Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Does anyone use lights in your tank as a way of extending the "daylight" hours so that the fish can get an extra meal? I have 2 problems with feeding my fish. 1 is that I work 12 hour shifts and so in winter I leave home in dark and return home in the dark. I then try to get my wife to feed them but she often forgets or runs out of time and so the fish may only get 1 feed a day. The other problem is that my tank is in a dark spot, and so in the winter there aren't alot of daylight hours and its hard to squeeze in 3 feeds a day. My thought is that I could put a light on a timer so that the fish think the sun is coming up earlier and going down later, thus extending the daylight hours. I would then be able to feed them at 6:30 before work, and 8pm after work, and wife could feed them at about 2pm. They will get 3 feeds a day, and 6 hours between feeds. The fish will still get an 8 hour sleep.
Any thoughts?

Not sure what fish you have KE but the SPs I have don't mind being fed after dark. It takes them a bit longer to find the pellets but they get the job done eventually.

The trout I had last winter would also feed after dark but took even longer to find the food.

KE, I have a couple of lights well above (4m) the tank - that it doesn't spook the bejesus out of them if it gets turned on.

Feed mine at 6am, 5pm and 9pm (or there abouts) as I have no way of doing it during the day, unless I buy an autofeeder.

Seems to work OK - I turn the light off soon after the 9pm feed. Sometimes throw in some lettuce leaves in the morning that they munch on during the day - one of the advantages of SPs.

I had an underwater pond light in my tank and it died a horrible death, dissolved away to nothing, releasing who knows what from the alloys it was made from into the water. I had another halogen pond light above the tank pointing down into the water and it's still going strong.

I find that if I turn the light on shining down onto the tank at any time of night and they are a little skittish at first, but within about half an hour they will start feeding.

KE,.........I put a handful of floating pellets in of a night and in the morning can't find them

I allways feed the fish of a night.

I've got 80 rainbow trout

Thanks for the tips, I reckon the light can stay out of the water then.

My catfish seem to feed very well after dark. Temperature may be a more limiting factor in how much they feed after dark in winter, it might be just too cool for them to be into big meals.

I actually have a bug zapper over the tank on a timer which provides some light as well as bugs until the timer shuts it off how ever many hours after dusk.

I picked up a good quality underwater light and suspended it above the water. Connected it to a timer to switch on for a couple of hours in the morning and evening. It took a day for the fish to get used to it, now they are feeding like normal and I can always get 3 feeds in a day. Hoping for much bigger fish this year. I only hope my biofilter can keep up with all of the extra fish and feeds this year.