Lighting times and algae on water surface

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kieranmhewitt

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Apr 19, 2003
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I currently have a planted tank and I want to change the lighting so that it comes on in the morning for about 3.5 hours, then goes off during the day when I am not there and the comes back on for about 6 hours at night. Will this be OK. Also I currently leave it on from midday to midnight and the surface of the water is covered in algae though the water looking through the tank is clear. Just when you put your hand in it comes out green. I use both Sera Florena and Flourish Excel instead of CO2. Could one of these be the cause and if anyone has experience of Florena, how often do you use it.

Thanks
Kieran
 
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I have had a slight algae outbreak and have changed form 12 straight hours to a total of 13 hrs with 1hr gap in the middle of the day.
The reason for this (according to Peter Hiscox!) is that Algae is a lot less developed genetically than plants. For this reason it takes some time to "get going" with it's Photsynthesis. As your plants are more genetically complex they can start and stop photosynthesising relativley quickly and wil be unaffected by an hour siesta.

It's working for me and I have reduced by half the ammount of visable algae in just over a week.

Cheers
Chaz
 
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