How Long Should Mt Lighting Be On

[brads]

Hi guys. I am the owner of a rena 42g tank.
I am getting a bit of algae on my plants. it looks black?? my plants are still growing ok though. I am wondering how long should my lighting be on for. At the moment they go on 8am untill 10am then 4pm until 11pm, so nine hours a day. should it be longer or a shorter lenght of time? I have aqua glow and power glow lighting!

Cheers brads

 

[bennett418]

Hi guys. I am the owner of a rena 42g tank.
I am getting a bit of algae on my plants. it looks black?? my plants are still growing ok though. I am wondering how long should my lighting be on for. At the moment they go on 8am untill 10am then 4pm until 11pm, so nine hours a day. should it be longer or a shorter lenght of time? I have aqua glow and power glow lighting!

Cheers brads

Mine is on a timer to come on at 6pm and off a 2am.

Plants are all growing rapid and all fish healthy and sleeping fine etc

so same amount of time...

 

[Rhiannon]

That sounds alright Brads.

Mine comes on about 7 30am when we get up, put my daughter to bed at about 9 30am, they go off for 2 - 3hrs, come back on, go off late arvo, then back on for the evening, then off for bed.

But if I am out all day, they are off, or if I go out for a couple of hours they go off.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

should be between 8-10 hrs, you'll need to experiment what's best for you, doing something like 4 hrs on 2 hrs off 4 hrs on is supposed to be better for reducing algae growth

 

[brads]

Ok, so if the amount of time the lights are is ok why am I getting algae on the leaves of my plants?
I have spoken to the people at maiden aquatics and they seem to think the lights should be on for a minnimum of 12 hours a day!! this can't be right surely?
I think I will take one of the leaves to another well respected LFS near where I live and see what they say. I have done a 20% water changetoday I wil take a water sample as well and get them to test it. I have only got tetra test strips, which i don't think are that good!
Any more advice would be good.

Cheers Brads

oh as I have just done a water change how long should I live it before I take a sample? Cheers

 

[Miss Wiggle]

Ok, so if the amount of time the lights are is ok why am I getting algae on the leaves of my plants?
I have spoken to the people at maiden aquatics and they seem to think the lights should be on for a minnimum of 12 hours a day!! this can't be right surely?
I think I will take one of the leaves to another well respected LFS near where I live and see what they say. I have done a 20% water changetoday I wil take a water sample as well and get them to test it. I have only got tetra test strips, which i don't think are that good!
Any more advice would be good.

Cheers Brads

oh as I have just done a water change how long should I live it before I take a sample? Cheers

are you adding any fertilisation?

whats most likely is there is enough light for the plants to grow well, but because they are lacking certain other nutrients (i.e. Co2, fertilisation) they can't make use of the light fully so the algae uses it and takes hold. this is the principal of EI (read the pinned topic in the planted forum) you give the plants more light, Co2 and fertiliser than they could ever need and they grow so fast and so well that the algae doesn't stand a chance.

 

[brads]

Cheers miss wiggle looks like i'm goig to have a bit of research to do

Cheers

 

[Miss Wiggle]

no probs

 

[beany_bot]

should be between 8-10 hrs, you'll need to experiment what's best for you, doing something like 4 hrs on 2 hrs off 4 hrs on is supposed to be better for reducing algae growth

sorry if this is ignorant but wouldnt that confuse the fish? as it is not natural daylight cycles?

 

[waterdrop]

should be between 8-10 hrs, you'll need to experiment what's best for you, doing something like 4 hrs on 2 hrs off 4 hrs on is supposed to be better for reducing algae growth

sorry if this is ignorant but wouldnt that confuse the fish? as it is not natural daylight cycles?

fish don't mind it at all, remember, everything we are doing to them is pretty artificial and very far from what they experience in their (often very unusual) natural environments (think, for example, amazon rain forests with huge dark clouds and rain storms in the middle of the day...)

 

[waterdrop]

Cheers miss wiggle looks like i'm goig to have a bit of research to do

Cheers

Brads, Miss Wiggle is extremely good at packing a lot of experience into a couple of good sentences like that. I am a beginner, a starting-over-again-hobbiest, and as such have been reading over in the planted tank forum and various other places about plants. I've come to feel that algae is one of about four skill areas that can be learned about with respect to plants. Algae as a topic is more tricky to understand than one would first think (at least to my mind.) MW has cut straight to some very good advice for you amidst all the other stuff.

For example, I was surprised to read at one point that one planted tank member advised 70% plant coverage of the substrate as about the starting point at which plants will be able to out-compete algae easily. Algae are the "opportunists" of the plant world. Whenever something goes a little wrong with various balances in the environment, algae steps in to take advantage. A large population of healthy multi-cell plants will use up some of the essentials the algae need, cutting out their chance to get a foothold.

Thats just one tiny little example, there are a host of other infobits and tricks. Its really quite interesting and one can see the fun that the planted tank enthusiasts get caught up in! Anyway, good luck with yours!

~~waterdrop~~