# Blue Night lights on Planted +



## schnebbles (Jan 10, 2015)

Am I supposed to keep the blue lights on all the time the light is running? I mean, are they beneficial for plants? or just put them on at night? I have them off during the day, probably doesn't matter but it popped into mind!


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## Dead2fall (Jun 4, 2014)

More a matter of aesthetics I than anything. It may add a tiny bit of par.


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## aquarium hippy (Feb 7, 2013)

I just leave mine on all the time I have never actually used them at night.


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## jeepguy (Jul 24, 2013)

I would not leave it on all night. Fish also have the need to sync with a circadian rhythm. That is, light, then complete dark. If I leave my blue light on none of my fish go to sleep, and remain almost as active as during the normal light period. However, turn off the light and most actually rest. They need it for proper health. Rest and digest as its referred to in the parasympathetic response.


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## jrill (Nov 20, 2013)

Fish don't sleep. They do rest but they don't sleep like we do. Leave em on if you want.


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## schnebbles (Jan 10, 2015)

oops - I don't leave them on all night, just evening I should say. I think I'll just turn them on with the normal lighting.


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## aquarium hippy (Feb 7, 2013)

I meant they stay on with my other lights and turn off with them on the timer


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## Solcielo lawrencia (Dec 30, 2013)

jrill said:


> Fish don't sleep. They do rest but they don't sleep like we do. Leave em on if you want.


Why do you say they don't sleep? Sleep researchers actually use fish to study sleep. They've found out a lot of physiological responses that have human correlates. Have insomnia? Fish get insomnia, too!


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## jeepguy (Jul 24, 2013)

aquarium hippy said:


> I meant they stay on with my other lights and turn off with them on the timer


Makes no difference. Probably immeasurable amounts of electricity saved with them off.


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## schnebbles (Jan 10, 2015)

I wasn't thinking of electric either, basically just wondered if the blue helped the plants or anything. I run a 250 ceramic heat element in my chickens 24/7 when it's cold, lol!


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## kman (Dec 11, 2013)

If they're properly designed, they should be low enough to be 0 PAR and not hurt anything by triggering algae. If they're too bright, they can actually encourage Algae.

I like the look, so I keep mine on for an hour or so at the very end of the night, and then they get turned off.


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## jrill (Nov 20, 2013)

Solcielo lawrencia said:


> Why do you say they don't sleep? Sleep researchers actually use fish to study sleep. They've found out a lot of physiological responses that have human correlates. Have insomnia? Fish get insomnia, too!


Here is one example.
http://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/fish-sleep.html


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## Solcielo lawrencia (Dec 30, 2013)

jrill said:


> Here is one example.
> http://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/fish-sleep.html


That doesn't say anything that proves fish don't sleep. Most evidence indicates they do. Simply observing the fish at night suggests they do indeed sleep. You can turn on the lights and they're still sleeping, their body color turned off. You can pull plants out and they don't startle because they are sleeping.

Bump:


schnebbles said:


> I wasn't thinking of electric either, basically just wondered if the blue helped the plants or anything. I run a 250 ceramic heat element in my chickens 24/7 when it's cold, lol!


Yes, blue light is used in photosynthesis.


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## jrill (Nov 20, 2013)

Solcielo lawrencia said:


> That doesn't say anything that proves fish don't sleep. Most evidence indicates they do. Simply observing the fish at night suggests they do indeed sleep. You can turn on the lights and they're still sleeping, their body color turned off. You can pull plants out and they don't startle because they are sleeping.
> 
> Bump:
> 
> Yes, blue light is used in photosynthesis.


Take sharks. If they stop moving they stop breathing. How bout trout. Rainbow trout prefer water with a high oxygen level. They live in rivers with fast flow rates. They often stay behind rocks and such where flow is less but water is still moving. That requires the trout to stay in motion. If they didn't they would end up down stream. They don't sleep, they rest. Its OK that we don't agree, it appears science is unclear on what to call the rest state of fish too.
As for leaving the blue lights on at night. Reefers have been doing it for years. Never read any reports of ill effects caused by it.


