Actinics near front to reduce algae growth

[Roy]

Awhile back I made a post that stated essentially that if yu placed
your actinics towards the front of the tank it would supposedly
eliminate alge or at least reduce it. A few questioned where I got
that info from and I replied where. UP until that point I did place my
actinics up to the front portion, and have never really gotten any
algae problems. Evidently its not the light but just the way my tank
is setup in duraiton of light, and water quality and clean up crews.

I have another tank which is in a bathroom without any windows or
sunlight, and it to has the actinic up front as usual. It is
continually getting algae blooms......so I have my doubts that
placing an actinic at the front or back or in the middle has any
bearing on algae growing or not.

The lights and the tank are identical to what tank is in the main
room, and bulbs are new.......so evidently if yur gonna get algae your
gonna get algae. I use the same water in all the tanks from the same
source so it has me puzzled why just this one tank gets such fast
algae growth as compared to all the others.

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\ ( ( )
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(_/
The original frugal ponder ! Koi-ahoi mates....

[Pszemol]

"Roy" > wrote in message ...
> Awhile back I made a post that stated essentially that if yu placed
> your actinics towards the front of the tank it would supposedly
> eliminate alge or at least reduce it. A few questioned where I got
> that info from and I replied where. UP until that point I did place my
> actinics up to the front portion, and have never really gotten any
> algae problems. Evidently its not the light but just the way my tank
> is setup in duraiton of light, and water quality and clean up crews.
>
> I have another tank which is in a bathroom without any windows or
> sunlight, and it to has the actinic up front as usual. It is
> continually getting algae blooms......so I have my doubts that
> placing an actinic at the front or back or in the middle has any
> bearing on algae growing or not.
>
> The lights and the tank are identical to what tank is in the main
> room, and bulbs are new.......so evidently if yur gonna get algae your
> gonna get algae. I use the same water in all the tanks from the same
> source so it has me puzzled why just this one tank gets such fast
> algae growth as compared to all the others.

I will guarantee you that these two tanks are not identical.
I am sure you do not measure the amounts of food you put into the tank
per weight of live fish you keep there to keep the feeding rate equal...
Algae will grow where there is food for the algae: nutrients in the water
and any light available for the photosyntesis.
I do not consider myself a physics expert, but I do not know of any
reason actinic lamps put on front side would "block" light entering
the tank from the outside. This just has no scientific grounds to me...
Light waves mix nicely and adding non-coherent light source will never
reduce total amount of light - it will always increase it... So if
there is any food for algae in the water, algae will populate your tank.

Instead of reducing the light in the tank you can work towards
increasing algea grazers efficiency in your tank: add more snails or
hermit crabs to feed on algae, like the Mother Nature does in the ocean.
You could for example order 100 small, "golden astrea" snails from
ReefTopia.com - Florida based divers company... 100 snails cost $29 :-)
Other good algae grazers are urchins. Tuxedo urchin does not grow too big
and it is interesting and colorfull animal.

[Peter Pan]

I have another tank which is in a bathroom without any windows or
> sunlight, and it to has the actinic up front as usual. It is
> continually getting algae blooms......so I have my doubts that
> placing an actinic at the front or back or in the middle has any
> bearing on algae growing or not.

You have a fish tank in your Bathroom?

[Pszemol]

"Peter Pan" > wrote in message . ..
> You have a fish tank in your Bathroom?

Probably this one: http://www.elsewareinc.com/products/aq.htm
Or this one http://www.homeclick.com/showpage.asp?itemid=123531 :-)))

[Croosh]

Roy,
Assuming that you are talking about algae on the front glass:
I have actinic upfront and before I got a decent skimmer, deep sand bed
and Ro/DI + DI water I was getting algae blooms. Now I don't, so the
light wasn't obviously the issue.

One thing that might be an issue is how much light from MHs is getting
to the front glass. My DIY reflector doesn't shadow the front glass,
but does shadow the back a bit, so in my case I had a lot of algae on
the front and just a little on the back.
I still have to scrape front a lot to remove coralline algae... sides
are even worse, but the back is almost clean after almost 2 years.
In my old 55gal, which was "cycling" for over a year I had coralline
algae all over the place and in a hurry...

