Burtie
New Member
I've a new planted tropical tank and wanted to ascertain the best strategy for lighting it. Obviously 9 to 12 hours is recommended - but how is it best to time it? All in one go? Break it into 2 lighting periods?
Lighting Strategy
- Thread starter Burtie
- Start date
K-Holed
Fishaholic
I'm no expert on planted tanks but you may get more responses over in the planted tank section of the forum.
Kind regards
Jimi
waterdrop
Enthusiastic "Re-Beginner"
Hi Burtie,
To my knowledge there is no strong evidence currently that helps us discern whether or to what extent we can possibly have slightly better control over algae by breaking our "photoperiods" (continuous stretches with the light turned on) into segments (sometimes called taking a "siesta" (lunch-time break)) as opposed to supplying light in one long continuous daytime stretch. Combating algae is the main serious planted-tank outcome that people seek when taking this action as far as I know. Despite there being no clear evidence, it is still a technique that some of the serious planted experts remain interested in. So the first answer is that no, you are not missing any big thing that everyone else with successful plants knows about, which is what we as beginners are usually worried about!
Secondly, I will say that from a practical standpoint, having photoperiods can be quite useful and in fact I do it myself for this reason. It allows you to limit the hours of light available to algae, while still giving the plants enough light and yet lighting up the tank at the hours when the family wants to enjoy the tank.
One limiting parameter to keep in mind (I've heard this and read is several times but don't know how true it really might be) is that supposedly 4 hours is a minimum in that plants somehow don't really derive the correct benefit from the light for a given photoperiod less than this. Why this would be I don't know as I believe the photosynthesis process starts more or less instantly within the leaf. But there could be broader within-plant systems that play a role. So one could picture, for example, two 4 hour photoperiods, morning and evening, giving the plants a total of 8 hours and allowing two typical viewing periods of the tank.
Its not obvious (to me) that "9 to 12 hours" is recommended. Total number of light hours is dependent on a lot of things. (Is the planted tank running well or poorly? How heavily is it planted and with what species of plants.. etc.) Once again the algae topic comes up. Total light hours is a tool in the trade-off between an over-lighted tank that will promote algae and a tank with just the right balance of light. I've read posts by some of our experienced planted tank hobbyists that they might start a new tank with only 4 hours of total light and perhaps take many weeks working up to more hours dependent on whether they are getting algae. This advice, however, is tricky and I'd not be the best one to help "get it right!"
So what about your tank in particular? I notice that its a 90L/24G tank with a single 18 watt "tropical" light (at least that's the total info I can find from you.) This leaves some questions open in my mind. What does "Tropical" mean? Is it a brand of fluorescent tube? Does it mean the "color" of the light is 10,000K or above? These things could make a bit of a difference because sometimes people accidently end up with lights on a freshwater planted tank that are more appropriate for growing algae in a marine tank! The bright bluish white light we see on marine tanks is used for that purpose and can promote too much algae in a freshwater tank. Our best lights are down in the 6700K range and an number of other "kelvin colors."
A major thing of more immediate importance to you is your total light energy at a given moment. OM47 has noted that with only 18 watts (tube diameter unknown but assumed to be one inch perhaps = T8) on a 24 US gallon tank your watts/gallon would be a bit low. In fact that works out to 0.75 watts/gallon and I believe the planted guys would rather see that up around 1.0 watt/gallon to get more properly into the "low-light" technique range. Low-light technique implies a subset of plant species that are more slow-growing and can handle less light. Often their greens are darker, implying more chloroplasts per square inch in the leaves. You appear to be using one of the DIY CO2 methods, which is great. That will help your low-light technique plants get more carbon nutrient. If you were to move to a pressurized CO2 system, that would move you out of low-light into "high-light" or "high-tech" technique, assuming you also changed your lighting system up even a bit more (at least in most cases that's what I read, although there are sliding scales there too, complicating matters a little.)
