# How long is your photoperiod?



## Aqualady (Jan 14, 2013)

8 hours max on all tanks


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## randpost (Feb 9, 2014)

8 Hours. It is the most I can get a way with without things getting out of control. I think 6 or 7 hours would be ideal, but I want to see my tank.


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## Schreckeng (Jun 23, 2013)

11 hours, but the algae is out of hand, I'll be reducing to 8 by next month


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## hobos (Feb 19, 2012)

5 hours no algae


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## beedee (Jul 1, 2010)

7.5 hours


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## FlyingHellFish (Nov 5, 2011)

10 hours, AquaVitro, Co2 with a straw and a lot of determination.


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## The Trigger (May 9, 2012)

10 hrs. Lots of co2 and no algae. Just lots of pearling


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## pantherspawn (Dec 21, 2011)

7 hours, no co2 low/med light, ferts. 

Sent from my SGH-T889 using Tapatalk


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## Raymond S. (Dec 29, 2012)

Two ten g tanks..one/w two T8 bulbs @ 7.5 hrs/no Excel light ferts.
One/w two T5 bulbs @ 9.25 hrs with Excel/fairly light ferts
Cultivated algae in both...would you like that only on the rocks or both the wood and rocks ?


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## OVT (Nov 29, 2011)

10 hours on non-co2 tanks (5)
12 hours on co2 tanks (2)
10 hours on < 2g vases (3)

v3


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## Rush3737 (Jan 15, 2013)

Good thread, been struggling what to do with mine. 

I run 9 hours with good CO2, 9-6. Problem for me is I get home at 4:30. I don't want to start the lights any later because some sunlight seeps in the room during the day and I don't want that to create extra algae. I don't want to cut down the photo-period because I only have an hour and a half to enjoy the tank. I don't want to increase it more to enjoy it because I'm again worried about algae. 

Any recommendations?


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## OVT (Nov 29, 2011)

Seems to me that sunlight will seep through regardless of when your photo period starts or ends and you have to account for it regardless. I run all my tanks on timers, from either noon or 2pm till midnight. Most people have the free time in the evenings anyways.

v3


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## shift (Jan 7, 2013)

I just adjusted mine to start later as well. Mind as well have more night time enjoyment!


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## Rush3737 (Jan 15, 2013)

OVT said:


> Seems to me that sunlight will seep through regardless of when your photo period starts or ends and you have to account for it regardless. I run all my tanks on timers, from either noon or 2pm till midnight. Most people have the free time in the evenings anyways.
> 
> v3


Do you think it would be reasonable to cut the photoperiod to only 8 hours, say from noon till 8pm, even if that increases the time there is (significant, my blinds are horrible) from 7-noon as opposed to just 7-9? Because I would *love* to do that, just always figured that would be bad for the tank.


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## kman (Dec 11, 2013)

I run mine from 4pm to midnight. 8 hrs, on a timer, centered around when I'm around to enjoy the tank. So far so good! Medium light, some co2.


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## OVT (Nov 29, 2011)

Ok. Lets try this from another angle: you have sunshine from 7am to noon. Lets ignore seasons. Your tank gets that sunshine. Period. If you do not move the tank or get better blinds or cover the tank with a blanket, it gets the sunshine. Assume you go all green  and never turn on your aquarium lights. If you want a healthy tank (good plant growth. no algae, etc), the plants need proportional supply of food / building material to keep up with the amount of energy (sunlight) they receive. So, that's your step number one. If your tap water + fish waste + leftover fish food + decaying plant matter + gas exchange provide more food then the plants can absorb (normally unlikely) you probably want to lower it. How? More water changes, RO, feed less, add more plants, etc etc.

On the other end, if your plants do not have enough food (more likely) you want to supplement it externally, I.e. co2 and appropriate ferts.

In any case, good tank management: plant load, fish load, cleaning, etc are given tasks.

So, once you 'balance' the tank with existing sunlight you are all set and happy and can enjoy it when the sun shines through and you are home.

But we have a problem: the sunshine and your presence at home do not overlap. OR the amount of sunshine is not enough to sustain decent plant growth.

This is where the step number 2 comes to the rescue. Namely, we turn the lights on. If you have to supplement the tank to handle the sunshine, then you need to supplement proportionally more to account for each minute the lights are on? How much? That depends on the amount and 'quality' of energy your specific lights add to the equation.

Am I making any sense?

Back to practical: 7 to noon = ~ 5 hours of unqualified photo period (we don't know how much sunshine gets filtered, how much of the tank is in the light, etc). Say you increase the total photo period to 9 hours: lights on at 4 pm, off at 8 pm. Watch the tank for 2 - 4 weeks add / subtract co2 + ferts + flow + surface agitation until fish and plants are fine and no / minimal algae. Then add another hour (lights off at 9 pm), repeat the process above. Repeat as sensible.

My $0.05 

v3


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## AGUILAR3 (Jun 22, 2013)

on 11:30am> off 3:00pm = 3.5 hrs
(siesta) 1.5 hrs
on 4:30> off 10pm = 5.3 hrs

I originally set my timer to have a 3 hr siesta then I read that they were useless in controlling algae so I set it to have a 1.5 hr time out period for a total of 9 hrs.


