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Anyone have any thoughts on shutting of your lights for about an hour in the middle of the day to help curb algae growth.

My Scapes

Hi,
IMO, I would shorten the photo period (lights on) to 10
hours if, and only if, you hav plants in the tank. If yours
is a fish only tank, then you can turn them on in the
evening till you go to bed and then off.

If you have plants, when the lights come on, it takes them
a while to ramp up to speed and begin processing the
nutrients and producing O2. You don't want to shut the
lights off for an hour or two and then turn them back on.
Nature doesn't work that way.

You should work to resolve the issue of the algae through
regular water changes (it dilutes the "soup" that is
feeding the algae) and perhaps add more plants to compete
with the algae for the nutrients. Use stem plants or
floating plants. The floating plants pull their food
directly from the water, and the stem plants pull it from
both the water and the gravel.

Check out this site for algae control:
http://www.otocinclus.com/articles/algae.html

Frank


-->>> The Confidence of Amateurs, is the Envy of Professionals <<<--

Thanks Frank,

Right now I change 20% per week,religiously.
Do you thank I should be changing more.
If I change 20% semi-weekly is that too much.


My Scapes

Adding another 20% water change during the week will help your water quality. I always encourage people to do additional water changes...

__________
"To steal ideas from one person is plagiarism; to steal from many is research."
researched from Steven Wright

If yours is a fish only tank, then you can turn them on in the evening till you go to bed and then off.

I agree with Frank on this one. It is what I do. My lights are on from 6pm to 9.30 on the timer. If I am still in that room after then I sometimes use the override switch.

I am out during the day so not home to see them and there is sufficient ambient light for them.

Best of both worlds.

Plants though is another matter....



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~ My fish blow kisses at me all day long ~~~

Absulutely Frank, I couldn't agree more. When I had a fish only tank I would only have the lights on for about 5 hours a day (in a well lit room) when the daylight started dimming. It worked very well to control algae, etc. Now that I have a lot of plants in there I leave them on for about ten hours a day in the evening and do about 30% water change a week.

tetratech

As usual Frank has the correct answer with the reasons why.

My tank lights are on (by a timer) 11hrs a day. I reduced my algea problem by reducing the amount of plant fert I use from 2.5ml per day to 2.5ml per week. I also do a 15% water change weekly. As well as use the correct lighting and make sure they are new and not old. They should be replaced about every 12months depending on the quality of the tubes used.
In another thread it is explained why, it is basically the tubes loose all their goodies and start to not work as they should.

Keith

Last edited by keithgh at 20-Mar-2005 23:15

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