Duration of lighting in regards to the fish!

I spend way way too much time in my "man-cave" and am at the stage where I only have one tank up and running. I've had my tank lighted for up to 20 hours straight. Not good me thinks.. So the tank contains, 2 angels, 10 tets, 2 cory's, 1 placos. How many hours a day can I enjoy my tank lighted? Was thinking I should cover the tank during the daylight hours so that I can enjoy it during the evening! Thoughts? Bill in Va.

10 hours is about right . Although if you have no algae problems , longer is ok . That being said , 20 hours is WAY too much ! Fish need down time also.
Ray

I have a timer set to turn ion at 8 am and turn off at 8 pm, 12 on 12 off, it seems to work for all of my tanks.

Fish are not the problem it's plants and algae. I keep mine on for 10 and sometimes 14 hours with out algae growth but as you've seen I have tons of plants.

Most of my tanks are on timers also . On at 10am and off at 8pm . Except my Pleco breeding tanks . They come on at 8am and go off at 10pm . Plecos eat any algae produced by the long hours of light .
Ray

Yeah if you don't get algae blooms then it is really not that bad to do but as other suggested use a timer. It is just set for the times when I will be at home the most. With just fish you can always set the light on and off as you choose. They really don't care all that much now if they are like mine they eat when the lights first come on so I guess in that way they grow to expect food at least me some of my fish are waiting for me when the lights come on haha.

Mine get turned on when I get up and turned off before I go to bed. If I am in a massive rush in the morning they don't get turned off. Some nights I fall asleep and my BF turns them off for me, he always forgets a few....

15 hours would be the max on a daily basis though.

Well.. I should give a bit more background... When I bought the 35, I drained about 25 gallons.. stirred up as much of the bottom as I could except where the ONE live plant was. Pretty dirty mind ya... Transported it with the 60 or so guppies still in the tank along with the extracted water. Set it up and siphoned about 18 gallons from the extracted water without the waste product..... 3 days later got rid of the guppies and installed 6 black tets, 2 cory's and 1 placos... then swapped with FV for two 2.3-3" angels and 4 cardinals and a gob of plants. Been running it with about 18 hrs of light a day and not one bit of algae has appeared. I was just concerned about trauma to the fishes!

If they seem fine they probably are

My home tanks get turned on at around 5am - off at around 9pm. No problems except for a LOT of moss growth (good thing)

I've just dropped my classroom tanks from 12 on - 12 off, to 8 on - 16 off. They are on timers. Did this because I'm starting to see more algae growth than I like. Think I'm going to buy some bristlenoses this weekend - so I can get them through quaranteen and into the classroom tanks.

Either way, it doesn't seem to bother the fish much. The home fish know that after the lights have been on for a few minutes - food is soon to come. (After I start the coffee maker). The classroom fish are on automatic timers, and the catfish are nocternal - so they like it when the food dumps in in the dark once a day and in the light the other time.

Don't worry about the fish that I gave you they are used to longer light periods. I forgot them once and left it on for a weekend without any problems.