How long of a pause in lighting during the day is needed to keep alae away. I need to have the lights on at 6:30 a.m. to morning feed and because of the second job they need to be on til 11:00 p.m. for night feeding/maintenance. I have heard that turning the lighs out during the day will kill off algae but the plants can recover, but how much pause is needed? If I have them go out for 2 hrs and come back on is that enough?
algae: How long to pause lighting
- Thread starter rjrevers
- Start date
i see people have a hour break during the day. if your tank is balanced there shouldnt be any algae. tell us more about your tank. water test how much light how long what type of light do you add co2 or ferts and how much plants do you have?
it is lightly planted w/low light a little over .5 watts pr gal. i'm really just maintaining plants not growing. water changes are often. water quality is good. always 0 amm 0 nit water changes soon as ntrates hit .10. the problem is w/ the long duration of lights. i need to keep enough light for the plants but not 14 hrs or so continuous cause i get algae. not too bad but enough to annoy me. I occasionally add ferts but not very often. maybe once or twice a month and not that much.
Send in an army of otocinclus!!!
Excel will help but it will get expensive. You need the carbon to come from someplace. If you do that try adding some Ceratopteris.
I like your idea about turning the lights out. In the morning you just need them on for your own viewing pleasure so turn them on and off when you are done. Then turn them on for 9 hours. You could do some kind of moonlighting if you want to spend the money. Then you could use the moonlights in the morning and at night and just have the main lights on for 10 hours.
If you want to win this battle you need the plants to grow. They have to out compete the algae for nutrients, and conversely they need the nutrients to grow. So you need to find that equilibrium.
Excel will help but it will get expensive. You need the carbon to come from someplace. If you do that try adding some Ceratopteris.
I like your idea about turning the lights out. In the morning you just need them on for your own viewing pleasure so turn them on and off when you are done. Then turn them on for 9 hours. You could do some kind of moonlighting if you want to spend the money. Then you could use the moonlights in the morning and at night and just have the main lights on for 10 hours.
If you want to win this battle you need the plants to grow. They have to out compete the algae for nutrients, and conversely they need the nutrients to grow. So you need to find that equilibrium.
I do have moonlights/cold cathode but when i feed w/ just the moonlights they dont seem to eat as well, alot of sinking pellets just fall and sit on the bottom, when lights are on they get everything. I was thinking maybe the moonlights arent enough for them to see the food as well?
I did throw in 2 ottos last week but i have to wait for more to come in at lfs they were there last 2. I plan on picking up 2 or 3 more. A 55 gal is alot for 2 little ottos to cover
Put it on a timer and shoot for 8 hrs on. I have mine turn off for a couple of hours around 5pm, so the lights can go a little longer at night so I can enjoy my tank when I'm actually home.
The so called siesta light idea does not work.
Algae have the same light detection pathways as plants, they actually respond better than plants.
Most enever see differences, if they do, it's generally related to the inadequate CO2 sustem and the lull in the middle helops the CO2 system play catch up so the plants have good CO2 when the lights are on, the tempiorary lights off period allows the plants to remove the CO2, then once the CO2 is all gone, the lightrs go off.
It's much smarter to add the right amount of CO2 to start with :idea:
Regards,
Tom Barr
Algae have the same light detection pathways as plants, they actually respond better than plants.
Most enever see differences, if they do, it's generally related to the inadequate CO2 sustem and the lull in the middle helops the CO2 system play catch up so the plants have good CO2 when the lights are on, the tempiorary lights off period allows the plants to remove the CO2, then once the CO2 is all gone, the lightrs go off.
It's much smarter to add the right amount of CO2 to start with :idea:
Regards,
Tom Barr