How Long to Leave Aquarium Lights On
Start at eight hours, hold it for a fortnight, then let the front glass tell you which direction to move.
Author
Vishal Rana
32 published guidesVishal Rana has spent the last decade tinkering with aquarium equipment on his own bench and in a friend's shop, mostly on canister pumps, heater controllers, and planted-tank lighting. He writes about the fixes that actually held up in the tank rather than the ones that only looked clean on paper, and he keeps three tanks running at home, including a 200 litre planted setup that has been the source of most of his opinions on CO2.
Published work
Everything by Vishal Rana
Preset vs Adjustable Aquarium Heaters
One of these can be corrected when it reads wrong and raised when a fish gets sick, and the other simply cannot.
Canister vs HOB Filter: Which Fits Your Tank
The price gap between these two buys media volume and control, not raw flow, and below 120 litres you will never use...
Aquarium Equipment Troubleshooting: Start Here
Five symptoms, one diagnostic order, and the cheap checks that solve most aquarium equipment faults before you spend anything on parts.
Water Movement: Sizing Pumps and Powerheads
Turnover figures alone will not tell you what pump a tank needs, because a cube and a long tank behave nothing alike.
CO2 Injection Setup From Cylinder to Tank
The eight components between pressurised gas and dissolved carbon, what each one does, and the order in which to commission them safely.
Aquarium Lighting: PAR, Kelvin, and Photoperiod
Three numbers decide whether a planted tank works, and only one of them is printed honestly on the side of the box.
Aquarium Heater Wattage: A Sizing Guide
Room temperature, not tank volume, decides how many watts you actually need, and the old per gallon rule gets it badly wrong.