James Croney Posted January 3, 2021 Share Posted January 3, 2021 I had a fun thought, and wanted to share it here. I feel like there could be negative sides to changing the environment so drastically. But I also wonder if anyone has tried. The general idea is to light a tank from the clear bottom, instead of the top. Light coming in from the bottom glass would be the brightest light. Duckweed or some other short rooted floating plant would work to give the illusion of a substrate, and I imagine would look complete with shrimp running across it upsidedown. Plants i think would naturally try to grow towards the light. There is a whole world of 'upside down gardening'. In my head, floated from a string attached to the real bottom. I have seen 'floating rock' setups like this, but these plants would grow on the real bottom of the floating rocks, where the light shines from underneath. For fish, not sure if this was about fish or not. LOL Upside down catfish and some kind of goofy loach maybe. What do we think? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JettsPapa Posted January 3, 2021 Share Posted January 3, 2021 Just intuitively I'd think fish might be stressed by it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Streetwise Posted January 3, 2021 Share Posted January 3, 2021 I read a recent article about spiders building webs in space. The Orb Weavers would normally build an asymmetrical web on Earth, but in microgravity, they built symmetrical webs. The introduction of a stable light source gave them an orientation, and they were able to make their asymmetrical webs again. I have no idea how this might relate to an aquarium. http://link.springer.com//oscar-static/images/favicons/springerlink/app-icon-iphone@3x-f259d46347.png Spiders in space—orb-web-related behaviour in zero gravity | SpringerLink LINK.SPRINGER.COM Gravity is very important for many organisms, including web-building spiders. Probably the best... 5 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hobbit Posted January 4, 2021 Share Posted January 4, 2021 I’m also guessing fish might be stressed. Though who knows? They may not care. But I bet shrimp would be totally fine! And I think it would look pretty cool. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
James Croney Posted January 28, 2022 Author Share Posted January 28, 2022 So it turns out months later that I have a fish tank placed next to my computer monitor. I often leave the monitor on overnight, as at the point I scrape myself away from the keyboard all I do is shuffle into bed. But, this brings me to this thread again... I have a Fluval Plant 3.0 LED Light on a daylight cycle for a 55 gallon with guppies. I began to notice one or two of the fish hover-swimming in the water vertically at night! It only happened when i left the computer monitor on at night, the Fluval light was off/low at night, and took many months before i noticed they were 'confused'. Being curious i messed with it a bit. When i turn off the computer monitor, they snap out of it and correct themselves to swim like normal fish. I didn't think much of it, but then one of the two that was doing it died. ... So i put on a dark screen saver. A few weeks later the other one died. No other guppies of the 20 others in the tank seemed to have felt this way about the weird lighting, just those two. They were part of a trio I got online, but the male never showed this. All the others are younger, born in the tank if that would make a difference. Ive been calling it 'moon confusion' in my head, but there is probably a real name out there somewhere. So it turns out that you can re-orient a fish's 'balance' by messing with the light sources. Seems like a learned behavior of fish who have never seen a light source be anything but "up". So... maybe don't do that to your fish. 1 3 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dancing Matt Posted January 28, 2022 Share Posted January 28, 2022 I have noticed some my white clouds swim a little tilted (with their tops toward the room light) when my tank light goes off at night and the near room light is on. They don't seem that affected when the light is off during the day and other light sources are on (including the nearest room light). I also have a tank without substrate and the light from the top reflects from the bottom (making two light sources, sorta) but that doesn't confuse the fish. It does confuse the brine shrimp who swim to and congregate at the bottom where the cories get them. Things to think about... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guppysnail Posted January 28, 2022 Share Posted January 28, 2022 (edited) All my tanks get natural light. Over the summer when sunset is their last light all my guppies do the weird tilt angled swim towards it. My plecos all hit the front glass as well. Edited January 28, 2022 by Guppysnail 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Streetwise Posted January 28, 2022 Share Posted January 28, 2022 I tried to buy a used 12 gallon long tank a couple of years ago. Surprise! It broke in shipment. Instead of a refund, I took an Apex leak detection kit, and a lunar simulator module. It tracks the moon cycle for your location and has white LEDs on a string. It is designed for reef tanks, but I don’t know the details. I couldn’t deal with it in my bedroom, but I moved my Apex downstairs, so I might try it again for fun. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hobbit Posted January 30, 2022 Share Posted January 30, 2022 I have a blue LED light next to my platy juvenile tank. It’s the charging light of a lamp I use for brine shrimp, so it’s on all night. I haven’t noticed the platys acting strangely and I haven’t had any losses, so maybe platys aren’t as affected by this sort of thing as guppies are. Still, I wonder if I should cover the light just in case! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Levi_Aquatics Posted January 30, 2022 Share Posted January 30, 2022 Now that upside down aquarium would be super cool if you added upside down catfish! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brandon p Posted January 31, 2022 Share Posted January 31, 2022 On 1/3/2021 at 2:36 PM, James Croney said: I had a fun thought, and wanted to share it here. I feel like there could be negative sides to changing the environment so drastically. But I also wonder if anyone has tried. The general idea is to light a tank from the clear bottom, instead of the top. Light coming in from the bottom glass would be the brightest light. Duckweed or some other short rooted floating plant would work to give the illusion of a substrate, and I imagine would look complete with shrimp running across it upsidedown. Plants i think would naturally try to grow towards the light. There is a whole world of 'upside down gardening'. In my head, floated from a string attached to the real bottom. I have seen 'floating rock' setups like this, but these plants would grow on the real bottom of the floating rocks, where the light shines from underneath. For fish, not sure if this was about fish or not. LOL Upside down catfish and some kind of goofy loach maybe. What do we think? That’s how a little of the coffee table tanks are made lit from the bottom. If you only have glass above the bottom 4-6” and glass sides and top it has to be done that way. That’s why in pictures you never see one from the top down. Only the sides. There are several plans for them lit from the bottom or the the sides of the bottom 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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