectly, it MIGHT be enough to keep the fish happy with just some roots/rocks and maybe some java fern. 

Your best bet would be to hit the library or buy a few fish books and start reading up on different fish that like low-light situations. The internet probably has all this info and more if you hunt for it. Before you go spending money, do the research (and joining this forum is a great start!). Then, you will still have some trial and error, but that's a good way to learn.

-Dave


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## xpistalpetex (Mar 31, 2008)

ooo thank you for replying


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## hoppycalif (Apr 7, 2005)

Mosses are not dependent on a lot of light, so you could use Java Moss as the "plants" if you wanted to have some.


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## xpistalpetex (Mar 31, 2008)

hoppycalif said:


> Mosses are not dependent on a lot of light, so you could use Java Moss as the "plants" if you wanted to have some.


true. isnt ferns also not too much dependednt on light?


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## Bert H (Mar 2, 2004)

Anubias also don't need much lighting.


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## thefishmanlives (Feb 15, 2008)

yo, why dont you just leave the lights on at night when your home and off during the day? You can get away with a six hour photo period with most plants. Your telling me your parents will not allow you to have a light in the evening when your home for 6 hours? Thats pretty crazy man, and 6 hours of a light on will not effect your electric bill that much at all. Go out and do some drugs and get arrested a couple times and lie and tell them your girlfriend might be pregnant and believe me their no fishtank light rule will dissolve in no time. You can thank me later.


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## orion2001 (Mar 20, 2008)

thefishmanlives said:


> yo, why dont you just leave the lights on at night when your home and off during the day? You can get away with a six hour photo period with most plants. Your telling me your parents will not allow you to have a light in the evening when your home for 6 hours? Thats pretty crazy man, and 6 hours of a light on will not effect your electric bill that much at all. Go out and do some drugs and get arrested a couple times and lie and tell them your girlfriend might be pregnant and believe me their no fishtank light rule will dissolve in no time. You can thank me later.


Lol . It does seem really extreme regarding the no light situation. You should do a quick analysis of the amount of power other devices in your house use, and then trade out something else for keeping your tank lights on. Also if your house doesn't already use fluorescent energy saving bulbs, offer to buy some and replace them in your room/around the house and in exchange the energy savings will easily allow you to keep your tank lights on for 6 hours a day.

As for fish, bettas love low light conditions. You could look into making a female betta sorority with your 30G tank.


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## hoppycalif (Apr 7, 2005)

orion2001 said:


> Lol . It does seem really extreme regarding the no light situation. You should do a quick analysis of the amount of power other devices in your house use, and then trade out something else for keeping your tank lights on. Also if your house doesn't already use fluorescent energy saving bulbs, offer to buy some and replace them in your room/around the house and in exchange the energy savings will easily allow you to keep your tank lights on for 6 hours a day.
> 
> As for fish, bettas love low light conditions. You could look into making a female betta sorority with your 30G tank.


Now that is a good suggestion! If your tank needs 55 watts, for example, you only need to buy one 20 watt power saver bulb, which replaces a 75 watt incandescent bulb and gives the same amount of light. That bulb costs about $7.


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## thefishmanlives (Feb 15, 2008)

thats an easy answer but my dad was a light freak as well. Running around hte house screaming about lights being on. Wasnt even about the money, I think he was more into yelling and that gave him fuel for the fire. we are italian by the way so yelling was commonplace as was constant brawling by myself and by brothers :boxing:


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## hoppycalif (Apr 7, 2005)

thefishmanlives said:


> thats an easy answer but my dad was a light freak as well. Running around hte house screaming about lights being on. Wasnt even about the money, I think he was more into yelling and that gave him fuel for the fire. we are italian by the way so yelling was commonplace as was constant brawling by myself and by brothers :boxing:


Well, that leaves the other suggestion - becoming a drug dealer.


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## thefishmanlives (Feb 15, 2008)

hoppycalif said:


> Well, that leaves the other suggestion - becoming a drug dealer.


uuuuhhh...whats is this a setup :faint2: j/k...techincally he would be a "fund raiser" since its for a good cause :heh: moving forward and keeping on topic, the idea with the energy saver bulbs would most likely offset the additional cost. If you explained this idea to your parents and they were even slightly logical people they would agree and commend you for coming up with a logical solution to your problem. I consider this this to be a good, constructive hobby. Its not like your asking to join a cult or going goth or something. Its a hobby that you could enjoy for the rest of your life. Ive had at least 1 aquarium at all times since i was like 11 or 12. Since Ive gotten into planted aquariums about 5 years ago, ive been hooked and always had one. All said and done once i got my initial setup, lights, co2, tank, filter, etc, which I got all for a good deal since iresearched everything to death, the hobby is pretty reqrding for the amount of money you spend. You can get a lot of satisfaction out of a $10 purchase of plants. For the fun that you actually have, and how stunning a nice planted tank actually is and the presence that it adds to a room, a planted tank is a great bang for the buck.


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## xpistalpetex (Mar 31, 2008)

well the lights im using is 2x 10 watt fluorescent Incandescent for a 10 gallon...right now so far nothing has really died, but some of the leaves are turning brown but however new growth are still going. and another thing i was thinking of doing to resolve this issue was to run a dc (direct current) light running off battery


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