phantomfisher
Member
- Joined
- 9 Jul 2009
- Messages
- 56
Is there a recommended amount of time to leave the lights on in a planted fresh water aquarium? :?:
Piece-of-fish said:Ok, i will try to answer for the first time, correct me if i am wrong about anything.
The most important reason you are told to reduce the light is to avoid algae during initial tank startup period gradually increasing it little by little. If your tank is already running succsessfully for some time and you have no algae issues then its really up to you, you can run it as long as you like.
To answer your question about the benefits:
longer lasting co2 bottle, less prunning could be mentioned.
since you have 6 t5's i would try to create more natural environment and run just have of them switching on all in the middle of photoperiod from 3 to 5 hours.
Piece-of-fish said:Well i think you should wait more than one week to see the results i suppose. Try to reduce the whole lenght of photoperiod as well as recommended before. I dont think you need to reduce to 6 hours honestly if your tank is mature already.
I have only theoretical knowledge which is not backed up by experience so an advice from someone more experienced might be helpful.
reducing the intensity to just 3 lamps should help as well especially if you dont have high light demanding plants and are ok with a slower growth rates. Most plants will do well in lower light if ferts and co2 are on top.
As about algae the general advice would be to try and clean the wood and rocks, remove any affected and poor health leaves. Check for deadzones in flow. You would be told to increase the water changes for couple of weeks but this could be a problem on the tank this big unless you have any device which helps the process to be done easier, but if like you say there arent to many of algae i think just reducing the light and getting rid of existing algae maybe supported by couple exter water changes should help.
There shouldnt be to difficult to try and connect the second power lead to be able to run lights separately if you are not scared of DIY as well.
Piece-of-fish said:Good luck with that
Some photos of your tank might help to give some more advice.
Piece-of-fish said:Ye should be fine, the different bps is probably due to different bubble sizes, because according to the average 2kg bottle should give you about 2,5-3 month of gas in 25G and mine is already running for more than 4
By the way i have some cabomba, higrophila difformis and ammania gracilis ready to go. They are all stems, the last 2 of them with quite large leaves. I could send it to you for free if you want, anyway they will be going to the bin or other members.
Piece-of-fish said:Hi again, dont worry about the payment, it will only cost me under 1£. I am using old envelopes and just paying for a large 1 class envelope stamp.
There is a 'pay it forward' scheme going in sale/swap section and i got ammania from there. The point of it is that you receive a plant for free and when it grows and you trim it you pass it to 2 more people so it keeps spreading. If you do the same good, its good for the community, if you fail then dont worry.
Will send it out on monday then.
P.S. These 2 plants could be triimed 2 ways:
You can whether throw away the bottom part and only replant the top which will give you thicker and wider stem with larger leaves or you can trim it as normal leaving the bottom part to develop new multiple shoots.