Many species can be found in murkier water, for example in seagrass beds, on muddy shores, or even in harbors. While coral reefs grow best in clear water, without much suspended sediment, particular areas of reefs may have lower water clarity.
Water turbidity adds an extra complication. The water absorbs light, so the brightness of the light reaching a coral depends on the depth at which it lives. Our visitor to the tropics is likely to be experiencing the light intensity at an airport, equivalent to that at the surface of the ocean, not beneath the sea.īeneath the surface, the light intensity drops, even in the clearest, most pristine sea.
Things are a little more complex than this, however. The sheer intensity of light in the tropics gives us one clue as to what our aquarium lighting needs to be: bright. Most aquarium corals and clams are found in shallow tropical and subtropical seas, and one of the things that strike visitors from temperate countries on visiting the tropics is the brightness of the sunlight. Many such fishes will adapt to brighter conditions, but this may take time, and providing shaded areas within the aquarium can help the process.įor corals (and clams), lighting is a more complex and critical topic, but the principle of looking to the wild environment still holds true.
Some deep-water fishes also prefer subdued light, although for different reasons, namely that light levels are always lower at depth. There are a few exceptions to this: Some nocturnal fishes are kept in the aquarium (some cardinalfishes for example), and for these species, dim lighting is in order. The take-home message from this is that for most fishes, bright lighting is best. Twilight, the transition between day and night, which is well-represented by a dimly lit aquarium, is a nervous time for diurnal fishes, as nocturnal predators begin to emerge, hence the jittery and sometimes aggressive behavior. Night-shift fishes, in contrast, are adapted to life in the dark and tend to hide during the day. There is a reason for this: In the wild, reef fishes tend to be active either during the day (when the light is usually bright) or at night.ĭiurnal fishes (those fishes that are active during the day) are adapted to avoid diurnal predators, but at night, they hide themselves away and tend to sleep deeply, even having evolved defenses to prevent nocturnal predators from detecting their scent, such as sleeping in mucus cocoons in the case of many parrotfishes and wrasses. Most marine-aquarium fishes prefer quite bright lighting and may behave nervously or more aggressively in dimly lit tanks. Aquarium hobbyists tend to think that only invertebrates (corals and tridacnid clams) have specific lighting needs, and that fish have no special requirements.
MARINE AQUARIUM LIGHTING HOW TO
In this article, we'll look at both the lighting needs of marine aquariums and how to meet them with currently available technology.Īs with other aspects of aquarium husbandry, the best place to start when trying to decide what lighting to use is to look at the needs of your aquarium inhabitants, which reflect their wild habitat. Developments in this area are very much ongoing, so while LEDs may represent the future of aquarium lighting, they are by no means the entire present. In the last couple of years, these lamps have had a huge impact on aquarium lighting, but this is not an article about LEDs. We have long known what we need from lighting, but only recently has technology really caught up-in the form of LEDs. One of the interesting features of that topic is the way in which our knowledge and awareness of its importance increased greatly in the last few years and technology followed rapidly to deliver what our aquariums need. In a previous part of this series, we talked about water movement.
MARINE AQUARIUM LIGHTING SERIES
Our reefkeeping expert continues his Marine Aquarium Basics series with tips and tricks on picking the right lighting for your tank. The lighting used over a reef aquarium is critical to the health of the inhabitants, but not all fish and corals need the same type or amount of light.
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