# Is blue light ok during night



## mrkevinpinto83 (Oct 7, 2012)

Hi I'm having an aquarium of 750 liter the co2 is connected to one ceramic diffuser at one side at 5 bps I feel that the co2 is still not enough in the tank 
The ph is 6.5 when co2 is working,when off it goes to 7.3 
Why is the ph not remaining stable
My light 2 halide 150 w 20000 k
8 25w from ADA k ? Working during day and 12 blue led during night,I had been told that blue light is harmful for plants 
Sand is Eco planted 
FISHES
Discus. 8
Neon tetra. 35
Cory. 5
Platy. 12
Guppy. 10
Black Molly. 4
Filter tetra ex2400 and dolphin 1000
Running with carbon,ceramic,sponge& black peat 
Please let me know what I'm missing to have a planted tank beautiful 
water temp 30
Plants
Anubias
Cabomba
mattogrossense 'Red'
Pogostemon erectus
Vallisneria

please need help you can mail me also at [email protected]


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## brainwavepc.com (Sep 27, 2011)

Few things:

20000k is way too red for what you want. You want 10k at the max, closer to 6500k-8500k for "best" growth.

30c is WAY too hot! You want it to be around 24c-26c for healthy fish and plants.

Blue lights do not hurt plants, they are called "moonlights". I've had them on my 125g for about a year, on all night every night and I get 0 "harm" from them. It essentially replicates the light from the moon.

PH swings is going to hurt your fish more than anything else. Personally I leave my CO2 on 24/7 and my plants and fish are both doing great. If you still want it to be cycled on and off you need to get some buffer and up your KH and GH so you don't get wild PH swings.

Ceramic diffusers are useless in large tanks like that. Get yourself a Cerges reactor and run that inline with your filter on the OUTPUT side and you should be fine. Get a powerhead to circulate water in the tank so that all of your plants are getting the fresh CO2 infused water that is coming out of your filter.

Good luck and I suggest you search through the forums and you can find tons of answers.


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## Kyrol (Feb 24, 2012)

Moon lights are a case by case issue. My 125 the fish had major issues. Over the goldfish tank they could care less.


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## brainwavepc.com (Sep 27, 2011)

Kyrol said:


> Moon lights are a case by case issue. My 125 the fish had major issues. Over the goldfish tank they could care less.



please be more specific about "major issues".


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## Kathyy (Feb 22, 2010)

I turn off the CO2 at night, it is fine. CO2 lowers the pH of the water is all. I would cautiously turn up the number of bubbles per second every couple of days when you can watch the tank closely as a bit more CO2 might help the plants grow better. Do turn up the spray bar of one of the filters so there is a nice ripple on the surface of the water. Fish can tolerate more CO2 if there is plenty of oxygen present. Warm water doesn't hold as much oxygen as cool water, your fish would really appreciate as much oxygen as you can provide.

Many plants have difficulty with the high temperatures discus fish are kept. You might research which plants do best, perhaps the plants you have now aren't the best kinds.

Besides the CO2 are you feeding the plants? They may need some nitrate, phosphate and micros.


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## OVT (Nov 29, 2011)

brainwavepc.com said:


> ...PH swings is going to hurt your fish more than anything else...


Any supporting info for the above? Thanks.


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## Chaoslord (Feb 12, 2011)

Kyrol said:


> Moon lights are a case by case issue. My 125 the fish had major issues. Over the goldfish tank they could care less.


What kind of issues?


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## mrkevinpinto83 (Oct 7, 2012)

But if I lower the temp to 24-26 will there be no harm for discus


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## Steve001 (Feb 26, 2011)

mrkevinpinto83 said:


> Hi.
> Working during day and 12 blue led during night,I had been told that blue light is harmful for plants
> 
> Please let me know what I'm missing to have a planted tank beautiful
> ...


Blue light is detrimental to you and lightly to your fish. Like you and other diurnal lifeforms plants also need a period of complete darkness. It does so by altering the natural patterns of light and dark in ecosystems. Your tank is an ecosystem
You have 12 too many blue lights in use. Moonlight isn't blue, it's white, and rather dim at that when using it to look at objects. Some bright colors can be seen dimly. Though blue light it pretty to us it is a form of pollution. There are a number of scientific reports online that you may read. If people actually simulated moonlight they'd be rather disappointed with the results I think.
*Blue LEDs: A health hazard?*

http://texyt.com/bright+blue+leds+annoyance+health+risks

*Light Pollution, a Growing Environmental, Safety and
Health Hazard for Residents of Strathfield*
http://www.cooke.id.au/Vision_2020_Submission.pdf


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## Kyrol (Feb 24, 2012)

brainwavepc.com said:


> please be more specific about "major issues".


The lights I have Solar max HE have 6 blue LED's per light and I have 2 of them over the 125g. Prior to that I just had the stock single bulb t8 lights. that came with the tank. Wanting to go from a pretty plain tank (brown black gravel and 4-5 Huge chunks of wood) to a planted tank i knew i would need more light.

I had a community of 50 Tiger barbs that had been in the tank for about 4 months with out any issues. Once I put the new lights in and admired how nice everything looked I thought nothing more of it. Well after the first day they weren't as active as they were normally hiding under the wood and being extremely territorial. I thought nothing of it went to bed and came down around mid night to get a drink and the fish were still fighting to hide under the wood (dark spots) they normally just drifted next to the wood nose down with the old lights. 

That morning none of the fish followed me as I walked by the tank maybe 2-3 of them ate. I then found my first dead, scooped him out tested the water everything came up fine. Went to work when I came home no tiger barbs following me fighting to hide 6 or so more dead water still fine. None ate did a 25% water change early lights out for the tank. Next morning at least 10 dead if not more. 

Thats when I found this site trying to find an answer found an article on MFK about moon lights causing issues with fish so I completely unplugged the lights that night and gave them total dark when I woke up that morning 2-4 dead but they were feeding and following for the most part. The next 48 hours I had 1 more die on me but at lights on in the morning everyone was out following me around and feeding strong like they should.

I had a bad experience with it. Your mileage may vary for every 1 that says they are fine 5 will say they cause issues and for every 1 that says they cause issues 5 will say they work. Just keep an eye on your fish don't kill off a bunch of your live stock for lighting that doesn't grow anything and 90% of the time isn't enjoyed because your asleep. I'm a big fan of going total dark in the tank at night. They do look cool when you sit and watch your fish swim around around in near dark with that nice LED shimmer.


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## brainwavepc.com (Sep 27, 2011)

funky but a good read, Ty for the link.

I'll try leaving mine off for a week and see if I notice any change in fish behavior


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## gardennub (Mar 9, 2011)

Keep in mind that it depends on the color of the blue light being used. If it is putting out light around 420-470nm then a plant may still be photosynthetically active. In fact LED plants lights usually consist mostly of blue lights in this spectrum. Most plants need a period of time to 'rest'. I would look for lights 420nm or below for moonlights. In nature moonlight is the same color as sunlight, but there isn't enough to keep plants active.


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## Java Moss (Jan 17, 2011)

I used to use them and had an "issue". Platies and tetras were coming up dead with zero visible symptoms of sickness. Lots of water changes and chem checks were next to perfect - still kept getting random deaths. 

Stopped using the moonlights - boom. No more deaths. So yeah, there's something to be said about it. Possibly bad spectrum or it stressed the fish or something - I don't know. 

They're integrated into my Oddysea 4-blub/T5 set, so what spectrum they are is unbeknownst to me. One of those "later" Oddysea lights - not the early ones that burn down the dining room.


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## OverStocked (May 26, 2007)

Your pH is lowering during the time co2 is on because co2 is an acid and drops pH. When the co2 turns off, the pH goes back up to normal. This is a normal thing and should not be worried about.


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## Chaoslord (Feb 12, 2011)

I've never had an issue with moonlights. I also give my tank a total light break. 
4 hours moonlight.
8 hours main light.
4 hours moonlight.
8 hours no light.


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## HD Blazingwolf (May 12, 2011)

lets slightly perspectify things, blue light is not harmful as wavelenght, it does chagne diurnal patterns which can be harmful in and of itself.. it is a powerful waveleght and stresses the eye.,, so does green, red, yellow, purple, pink, white in excess as well, blue happens to be a prominent color in this world. tv's and computers only add to this

humans respond to blue light in the morning by waking up. it is a powerful wavelength and is first visible in the morning and stimulates the brain to stop producing melatonin.

im not aware of fish respoding to specific light wavelenghts for their cycles. however i can tell fish behavior at night is different the darker it gets. once al lthe lights go out in my house, all my middle to high level fish come to the surface almost instantly and will rapidly go back to their normal level with some light on, even a night light 10 feet away. so they respond to light stimulus of any color as far as im concerned. 

plants use blue light to photosynthesize actively. having dim blue lights at night may not hurt plants, may not even be bright enough for them to repsond at all, then again it might be bright enough to cause them to try to stay open and photosynthesize longer

algae responds to LOTS OF LIGHT with vigor, longer photocycles have proven this, so once ur lights go out and plants are done, algae will go on, maybe not all night but it will accept more light,, this extra light may make keeping the tank free of algae harder but won't overall through ur tank into an algae infested mess


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