Quote:
Originally Posted by valen  I was wondering if it would be aggravating to the fish if I turned the light on for few hours in the morning , turn it off when I go to work and then turn it on again when I come back ?
Right now its on all day from 7 AM to 7 PM. Its a 10 gallon with a couple of live plants. I have 2 CFL bulbs (screw in). I think one is 10 Watt the other 15 Watt (actual not "equivalent to")
Right now I am getting some long thin hair algae starting up mildly on the substrate, glass , and it makes a webbing on the some plant leaves.
I am feeding very carefully only once a day and no food goes uneaten.
Questions are:
- I want to see my fish in the morning and evening. Is two on off cycles a day really bad for the fish or it is not a serious problem ? I know one time a day is preferred but is two bad ?
- What is the total amount of hours the light should stay on for two live plants in a 10 Gal (Lace Java Fern and Anubias). |
will it hurt anything... in a word, no, It will however shorten the life of the lights. not that big of a deal however, it is not going to be drastic.
most importantly, is you have way more light in that tank than is needed, the algae bloom is the result.
1 reduce the light, if the 10w spans the width of the tank, and you are using ferts, that should be all the light you need, and that will help reduce the algae, and allow decent lush growth ( it will be slow but it will look good).
aside from that i have also read that plants do not recognize light periods of less than 4 hours, now i cant tell you what effect that would have, but i do know many are useing a similar method to also aid in
algae control ie lights on for 5 hours off for 2 hours back on for 5 hours.
JMO, but try it, you are not going to hurt anything
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