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## theatermusic87 (Jun 22, 2014)

My light is on a timer so I dont bother with the blue unless I want a less "warm" color to the tank during the day. I did diy a single green led onto an old phone charging cord that I leave on for a night light, SIGNIFICANTLY dimmer, better color for night imho, and more focused so if it bothers the fish they have places to be out of the light. I would post a picture, but being so low on light output I cant capture anything with my phone.


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## Scott Page (Nov 29, 2014)

I think the error in a statement above is that is more significant that whether or not fish sleep: The error is that* it get's black dark at night. It doesn't*. There is always ambient light at night even during a new moon. Only with dense cloud cover and a new moon would you find a remote area pitch black. Most nights, it's possible to move about in a remote forest simply from the ambient light from the stars and when there is a moon you'll even see a shadow. In the wild fish rarely (new moon) or perhaps never see the darkness they'll find in a typical windowless fish room.


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## aquarium hippy (Feb 7, 2013)

Im not to get all scientific on you but my fish do indeed seem to sleep when the lights are out. In the morning they have no color and are completely still and it takes them some time to get moving again.

Here is an interview from the university of cambridge that says they do indeed sleep.

http://www.thenakedscientists.com/HTML/questions/question/2294/


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## FatherLandDescendant (Jul 24, 2014)

What everyone so far describes as the fish "sleeping", lack of color, being still, so on and so forth, my fish do with the blue "moon lights" on on my fixture. The only thing that moves during the moon light phase of my lighting cycle sometimes are my albino corries.


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## aquarium hippy (Feb 7, 2013)

Awesome thanks I was curious about this too I have never left the blue light on over night to find out now Im going to have to see for myself.


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## Scott Page (Nov 29, 2014)

*Night vision gear*

I've put out a facebook request to see if I can borrow night vision gear for observation. A friend told just now me that in a few weeks he'll be able to loan me night vision gear with camera adapter. 

In the meantime - it might be something ya'll might consider trying to do. 

As for sleeping - *I don't know what qualifies as sleep*. I know in humans it has to do with certain kinds of brain waves bla bla bla. However my fish certainly take positions with cover - my SAE's settle down on lace plant leaves, and tetras group under cover of leaves. It takes them as long to be active as it takes me - but I don't know they were "sleeping" because I don't know what their brain waves were doing. People can be technically asleep while active and performing activities - that is their brain waves are in sleep mode but their body walks or even talks. I have a student who has some rare condition in which she (occasionally) appears fully functioning but later has no recollection - it was revealed that she was in fact in a sleep mode and now takes medication for this condition. 

When fish become inactive (rather than saying sleeping) is this a defensive position, or a recuperative time for them? -- is it something they would do on a daily basis if living under the stars, or only in our walled in homes??? In fact I don't think we really have answers to those questions - only assumptions.


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## kman (Dec 11, 2013)

There's two considerations at play here, with respect to leaving ANY light on overnight.

1) Is it good for the fish? Fish (and ALL living things) prefer something of a natural light cycle. Scott Page, above, is correct in observing that true pitch black is not essential, but OTOH, it really should be reasonably dim when everyone is trying to sleep. Just try to use your judgment. If you can see everything very clearly in the tank, it's not dim enough, IMO.

2) Plants and algae: Plants need a rest cycle (well, there are ways of forcing different time cycles for forced growth, but that's a very different discussion), and you don't want to trigger Algae. The key, as always, is PAR. You want 0 PAR to make sure no photosynthesis is going on, either from plants or algae. As above, as long as the lights are sufficiently dim, that shouldn't be a problem. 

Many "moonlight" settings are 0 PAR. But not all of them. Do your best to make sure you have 0 PAR, and that you're creating reasonable conditions for your fish to rest. That should do it.


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## schnebbles (Jan 10, 2015)

whenever I turn on just the blue, the fish swim all over. My cat likes to watch them.


