Amount of light for new tank!

[Krakenwagen]

Hi all,

I have a question to ask..
currently I have a new planted tank, this is my first time scaping and planting, so there's alot of trial and errors.

Plants:
glosso
hair grass
Weeping moss, mini pelia
a bunch of HM
some grassy plant
Red tiger lotus
thin java fern
mini nana

Soil: H.E.L.P
Sand: White sand

May I know how many hours to keep my light on? I am using a t5 4 bulb light 39w and currently it is 24/7. I have just started dosing Seachem flourish, flourish excel and iron. 2 weeks ago, the water turned kinda greenish so I did a 95% water change and started adding more plants.

Could any of you help me with my question?
should I keep the light for 24h or only for certain intervals?
will upload pictures soon!

[Krakenwagen]

Oh yeah, co2 at 1-1.5 bps

[ckaidi]

Try to keep it below 10hours. When I first started I on it 24/7 too and hair algae outbreak. Then adjust according to the response of your plant growth. Currently I'm on 2 x 4hours time slots to suit my working timing. Timer on at 10am when I wake up and in time for me to add Excel and on co2. Off at 2pm. On again at 7pm when I'm home till 11pm by which I off the co2 also. Most plant doing well so far and I will monitor and adjust if required.

Sent from my C6603 using Tapatalk 2

[eeJamboy]

I dont think 24hrs is appropriate. Fact is even in the wild, they only get around 12hrs of light and around 9 to 10 hours of effective sunlight.

What others have recommend is true. Preferably around 8 to 10 hours of light set on a timer. It can be split into two as mentioned above.
However, note that it should also meet your timings when you know you will be at home to look at your tank of course!




sent electronically via Mobile

[Krakenwagen]

Hi bros Ckaidi & eeJamboy, thanks for your advice, have turned it off this morning and plan to turn it on when I reach home (when I will be home to look at it haha) and leave it on overnight.

I had thought to make it accelerated shouldnt I keep it on 24/7 so they keep growing? Or do they need to rest as well?

[thebaldingaquarist]

Hi bros Ckaidi & eeJamboy, thanks for your advice, have turned it off this morning and plan to turn it on when I reach home (when I will be home to look at it haha) and leave it on overnight.

I had thought to make it accelerated shouldnt I keep it on 24/7 so they keep growing? Or do they need to rest as well?

in nature, plants do not get more than 10 hours of effective light. that goes to say, for the rest of the day/night, the plant shuts down its most of its photosynthetic factories and move into a respiration mode. putting anymore more light in terms of length of time would be feeding the algae only.

hope it helps.

[Krakenwagen]

in nature, plants do not get more than 10 hours of effective light. that goes to say, for the rest of the day/night, the plant shuts down its most of its photosynthetic factories and move into a respiration mode. putting anymore more light in terms of length of time would be feeding the algae only.

hope it helps.

Hi bro,

thanks for the explanation. That makes perfect sense. I had spot algae then greenish water before I did the change. Thanks all!