General Care Discussion :: Night Time?

[starscollided]

So Squirts tank is in my bed room I have his tank lights on from 8:30am to 8:30pm and then the lights are on in my room until about 10:30 / 11 at night - - Theres nowhere else to put his tank until i move out of my house this summer so i am wondering if i need to put a blanket over his tank at night to give him more "dark time" (we used to do this with my birds hehe - but i didn't know if its necessary for the turtle.


thanks!

[Nettle]

I have the same situation. I went to the store and got a couple of those science project boards to cover their tank for sleepy time.

[Bumby's Mom]

I put a sheet over my tanks if they won't go to sleep.

[TheComputerGremlin]

You can get a timer and change his schedule to fit yours, i.e. 11 am - 11 pm. Otherwise, try to keep the lights off and activity calm after dark, by using a small desk lamp far away from his tank and carefully stepping around the room.

[BullDog]

That's similar to my situation. My guys lights are on about 10:30-10:30. In the morning and the night, they get "twilight time". The blind is open, so they get a bit of ambient light. The lights/tv is on after 10:30 too. Frankie doesn't seem to be bothered. And Ralph, he's been on that schedule for so long, that he seems to be up at all hours

[1981camaroz28]

You guys keep the tank light on for 12 hours everyday? Do you have issues with Algae? My 120 Gallon is in my living room so I run the light maybe 2-3 hours daily. During the day they get enough light from the house. I have a 320 gallon tank with a great lighting system but they are costly at night LED lights come on also call Moon lights. I guess I should include my turtles run around the house during the day for about 5 hours and at night they are out for about 2 hours.

[Nettle]

They should have access to the lights (heat bulb and UVB bulb) 12 hours a day to imitate real sun. Having a night light is unnecessary.

Do you really let your turts run around the house for 7 hours a day?!? That's kind of much I would guess; they like being in their tank so they can swim and drink.

[TheComputerGremlin]

Yes, they should have light for 12 hours. I have never had algae problems. Most algae problems occur from the natural sunlight that the tanks get rather than their own lighting.

[marisa]

I have the lights on for an average of 12 hours a day---less in the winter when the days are shorter, longer toward the summer as the days grow longer. When they're out for the summer, they have light from the sun, however long that is.

Starscollided, having lighting on longer once in a while won't hurt your turtle. If you want to make sure he'll sleep, however, you could cover the tank. I do this with my RES, who's in the living room and who would be subject to lights well beyond his bedtime, if I didn't cover most of the tank at night.

[starscollided]

As for the algae i almost never get algae in my tank s'long as i have my filter running - i also have a pleco which may be one of the reasons too - - also my tank gets a decent amount of sunlight from 6am to about Noon. the tank is diag. on the adjacent wall from the window

thanks!
I have been covering his tank with a blanket lately around 9:30ish after he gets about an hour of light from just my room and the TV or computer i noticed that he kinda starts to chill a bit more around then. I take the cover off at around 6:45am and he gets a while of morning light until his lights come on at 8am.

He seems much happier now that im not keeping him up at all hours - -
his only quirky thing is at about 1am every morning (pretty much exactly) is when he decides to rearrange his tank -
Every day when i wake up the big river rocks switch sides of the tank.
He takes the big ones (some bigger then him) and moves them to the other side of the tank and tries to stack them. so the rocks move back and forth every day.

[BullDog]

Lol! Stars, I had the same problem with Ralph for the first month or so when I first put river rocks in his tank. At about 2-4am, he would decide to rearrange them. Not every night, but several times a week. Thankfully, he's stopped now

[amsude]

Well we are probably bad but I have the lights on during weekends from 6 am - 10 pm then on the weekdays 6 am - 7 am then 5 - 10. That is both lights.

I am wondering if a 25 watt UVB bulb is too much. Our bulb burnt out recently and i had to by another one UVB and all they had was 25 watt so i bought it.

[Nettle]

What brand? For the repti-glo ones, the smaller watt isn't strong enough, so the 26 watt is what should be used.

[amsude]

It is a Repto-Glo 5.0. We also have small screen ontop of the tank

[Nettle]

Having a screen with the mesh width of 1/4 inch can interfere with the UVB rays. Do you know how far apart yours are?