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## Solcielo lawrencia (Dec 30, 2013)

jrill said:


> Take sharks. If they stop moving they stop breathing. How bout trout. Rainbow trout prefer water with a high oxygen level. They live in rivers with fast flow rates. They often stay behind rocks and such where flow is less but water is still moving. That requires the trout to stay in motion. If they didn't they would end up down stream. They don't sleep, they rest. Its OK that we don't agree, it appears science is unclear on what to call the rest state of fish too.
> As for leaving the blue lights on at night. Reefers have been doing it for years. Never read any reports of ill effects caused by it.


Fish moving while sleeping isn't evidence that they don't sleep. Just like humans breath and still have a pulse during sleep. It's the nervous system working. Same applies to fish. The science is also pretty clear as evidenced by the decades of research using fish to study sleep. The myth that fish don't sleep is just that, a myth probably based on the fact that fish don't close their eyes when they sleep.:hihi:


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## jrill (Nov 20, 2013)

Solcielo lawrencia said:


> Fish moving while sleeping isn't evidence that they don't sleep. Just like humans breath and and still have a pulse during sleep. It's the nervous system working. Same applies to fish. The science is also pretty clear as evidenced by the decades of research using fish to study sleep. The myth that fish don't sleep is just that, a myth probably based on the fact that fish don't close their eyes when they sleep.:hihi:


I got nothin else so I yield.[emoji6]


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## klibs (May 1, 2014)

aquarium hippy said:


> I just leave mine on all the time I have never actually used them at night.


This is what I do (during the light cycle)

They are mostly useless

Also +1 to Solcielo... Gotta let those fish sleep


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## jrill (Nov 20, 2013)

I now have a picture in my mind of a bunch of fish in a tank with wires attached to their heads leading to oscilloscopes wondering why they agreed to take part in a sleep study.


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## Scott Page (Nov 29, 2014)

*How Much blue*

Beyond the aspect of leaving blue light on - I think we need to consider "how bright is the blue".

My tank with "_Marineland Aquatic Plant LED Light with Timer_" only has two setting for blue light on or off. Under this light; with blue only - my fish, shrimp and snails do not rest at all...they continue to do their thing just like normal. I can feed them at the surface and they eat. *For this tank I turn off all lights at night.* I suspect the shrimp are active at night because if I drop in food before lights out it's gone the next morning. When lights come on the fish are all in their "rest spots" for the first 15 minutes or so then they venture out. 

My tank with the "_Current USA Satellite Plus PRO_" allows me to dim the light in 1% increments for each, red, green, blue, and white. *I leave this tank at 1% blue at night.* It's very very dim. Fish rest like a dark tank, but the shrimp don't. In fact, it's hard to see - which is why I want to borrow night vision setup - but the shrimp seem to be more active in the water column at night with this 1% blue than during the day when they mostly stay on the bottom and spend lots of time under cover. 

I point this out because reading the posts above it occurred to me that we may be talking about completely different intensities of blue light.


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## kman (Dec 11, 2013)

Scott Page said:


> Beyond the aspect of leaving blue light on - I think we need to consider "how bright is the blue".
> 
> My tank with "_Marineland Aquatic Plant LED Light with Timer_" only has two setting for blue light on or off. Under this light; with blue only - my fish, shrimp and snails do not rest at all...they continue to do their thing just like normal. I can feed them at the surface and they eat. *For this tank I turn off all lights at night.* I suspect the shrimp are active at night because if I drop in food before lights out it's gone the next morning. When lights come on the fish are all in their "rest spots" for the first 15 minutes or so then they venture out.
> 
> ...


I concur 100%. I have the Current lights as well, and I think the default "Moonlight" blue mode is far too bright, but setting a custom blue that's much dimmer (more like 2% for me but still), I'm a lot more comfortable. I still turn it off entirely at the end of the night (via timed controller) eventually, but the blue (that's not TOO blue) is nice late in the evening.


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## theatermusic87 (Jun 22, 2014)

My planted+ moonlight is bright wnough I wouldnt want to sleep with it on... could I, sure... but I dont want to, im sure my fish feel the same, hence the diy green led...


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