Help with Lighting Period

[kellyboy47]

Hi,

I currently run my lights on a timer between 3.30pm and 11pm and have been dosing the aquarium with Easycarbo and APF fertiliser which I add around 10pm. I read somewhere that I really should be dosing with fertilisers in the morning as dosing that late at night is of no benefit to the plants and I just wondered what other folks did ? and also would it be better to have the lights on for a period during the morning and again in the evening or leave them as I have at present ?
Any help would be appreciated
Thanks
Trev

 

[niru]

Hi

the idea is that the plants should have adequate ferts & co2 available to them when the lights are switched ON. So that the plant can start doing photosynthesis without having to worry about any missing ingredients that stall the process & invite algae. Hence put your ferts at the begining of the light period. The "morning" you mention is when plants start seeing light, not the physical morning. And you dont need to have lights On & OFF & ON again, kind of schedule.. In nature, there is no siesta time for photosynthesis.. Not much point in having this in the tank as well!

cheers
niru

 

[nry]

Not sure on normal fertiliser but EasyCarbo decays over time, so adding it at night will likely mean a good percentage has degraded (it has a half life of sorts I think), so by the time the next lighting period comes along, the levels will be lower than expected...

 

[logi-cat]

i dose any fertilisers an hour before lights come on.

 

[Nathaniel Whiteside]

Its like you eating your next days meal on the night before in regards to EasyCarbo. Put it in as close as possible to lights on time.

As it is an organic carbon in liquid form, the benefit, unlike co2, will be instantaneous.

Co2 has to be allowed to build up in the aquaria, to a level of 30ppm ( You'll hear the term 'Lime-Green Drop checker A LOT!

 

[wazuck]

I remember reading that liquid carbon lasts for around 12 hours so dosing before lights on is the best way. Since you'll now be dosing that at lights on then while your at it dose the ferts easy