Tank "Siesta"

[Dave_31]

Has anyone heard of this idea before?

The action plan is to have a period within the day where your tank lights go off for a few hours (2 - 4)... so for eg:

My lights where on 9am till 9pm ... they are now on 8am till 1pm then a "siesta" from 1pm till 3pm then lights on again from 3pm till 10pm

Keeping the same amount of light that was in the tank before but with a gap.

The theroy behind it is that the algae cant adapt like the plants do, therefore the algae stops growing

Ill keeps you guys updated on how it pans out

Dave

 

[jflowers]

That idea is on an algae fact sheet at one of my lfs, apparently the guy that writes thier fact sheets writes for practical fishkeeping too. Not tried that idea though.

Jon

 

[Dave_31]

My dad saw the idea in the a dennerel book he got with his new Co2 system

 

[konrad05]

LOL, what if some of the algae is mutated and it has evolved the ability to adapt like plants?

 

[Dave_31]

lol, back to the drawing board i guess

 

[Bangin]

I've never tried that method before, but people have had success with it.

Algae isn't an issue in the last tank that I set up. I started off cycling with plants, and then I added the fish later. It's been running for over 6 months without an algae introduction. ::does a little dance::

 

[Dave_31]

-Update-

3 days after starting the siesta treatment and no visible signs of improvment,
algae is still present (What the otto's arnt eatting)
and some new algae has grown

Does anyone know how long it takes before the effects are present? it didnt say in the dennerel book where i got the idea from...

 

[Lateral Line]

I too, have heard of people having success with this approach. There have been numerous threads about it in the past. If it will work and how long it will take if it does depends on how far out of balance your system is. I certainly wouldn't have expected to see anything after such a short time.

The theory is that it tips the balance of biological advantage away from the algae, so it will loose out to the regular plants. If the algae has borderline advatage, it should die down quickly, but still weeks I would think. If it has a good upper hand, the technique might never work.

Excessive algal growth means that there is excessive nutrient in the water. You would be well advised to track the source of that down and correct it.

I don't have algae problems in my tanks.

 

[Dave_31]

Thanks Lateral Line

I do use a plant food that i add to the water but i only use a half dose, I also have Co2 coming into the tank

Would your recommend that i stoped using this untill the algae is gone?

 

[smithrc]

It works for me.

We have the lights on from 9:00 till 12:00 and back on from 14:00 to 22:00

recently changed to give the plants more light and have now changed back as algae increased.

 

[Dave_31]

How long did it take before the algae was "under control" smithrc???

 

[smithrc]

hmmm... under control... not really the term i'd use

we have to scrape the glass once a week (to keep it clear)

the plants do still have algea growth on them but its not as bad any more.

our planted tank has been a rollercoaster ride, with us only just getting on the right track.

I'm still not happy with our algea levels

but the algae gap has helped.

 

[George Farmer]

I have excellent results using a siesta; 4 hours on, 3 off, 5 on (9 hours total) working back from when I go to bed using a timer. It's important to have some light in the tank during the siesta period i.e. diffused daylight through a window. The plants 'think' this cloud cover but the algae is less responsive.

 

[Dave_31]

-Update- 10 days passed

Algae Growth seems to be slowing

Cabomba caroliniana and Blyxa japonica added several days ago which is also helping

Increase rate of Co2 added aswell, only due to the fact that i over did the mixture slightly )

Algae is still present (hair, abit of brown but only on the Amazon sword leaves) but very little new growth noticed

 

[Ste_J]

I think i'll give this a try as my Algae has just started to annoy me somewhat, i wouldn't say that it was taking over but my plants have visible hair growth on them.
I have found that my Algae started just after i introduced a 20w lifeglo tube to aid my 2 18w arcadia's although i have now started to run my lifeglo for 6hrs a day with the arcadia's getting 12hrs