If you are talking about algae in general, all over the tank:
Placement of lights (front vs. back) should make no difference from
physics standpoint, but laws of physics don't always apply to this
hobby ;-)
Regards
Yuriy

[Roy]

Yep, we have a minimum of at least one tank in every room of the house
with the exception of the laundry room, as its just to small and
crowded. In the hall bath we have a 2 gal pico and a 10 gal NANO, in
the MAster bath we have a 16 Gal BF, in the 3rd bath there is 2, picos
of 1.6 and 2 gal, in one spare bedroom there is 5 tanks from 2 gal to
55 gal, in the other bedroom which we use as a computer room etc is 1
2 galo pico, 20 gal and 55 gal. In master bedroom there is a 110 gal
and three 2 gal picos....Dining room has 2, 2 gal picos, 1 gal, 29 gal
and 90 gal, living room has 110 gal, 75 gal, 16 gal BF, and 3 various
sized PICO's., Kitchen has 2 gal pico, hall has 4 tanks of 10, 20, 20
and 55 gal capacity. Then there is the converted feed room in the barn
wqhich is setup with all the tanks a typical Petco would have as I
managed to luck out and be near a petco one day when they were
remodieling, and all their old tanks were setting out back complete
with everything from sumps, pumps, filters, lights etc.....Then there
is also 4 tanks of 29, 29, 55 and 10 gal capacity outside in the
gazeebo........and I will not get into the numerous half whiskey
barrel water gardens and preforms form 220 gal on down that we have
all around the place, plus to large natural ponds full of koi /
goldfish etc.

Just about all tanks have fish in them to, except for a few in the
converted feed to fish room in the barn.

Nope sorry I do not have any of those novelty type tanks, but they are
pretty neat, but kind of pricey.

All I can say is I do what the wife like and it justs happens to be
what I like too, and at least I am retired, but taking care of all the
tanks is just about a full time job anymore.....I do get a break come
warmer months though as I move a lot of the fish out into a lot of the
various half barrel water features and preforms, then other than
occasional feedings and water top offs they are pretty well self
sufficient from about late April until about Mid November, until they
need to get moved back indoors.

All the 2 gal and under are SW picos, and most of the 10 gal and 20
gal are SW as well, and so are the 90 and one of the 110 gal tanks,
the rest are freshwater. I still have a few more to setup somewhere
someday.




On Fri, 3 Mar 2006 21:02:36 -0600, "Pszemol" >
wrote:
>><>"Peter Pan" > wrote in message . ..
>><>> You have a fish tank in your Bathroom?
>><>
>><>Probably this one: http://www.elsewareinc.com/products/aq.htm
>><>Or this one http://www.homeclick.com/showpage.asp?itemid=123531 :-)))

--
\\\|///
( @ @ )
-----------oOOo(_)oOOo---------------


oooO
---------( )----Oooo----------------
\ ( ( )
\_) ) /
(_/
The original frugal ponder ! Koi-ahoi mates....

[Roy]

On 3 Mar 2006 21:44:14 -0800, "Croosh" > wrote:
>><>Roy,
>><>Assuming that you are talking about algae on the front glass:
>><>I have actinic upfront and before I got a decent skimmer, deep sand bed
>><>and Ro/DI + DI water I was getting algae blooms. Now I don't, so the
>><>light wasn't obviously the issue.
>><>
>><>One thing that might be an issue is how much light from MHs is getting
>><>to the front glass. My DIY reflector doesn't shadow the front glass,
>><>but does shadow the back a bit, so in my case I had a lot of algae on
>><>the front and just a little on the back.
>><>I still have to scrape front a lot to remove coralline algae... sides
>><>are even worse, but the back is almost clean after almost 2 years.
>><>In my old 55gal, which was "cycling" for over a year I had coralline
>><>algae all over the place and in a hurry...
>><>
>><>If you are talking about algae in general, all over the tank:
>><>Placement of lights (front vs. back) should make no difference from
>><>physics standpoint, but laws of physics don't always apply to this
>><>hobby ;-)
>><>Regards
>><>Yuriy


Its mainly the algae on the glass.......I run a skimmer in all my
sal****er tanks, from the 1.6 gal on up to the largest, and use
nothing but RO/DI water. My bakcs which are all painted black remain
pretty well free of any algae as well, except for coraline. None of
them have MH, and all of the daylight type lights are on for a max of
10 hours with actinics 2 hours before and 2 hours after daylights, and
then lunar all night between the actinics schedule. The tank in the
bathroom with algae is very lightly loaded with fish, as it only has
two in it, but lots of clean up crews of various kinds.

--
\\\|///
( @ @ )
-----------oOOo(_)oOOo---------------


oooO
---------( )----Oooo----------------
\ ( ( )
\_) ) /
(_/
The original frugal ponder ! Koi-ahoi mates....

[miskairal]

Holy sh** Roy. Here are my conclusions on what you have just told us...
* You can't possibly work full time and maybe not even part time - retired??
* Your wife loves you very much :)
* You have a big power bill
* It is unlikely you do weekly water changes

What an awesome house! I wanted to put a tank in our enormous loo
(formerly a laundry) but it gets too much sun and heat in summer. I
reckon it's one of the best places to have a tank.