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## BeastMaster (Dec 17, 2012)

CO2 injected tanks 6am on/11am off/5pm on/10pm off
non CO2 tank 6am on/11:30am off/4:30pm on/10pm off
DSM tank 6am on/12pm off/4pm on/10pm off
:bounce:


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## roadmaster (Nov 5, 2009)

Non CO2 tanks.
Triple T8 fixture 8 hour's. 7 a.m. to 3 p.m.
PC bulb's 8 hour's.
Single T8 bulb 10 hour's. 7 a.m. 5 p.m.


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## crazymittens (Jun 4, 2012)

When I moved to the BML XB, I split the photoperiod - 1100-1500, 1730-2130. The only algae I have is the black stuff on driftwood (been there since day1 really), and the fish keep that under control.

I am not running any CO2. Dimmer was at 100%, moved it down to 50% for a few weeks, right now I think it's at 60-70%.

No other algae to speak of - aside from what grows on the overflow grating directly below the light fixture. Haha probably 200PAR up there. Nice little clump of greeney stuff. I cull it once a month or so.


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## TekWarren (Oct 6, 2013)

I do 5:30am to 10:30am. 5:30 is my wake up time and my light starts on the low light setting which more than enough for my bleary eyed self to get to through the house to let the dogs out. My second period is either 5:00pm or 5:30pm to 10:00pm I adjust if I see green algae but have never had any big problems with it.

I like seeing my tanks while I get ready for work and just to make sure there where no issues over night. The second photo period is generally when I am home until bed time.

I'll be re-calibrating my photo period starting this weekend as I'm upgrading from a single LED fixture to two new ones that are slight more powerful on my 40B...should be fun!

Edit: DIY yeast CO2 with pretty decent output.


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## rcs0926 (Jun 14, 2013)

I have a 6 hour growing photo period from 3pm to 9pm on my tanks and a 2 hour viewing period in the morning from 6am to 8am.


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## Rush3737 (Jan 15, 2013)

OVT said:


> Ok. Lets try this from another angle: you have sunshine from 7am to noon. Lets ignore seasons. Your tank gets that sunshine. Period. If you do not move the tank or get better blinds or cover the tank with a blanket, it gets the sunshine. Assume you go all green  and never turn on your aquarium lights. If you want a healthy tank (good plant growth. no algae, etc), the plants need proportional supply of food / building material to keep up with the amount of energy (sunlight) they receive. So, that's your step number one. If your tap water + fish waste + leftover fish food + decaying plant matter + gas exchange provide more food then the plants can absorb (normally unlikely) you probably want to lower it. How? More water changes, RO, feed less, add more plants, etc etc.
> 
> On the other end, if your plants do not have enough food (more likely) you want to supplement it externally, I.e. co2 and appropriate ferts.
> 
> ...


So what this boils down to, is that as long as I dial in my CO2 and ferts correctly, any reasonable timing of lights can be made to work. I had it in the back of my head that if minimal light is seeping through the tank, under any conditions, that somehow in itself helped algae grow. That not being the case I'm going to put my lights on later and see what happens, and hopefully adjust properly. Thanks.


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## kman (Dec 11, 2013)

rcs0926 said:


> I have a 6 hour growing photo period from 3pm to 9pm on my tanks and a 2 hour viewing period in the morning from 6am to 8am.


Once I have more capable ramp timer, I'm going to do something like that, too. I currently turn on the lights manually for about 30 minutes while I feed them, before heading out to work, anyway.


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## JeffE (Oct 8, 2013)

I have 6 hours on my biggest high tech co2 tank, 10 on my low tech tank. High tech tank only spends 1 hour at the highest intensity, since lowering the hours I've had much algae.


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## Smeagol (Mar 4, 2013)

OVT said:


> Ok. Lets try this from another angle: you have sunshine from 7am to noon. Lets ignore seasons. Your tank gets that sunshine. Period. If you do not move the tank or get better blinds or cover the tank with a blanket, it gets the sunshine..... Assume you go all green  and never turn on your aquarium lights. If you want a healthy tank (good plant growth. no algae, etc), the plants need proportional supply of food / building material to keep up with the amount of energy (sunlight) they receive. So, that's your step number one. If your tap water + fish waste + leftover fish food + decaying plant matter + gas exchange provide more food then the plants can absorb (normally unlikely) you probably want to lower it. How? More water changes, RO, feed less, add more plants, etc etc.
> 
> On the other end, if your plants do not have enough food (more likely) you want to supplement it externally, I.e. co2 and appropriate ferts.
> 
> ...


I have exactly the same problem. My living-room window faces east and my blinds are thin; so from sunrise to noon my room has bright ambient sunlight. I don't get home from work until 5PM. Temporary solution: I hung thick dark-colored blankets over my window! I know it's kinda trashy, but I don't have any money to buy heavy curtains (spent everything on new tank & equipment). Now the room is pitch dark except for when the aquarium lights are on, which currently is 7 hours (4:30PM to 11:30PM).

Here is an additional layer to the problem: If I adjust my CO2 and ferts as you advise, I would probably be able to take the blankets off my window. However, if I am trying to grow a Glosso carpet, which according to most people requires intense lighting to prevent the Glosso from growing upwards, wouldn't that 5-hour period of ambient sunlight work against me by creating a low-light environment, thereby causing my Glosso to grow tall?


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## aquarist (Aug 29, 2012)

I run all my aquariums from 4pm till 1am.


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