How many hours should you run your lights?

[cichlidcichlid]

I have a 29gallon planted tank with a 55watt compact florecent. I am currently running at 12 and a half hours.

The fish store told me to change it to 8 hours is this right or should it be less?

I am wondering if this is contributing to my algae problem.

[tanker]

Are you adding CO2?? Ferts??

My lights are on only 9 hours.

[petluvr]

My lights are on 8 hour timers.

[Chrisinator]

Mine are on from 3-10. So that's about 7 hours. They are on a timer also.

[coach_z]

8-10 hours is normally recommended....but that also depends on several factors whcih are mainly personal preference.

is your long photoperiod contributing to your algae? probably but it depends. please tell us the following:
fert. dosing schedule
co2 injected? DIY or Pressurized?
what type of algae you have

[cichlidcichlid]

It is 12 hours on a timer from 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m.
I was dosing Gregswatsons ferts potassium nitrate, mono potassium phosphate, and potassium sulfate.

I used DIY Co2 injecting it through a powerhead.

I have stopped everything because my tank gets really bad if I continue with either of those.

The plants are sending up bubbles occassionally but I have blue green algae all over the place and just keeps coming back. The plants are suffering because of it.

[cichlidcichlid]

So what should I be reducing the time period to?

[Dr. Awkward]

I'd knock it down to 8 hours and see if that helps. I do a 14-hour schedule with a 4-hour siesta in the middle of the day and my algae problems have stopped. Also, try cutting your ferts in half. I find half doses work better for me. I get blue green algae if I do full dosing.

[FISHSHROD]

I run 6 hrs during the week, 9 and a half on Saturday and 15 on Sunday on my high tech planted tanks. On my low light / low tech tanks I run 5 hrs 24/7.

[DoctaQ]

or ditch the phosphate since cyano tends to feed off of high phosphates, or cut your dose in half, i cant imagine co2 contributing to cyano

[dundadundun]

my phosphates stay high and my lights run up to 15 hours on my smaller tank. i keep my cyano gone by keeping my nitrates above 5 or 10 ppm. cyanobacteria is just that though, a bacteria, not an algae. not all forms fix nitrates i don't think and there's different ways to treat it. i'm short on links and too tired to search right now but a search here, other forums and google on cyanobacteria should give you some idea. if i remember correctly the biggest factors are usually lack of circulation, low nitrates and/or needs a better cleaning regimen. i noticed raising my lights up higher helped a little and i'm pretty sure cyano can be photosynthetic.

[Arturo]

My lights are on eight hours a day. I think that's the norm.

[Mgamer20o0]

there is no norm in tanks. many ways to do things. 8-12 is common. cutting back on ferts and light prob a good idea.

[coach_z]

Cutting back on ferts can only help if there is an insanely large amount of excess ferts in a tank to begin with.

Are you doing large weekly water changes? Most, if not all, dosing regimens require a 50%+/week water change.
How much are you dosing/day?
what are your readings for: Nitrate and Phosphate?? after a water change what are your readings for nitrate and phosphate?

[cichlidcichlid]

I am doing at least 50% or more on the tank weekly.

I will have to get back to you on the water measurements because I am going to get another test kit. Also I just did a water change recently so I want to give you an accurate reading at the end of the week. The readings right now would be off because it has fresh water in there.

I am currently not dosing anything, or co2.

I can start the ferts again if you think it will help but I am thinking you want the water result before you would recommend something so I will wait until I test it first.

Should I also be putting root tabs in for the amozon swords and the other root feeders I have?

[cichlidcichlid]

My tank readings are 0 nitrate, nitrite, and amonnia. So I am guessing that the cynobacteria will disappear if I start to dose ferts again?

[peanutbowl]

you may not want your nitrates to bottom out like that. or your test is just flat out wrong. one of the key principles of EI dosing is to dose enough of each nutrient to achieve no limiting factors. this is 101 stuff. also, consistency with dosing and co2 are key in the battle of plant health/algae control. stopping your dosing and co2 cold turkey will cause problems of it's own. and for the record, phosphate by itself will not cause algae. :nono: i would expect plantbrain to be along shortly to drop science on this situation.

[cichlidcichlid]

I hope that he does I really want to fix the tank.

Also I actually did stop everything but water changes for 3 months. The plants are still alive but not growing that well.

How should i start up the tank again? Should I start dosing ferts again slowly and get the co2 running?

[cichlidcichlid]

bump

[peanutbowl]

oh yeah, as to the topic. I run my lights for eight hours a day. it's simple and seems to provide well for my plants. The idea is to provide good stuff to your plants so that they grow. bottom line. Yes. start dosing the ferts and adding co2. you have the choice between a tank with dead/dying plants and cyano or a tank with healthy plants and cyano. me, i choose the healthy plants with maybe a little algae or cyanobacteria. there are ways to deal with little setbacks like that. but beating up the plants isn't really going to help the situation. as for the cyanobacteria, a couple of snails will make short work of it. some pond snails and ramshorns came into my tank on some plants. at first i was a little p/o. but i haven't seen very much algae in my tank since. i sort of love to hate em.:cool:

[cichlidcichlid]

ok

[cichlidcichlid]

I dose for potassium, plantex, and nitrate in the morning before the lights came on and one of the plants looks like it grew today. So did the cynobacteria. Did the nutrients bottom out again should I try uping my dose?

[peanutbowl]

if you were getting good results with your plants with what you were dosing before, then dose the same way. i really don't think the nutrients are the cause of the bacteria. set your lights to run for 8 to 10 hours. and try starting a new thread on cyanobacteria and see what others think. you may not get much feedback since we have gotten a little.........:topic: