Help with Duration of Lighting

[likmuk]

I need some advise regarding the duration of lighting. My tank is made up of low light plants including anubias, mircosorium and moss. I used to have problem with thread algae and BBA but after frequent water changing and reducing the lighting period i managed to bring the problem under control.
I now keep my lightings (around 1.5w/gal) on for about 5 hours a day. However, most people recommend that lighting period should be at least 10 hours a day for effective photosynthesis. So is 5 hours a day too short?
Btw, i use injected CO2 24/7 at about 1 bubble ervy 2 seconds.

[hoonming]

1.)Since you are doing a low light setup, CO2 injection is not necessary.

2.)I think for your case 8 hour per day should be ok.

[PeterGwee]

5 hrs is way too short..try 10-12 hrs.

For the algae, you might want to double check your CO2. My experience with 24/7 way of running CO2 always runs low towards the end of the photoperiod. The nutrients are easy to isolate simply by dosing enough for 1-3x depending on the light intensity and doing weekly large water changes to prevent things from building up.

Regards
Peter Gwee

[BPT]

I've tried out the "mid-day break" recommendation from Dennerle with a successful result. Most algae in my newly setup tank vanished within 1 week of using this method.
--budi--

[likmuk]

Thanks for the info provided. Would increase duration and probably try out the Dennerle method, cheers!

[PeterGwee]

likmuk, just increase the photoperiod to 10-12hrs and forget about the siesta thing. Plants do not benefit from a siesta and it does not hurt algae either. The likely benefit you can get from a siesta is during the lights off period, in which the CO2 level has probably reach a chronically low level can build back up to good levels before the lights come back on again. But that shouldn't be much of a problem if you use gas tank CO2. DIY folks have more problems though...

Plants do not use CO2 at night so that is really no need to do 24/7 even with a manual regulator. You can use a powerhead to do the "on"/"off" of the CO2 along with the light timer. Add CO2 only when plants need it..(You can add more if you run low without much worries of CO2 overdose during the night and the night off gassing allows room for error.)

Regards
Peter Gwee

[prec]

but as for my case, i have to wake up at 5am every morning to report to camp (NS). so i on my co2 (manual reg) at ard 5.45am every morning and my lights are on from 0700-1200 and 0400-1000 (total 11hrs). is this fine?

[BPT]

[quote:d3390885ec="prec"]but as for my case, i have to wake up at 5am every morning to report to camp (NS). so i on my co2 (manual reg) at ard 5.45am every morning and my lights are on from 0700-1200 and 0400-1000 (total 11hrs). is this fine?[/quote:d3390885ec]

Do you mean 1600-2200 ? That would be quite similar to my schedule. My light on is 0600-1200 and 1700-2200. Tank info: size 360L, 4x55W PL, pressurized CO2 3BPS 24/7. I don't know the science behind it but it really works in my case though.
But then again, I also have older 56L tank that have 13 hours straight photo under 2x55W with no algae either, although I didn't change the water for almost 2 months .