How Many Hours Of Light?

[Tigermoth]

Was just wondering how many hours of light per day everyone gives their planted tanks. I was told to keep it below nine hours by someone at my LFS.

 

[frozenbarb]

I put mines at like 8Hours,

Common time is 7-8-9-10 11 hours

 

[Tigermoth]

I put mines at like 8Hours,

Common time is 7-8-9-10 11 hours

frozenbarb, do you keep it at 8 hours to prevent algae build up?

Does anyone think reducing light hours is a sensible approach to keeping algae down? Apart from preventing an excess of macro nutrients, I'm struggling to understand the parameters that make a tank good for plants, but not good for algae.

 

[aaronnorth]

if you have artificial plants then around 8- 10hours but if you have live (a reasonable amount) then 10 - 12hours, tanks vary to what plants they have as some use more nutrients than others.

i have 3 spotlights come on in a morning from 7- 9 to make sure it doesn't 'blind' the fish, by this time it is usually daylight then the main light comes on for 10 hours, 9 - 7 then the spots come back on till 9.30 to get the fish ready for darkness. in total the spots are on for 5.5h but these aren't very bright and plants nor algae could grow from them, then the main light is on for 10hours straight, this is sufficient for the type and quantity of my plants.

 

[Tigermoth]

Just had a read of the excellent pinned topics by George Farmer and decided to go for 5 on / 2 off / 5 on.

 

[TribeOfShroom]

12hours for me.. although this could be why I have to trim my hornwort everyweek.

 

[Themuleous]

It really depends on the tank, and over time you should adjust it to suit your tank. As a guide high light tanks require a shorted photoperiod, typically between 6 to 8 hrs, mid and low light tanks around 8 to 10, absolute max is 12hrs.

Tigermoth - I wouldn't bother with the 2hr break in the middle, it actually does little to prevent algae, if anything it'll do more harm to your plants. That article is getting quite old now.

Sam

 

[Tigermoth]

Themuleous, to be honest, one of the reasons I have a break during the afternoon is so I can watch the fish both when I get up in a morning and also late at night.

The tank in question is 4' x 18" x 18", with 3 x 40w T8 tubes & DIY CO2. Do you think 10 hours light is ok, or should I go for less?

 

[Themuleous]

Fair enough it prob wont hurt and I know what you mean about enjoying the fish, no point having them if you cant see them.

I make it that you have around a 60gUS tank and 120w of light, which I reckon is quite high, do you get much algae? If yes then I would be tempted to reduce the lighting to 8hrs. If not then leave it at 10hrs.

BTW do you find you get enough CO2 with DIY on such a large tank?

What fert method you using?

Sam

 

[Tigermoth]

I'm not sure if I get enough CO2 as I don't have a way to monitor the levels apart from watching the fishes behaviour. I used to have 3 x 2L bottles all with a good heaped teaspoon of yeast, refreshing one bottle every 4 days, all going through a ceramic diffuser. Although some folk say it's hard to overdose with DIY, I just don't believe that at all. I had major trouble with overdosing and losing fish with 3 bottles. Now I'm using just one bottle.

Think I got a bit slack with water changes a while back and as a consequence I've got a little green hair algae.

Fert I'm using is Nutrafin Plant Gro liquid. Don't have the time, patience or know-how to go EI.

 

[Themuleous]

Well if you're not really getting algae keep things as there are, algae hates stability

Sam

 

[frozenbarb]

I put mines at like 8Hours,

Common time is 7-8-9-10 11 hours

frozenbarb, do you keep it at 8 hours to prevent algae build up?

Does anyone think reducing light hours is a sensible approach to keeping algae down? Apart from preventing an excess of macro nutrients, I'm struggling to understand the parameters that make a tank good for plants, but not good for algae.

Because it saves energy. if goes off when i sleep and turns on when i come home from school, like

 

[benniebru]

mines on a timer comes on at 2pm and goes off at midnight i set it up a little later since i work evenings and would like to be home for an hr or 2 to see my fish

 

[Dave Spencer]

Apart from preventing an excess of macro nutrients, I'm struggling to understand the parameters that make a tank good for plants, but not good for algae.

In a planted tank, you will need the macros to be non limiting. This means that they will need to be in excess. Good parameters for plants are stable, non growth limiting nutrients. A thriving and healthy mass of plants in an environment of excess nutrients will keep the algae at bay. Trying to deprive algae by limiting nutrients will adversely affect your plants and make the algae situation worse, because algae can live in a far more limiting environment than your plants.

Everything you do should be to the benefit of your plants, not to the detriment of algae.

Dave.

 

[ShoC]

thats such a useful piece of information Dave,
Myself and maybe many others would think deprive the algae to kill it off.
But your really depriving the plants causing algae to grow faster due to lack of plant growth.