How many hours of the day should a light be on?

The title pretty much is the question:

How many hours should a light be on for a planted tank, keep in mind I have dirt as my sub-straight.

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Permalink Reply by Peter on August 13, 2012 at 5:44pm

it all depends on how many plants u have, what kind of lights u have, if u have floating plants,etc. my tank is heavily planted and i only run my lights 6-8 hrs max. i have 2 dual 48' t5s(normal output) and have never had algae problems. i could probably get away with going 9-10 hrs but meh

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Permalink Reply by Keith Mc-Fish on August 13, 2012 at 11:41pm

I just run low tech, non floating plants in a 10 gallon tank..

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Permalink Reply by Keith Mc-Fish on August 13, 2012 at 11:46pm

And I'll have mine on for like 3 hours and the temp. will shoot up. How do I avoid this or drop the temp. but 5-8 degrees?

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Permalink Reply by Robert Jango on August 14, 2012 at 4:01am

Provide enough light for your plants to grow. That's it. But you need to answer Pedro's questions. What kind and how many plants do you have? And what kind of light are you using. Generally speaking, the condition of the tank and plants will tell you if the light you're using is correct.

If your tank temp is shooting up switch to low-temp florescent tubes or CFLs. If you wanna keep whatever high-temp bulb you're currently using then you'll obviously have to move it further away from the water's surface. You mentioned low-tech. Can you place your tank in a spot that receives sunligh?. Sun is the best light for plants and brings out the colors in your fish.