What to do with all this info? Well, as a beginner, the best thing to do is to try and absorb as much of it all as you can but just to keep running your tank and trying things even if you're not sure if they're right. Then you will be getting learning both by doing and by studying! The members over in planted know all this stuff a thousand times better than me, so they are the ones to keep trying to learn from. I'd review the the type of tube and wattage total again and keep trying to see if they recommend it! I'd try a couple of photoperiods and see if you start to get algae.
~~waterdrop~~
To my knowledge there is no strong evidence currently that helps us discern whether or to what extent we can possibly have slightly better control over algae by breaking our "photoperiods" (continuous stretches with the light turned on) into segments (sometimes called taking a "siesta" (lunch-time break)) as opposed to supplying light in one long continuous daytime stretch. Combating algae is the main serious planted-tank outcome that people seek when taking this action as far as I know. Despite there being no clear evidence, it is still a technique that some of the serious planted experts remain interested in. So the first answer is that no, you are not missing any big thing that everyone else with successful plants knows about, which is what we as beginners are usually worried about!
Secondly, I will say that from a practical standpoint, having photoperiods can be quite useful and in fact I do it myself for this reason. It allows you to limit the hours of light available to algae, while still giving the plants enough light and yet lighting up the tank at the hours when the family wants to enjoy the tank.
One limiting parameter to keep in mind (I've heard this and read is several times but don't know how true it really might be) is that supposedly 4 hours is a minimum in that plants somehow don't really derive the correct benefit from the light for a given photoperiod less than this. Why this would be I don't know as I believe the photosynthesis process starts more or less instantly within the leaf. But there could be broader within-plant systems that play a role. So one could picture, for example, two 4 hour photoperiods, morning and evening, giving the plants a total of 8 hours and allowing two typical viewing periods of the tank.
Its not obvious (to me) that "9 to 12 hours" is recommended. Total number of light hours is dependent on a lot of things. (Is the planted tank running well or poorly? How heavily is it planted and with what species of plants.. etc.) Once again the algae topic comes up. Total light hours is a tool in the trade-off between an over-lighted tank that will promote algae and a tank with just the right balance of light. I've read posts by some of our experienced planted tank hobbyists that they might start a new tank with only 4 hours of total light and perhaps take many weeks working up to more hours dependent on whether they are getting algae. This advice, however, is tricky and I'd not be the best one to help "get it right!"
So what about your tank in particular? I notice that its a 90L/24G tank with a single 18 watt "tropical" light (at least that's the total info I can find from you.) This leaves some questions open in my mind. What does "Tropical" mean? Is it a brand of fluorescent tube? Does it mean the "color" of the light is 10,000K or above? These things could make a bit of a difference because sometimes people accidently end up with lights on a freshwater planted tank that are more appropriate for growing algae in a marine tank! The bright bluish white light we see on marine tanks is used for that purpose and can promote too much algae in a freshwater tank. Our best lights are down in the 6700K range and an number of other "kelvin colors."
A major thing of more immediate importance to you is your total light energy at a given moment. OM47 has noted that with only 18 watts (tube diameter unknown but assumed to be one inch perhaps = T8) on a 24 US gallon tank your watts/gallon would be a bit low. In fact that works out to 0.75 watts/gallon and I believe the planted guys would rather see that up around 1.0 watt/gallon to get more properly into the "low-light" technique range. Low-light technique implies a subset of plant species that are more slow-growing and can handle less light. Often their greens are darker, implying more chloroplasts per square inch in the leaves. You appear to be using one of the DIY CO2 methods, which is great. That will help your low-light technique plants get more carbon nutrient. If you were to move to a pressurized CO2 system, that would move you out of low-light into "high-light" or "high-tech" technique, assuming you also changed your lighting system up even a bit more (at least in most cases that's what I read, although there are sliding scales there too, complicating matters a little.)
What to do with all this info? Well, as a beginner, the best thing to do is to try and absorb as much of it all as you can but just to keep running your tank and trying things even if you're not sure if they're right. Then you will be getting learning both by doing and by studying! The members over in planted know all this stuff a thousand times better than me, so they are the ones to keep trying to learn from. I'd review the the type of tube and wattage total again and keep trying to see if they recommend it! I'd try a couple of photoperiods and see if you start to get algae.
~~waterdrop~~
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