How Many Hours A Day Of Lighting? ( Algae )

[thezodiac]

so i have a 10 gallon cycled tank that ive had for a few months, at some point i got a little lapse with water changes.


anyways i have green algae all over the gravel (cleaned it off the glass)

how many hours a day should i run my aquarium lighting ? (ive heard a lot of people say 8 or 12 hours)

also how can i reduce the algae? (other then adjusting lighting) frequent water changes?

 

[minnnt]

Try it at 7 hours a day.

 

[phishyphil]

I Usually aim for the 6-8 hour mark, Weekends I tend to give them 8 hours as Im there to watch them. but monday to friday there on a timer (which I suggest is a great purchase) for 6 hours per day

 

[thezodiac]

I Usually aim for the 6-8 hour mark, Weekends I tend to give them 8 hours as Im there to watch them. but monday to friday there on a timer (which I suggest is a great purchase) for 6 hours per day

yeah fortunately i do have timers (picked em up at next to nothing at ikea lol)

just wasnt sure how long to set them for really.

 

[phishyphil]

Excellent, Well now you do matey Good luck with the algae issue

 

[fishyfeet]

algae needs 12 hours of uninteruped lighting, obviously less and it thrive less well but not die if you do 10 for instance, some plants need 12 hours of light but not uninteruped so you can give them a break and fish like this too, in the middle of day of two or three hours, depends on what plants you have and what they will tollerate, i was also told that fast growing plants will use up excess nitrates and leave the algae nothing to live on. Also water changes reduces the nitrates algae needs to live on too.

 

[phishyphil]

+1 to the plants using up all the nutrients in the water for there own gain and leaving the algae with nothing. Mosses are also great for removing Nitrates from the water. I have Java moss and Moss balls in mine and nitrates are always really low, if there at all

 

[Phil Mccoy]

Could also be your light. I had a sun glo bulb that made my tank a terrible orange glow and I had to clean algae from the glass every 3 or 4 days. I changed to a power glow about a month ago and the glass stays clean and the light gives out a nice bright blue light which highlights the colours in the fish

 

[fishyfeet]

yes also i have duck weed which uses up masses of nutriments