Roy wrote:
>
> Yep, we have a minimum of at least one tank in every room of the house
> with the exception of the laundry room, as its just to small and
> crowded. In the hall bath we have a 2 gal pico and a 10 gal NANO, in
> the MAster bath we have a 16 Gal BF, in the 3rd bath there is 2, picos
> of 1.6 and 2 gal, in one spare bedroom there is 5 tanks from 2 gal to
> 55 gal, in the other bedroom which we use as a computer room etc is 1
> 2 galo pico, 20 gal and 55 gal. In master bedroom there is a 110 gal
> and three 2 gal picos....Dining room has 2, 2 gal picos, 1 gal, 29 gal
> and 90 gal, living room has 110 gal, 75 gal, 16 gal BF, and 3 various
> sized PICO's., Kitchen has 2 gal pico, hall has 4 tanks of 10, 20, 20
> and 55 gal capacity. Then there is the converted feed room in the barn
> wqhich is setup with all the tanks a typical Petco would have as I
> managed to luck out and be near a petco one day when they were
> remodieling, and all their old tanks were setting out back complete
> with everything from sumps, pumps, filters, lights etc.....Then there
> is also 4 tanks of 29, 29, 55 and 10 gal capacity outside in the
> gazeebo........and I will not get into the numerous half whiskey
> barrel water gardens and preforms form 220 gal on down that we have
> all around the place, plus to large natural ponds full of koi /
> goldfish etc.
>
> Just about all tanks have fish in them to, except for a few in the
> converted feed to fish room in the barn.
>
> Nope sorry I do not have any of those novelty type tanks, but they are
> pretty neat, but kind of pricey.
>
> All I can say is I do what the wife like and it justs happens to be
> what I like too, and at least I am retired, but taking care of all the
> tanks is just about a full time job anymore.....I do get a break come
> warmer months though as I move a lot of the fish out into a lot of the
> various half barrel water features and preforms, then other than
> occasional feedings and water top offs they are pretty well self
> sufficient from about late April until about Mid November, until they
> need to get moved back indoors.
>
> All the 2 gal and under are SW picos, and most of the 10 gal and 20
> gal are SW as well, and so are the 90 and one of the 110 gal tanks,
> the rest are freshwater. I still have a few more to setup somewhere
> someday.
>
>
>
>
> On Fri, 3 Mar 2006 21:02:36 -0600, "Pszemol" >
> wrote:
>
>>><>"Peter Pan" > wrote in message . ..
>>><>> You have a fish tank in your Bathroom?
>>><>
>>><>Probably this one: http://www.elsewareinc.com/products/aq.htm
>>><>Or this one http://www.homeclick.com/showpage.asp?itemid=123531 :-)))
>
>

[Pszemol]

"miskairal" > wrote in message ...
> Holy sh** Roy. Here are my conclusions on what you have just told us...
> * You can't possibly work full time and maybe not even part time - retired??

Yes, that is what he wrote.

> * Your wife loves you very much :)

:-)) very, very much :-)

[wolf]

thanks for clearing that up, that took a bit of guts, hehe.

what a good scientist, hehe.

i have had problems with GHA for years now, the only ongoing condition is
the absence of a protien skimmer, or a well functioning one atleast

check your skimming!


"Roy" > wrote in message
...
> Awhile back I made a post that stated essentially that if yu placed
> your actinics towards the front of the tank it would supposedly
> eliminate alge or at least reduce it. A few questioned where I got
> that info from and I replied where. UP until that point I did place my
> actinics up to the front portion, and have never really gotten any
> algae problems. Evidently its not the light but just the way my tank
> is setup in duraiton of light, and water quality and clean up crews.
>
> I have another tank which is in a bathroom without any windows or
> sunlight, and it to has the actinic up front as usual. It is
> continually getting algae blooms......so I have my doubts that
> placing an actinic at the front or back or in the middle has any
> bearing on algae growing or not.
>
> The lights and the tank are identical to what tank is in the main
> room, and bulbs are new.......so evidently if yur gonna get algae your
> gonna get algae. I use the same water in all the tanks from the same
> source so it has me puzzled why just this one tank gets such fast
> algae growth as compared to all the others.
>
> --
> \\\|///
> ( @ @ )
> -----------oOOo(_)oOOo---------------
>
>
> oooO
> ---------( )----Oooo----------------
> \ ( ( )
> \_) ) /
> (_/
> The original frugal ponder ! Koi-ahoi mates....