growing in the dark?

[brads]

My 2 plants (one in my mini-bow. An aponegeton. The other on my computer. A spider plant) have picked up a bad habbit. They do their best growing in total darkness. They sit on my desk at work and when I leave on friday it's lights out in a closed room. Complete darkness. (or is that just the absense of light?) Then when I show up monday, holy cow... They grew a lot!!! So what is this? Did they lie to us in school? I thought plants had to have light and lots of it to grow. You know, photosynthesis. (SP?) Ummm, not that I'm complaining and all but what's up with this??? :huh:

 

[J double R]

dark stimulates the plants to grow towards where they think may have light.. same reason you see plants sprout underneath logs and junk when you turn em over.

my java moss never grew well until i had to do a tank blackout, then it sprouted like MAD and has been good ever since.

 

[brads]

No kiddin'. Yeah, that makes sense. Thanks Ummm, does it work on money?

Oh, speaking of blackout. How long do you need to blackout a tank to kill off algae? I've got a pretty good bloom going on at home in my 45g. Love to get rid of it. Will it bother the fish?

 

[J double R]

no, it works the opposite of money.. i seal it up in my wallet in the dark place i call the back pocket of my jeans, and it manages to shrink to almost nothing. :

what kind of bloom? greenwater, or the kind that grows ON stuff?

 

[brads]

no, it works the opposite of money.. i seal it up in my wallet in the dark place i call the back pocket of my jeans, and it manages to shrink to almost nothing. :

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what kind of bloom? greenwater, or the kind that grows ON stuff?

Funny thing that money. Put it in your wallet and it shrinks to nothing. But put it in the light so it can grow big and strong and presto, changeo... it disappears!!! (I suspect the wife and kids. )

Unfortunately, both greenwater and on stuff. It all started when I was surprised with a pair of Tinfoils. My wife said the LFS said to feed them a lot. So... I was stupid. Why do I always believe those guys. :rant2: I cut back on the food but unfortunately, not before the algae got established.

 

[J double R]

well, cutting back on the food will help. do some MAJOR gravel vacs, ie.. vacuum the entire gravel twice a week with 50% water changes both times, for 2 weeks. after 4 good vacs and that much water change, you should have cut back on the waste that is present and feeding the algae. after that, change to 10% water changes daily.. just a little, else the algae will feed on the excessive dissolved nutrients. cut back a bit on lighting, and see what happens there.

 

[brads]

No blackout huh. Bummer, I was hoping for an easy solution but I'll give what you said a try. Thanks!