When to turn lights on/off

[purple_drazi]

Just to make things more complicated
I was reading a thread elsewhere here on the forum about algae and how to make it go away, and the suggestion there was that because the tropics have a 12 hour light/dark cycle to have a timer that gives the tank 12 hours of light, but to break it in the middle with 2 or 3 hours of darkness. This period of darkness doesn't harm the fishies or the larger plants but is enough to kill off any algae. I'm giving it a go. I like having the timer on though whether it does the algae in or not cause now I don't have to remember to turn the light off at night.

 

[Kahlan]

just my 5 cents ...

My tank is close to a window and I have a very sunny room, so I open my curtains at 6:00 and at about 18:00 I put on the tank light till 22:00. I don't have any stressed fish, very healthy plants and no algae. Although, I've never had any algae in my tanks over the many years I've had fish.

So either the plecos are doing a good job, or I'm algea immune. lol.

 

[ajhainey]

I have mine on from 7-10am then from 6pm-midnight...mainly so I get to see the fish when I'm in and awake!

I do still get algae despite the break btw - but not particularly badly (I have no algae eaters and clean the glass about once every 6-8 weeks to stop it looking too scabby)
aj xx

 

[parker313]

Mine come on at 2:00pm and go off at 8:00pm.

I get REALLY bad brown algae all over the place if I leave the lights on for longer than 6hrs a day