Brown algae My 2p

Battling for years, and reasonably in control.
But recently cut my lighting by just one hour, to 9 hours a day (last 4
weeks) and the problem has completely cleared up with no adverse effect on
anything.

is that 9 hours in total from morning til night or is that just the
brightest. it works for you and may well be what I'm looking for. I've
switched my MH off and just use florescent tubes and its a lot better so
cutting the time down my help me more.

Robin

"robin.gordon1" wrote in message
...
is that 9 hours in total from morning til night or is that just the
brightest. it works for you and may well be what I'm looking for. I've
switched my MH off and just use florescent tubes and its a lot better so
cutting the time down my help me more.

Robin

9 hours total m8 Mh on for 2 1/2 hours only, just my way of thinking, as the
sun is not right overhead all day is it? I start of with blue moon then t5s
then mh then t5s and back to blue moon. all on timers to save messing about,
and I think that is best as the tank gets into the routine of regularity (if
you get my drift)

"Annette Kurten" wrote in message ...
9 hours total m8 Mh on for 2 1/2 hours only, just my way of thinking,
as the sun is not right overhead all day is it?

Maybe in Northern or Southern parts of the globe... not Equatorial.
If you think Tropics - it is, 12 hours over you head, all year around!
And it is very short time for dawn and dusk - bright light is the whole day.
Whole year with a very short break for cloudy weather in the rain season
light is shining like during our June/July - no winter...

"Pszemol" wrote in message
...
"Annette Kurten" wrote in message
...
9 hours total m8 Mh on for 2 1/2 hours only, just my way of thinking,
as the sun is not right overhead all day is it?

Maybe in Northern or Southern parts of the globe... not Equatorial.
If you think Tropics - it is, 12 hours over you head, all year around!
And it is very short time for dawn and dusk - bright light is the whole
day.
Whole year with a very short break for cloudy weather in the rain season
light is shining like during our June/July - no winter...

Cured my algae problem though with no bad side effects.
Actually it is 100% better.

"Annette Kurten" wrote in message ...
Maybe in Northern or Southern parts of the globe... not Equatorial.
If you think Tropics - it is, 12 hours over you head, all year around!
And it is very short time for dawn and dusk - bright light is the whole
day.
Whole year with a very short break for cloudy weather in the rain season
light is shining like during our June/July - no winter...

Cured my algae problem though with no bad side effects.

Actually I am not questioning your success in fighting algae...
I was just debating your statement about how much light do corals
have over their "heads" in tropical reefs. Your algae might be gone,
but the effects of prolonged dark phase might be not good long term
for other critters...

Actually it is 100% better.

Well, I do not know how your other photosynthesizing organisms are doing,
but 2 and 1/2 hours of light a day sounds more like Greenland during
winter than tropical reefs somewhere near the Equator...

Something is simply unbalanced in your tank if you had to
move to such a drastic measure to fight algae problems...
I would look at my water quality more closely:
-Is your tank overcrowded?
-Are you overfeeding fish/corals?
-Not efficient skimming?
-Lack of other ways for nutrients export? (i.e. Xenia/Macroalgae)
-Lack of herbivores? (i.e. fish, snails/slugs, hermit crabs, urchins)

You could probably find a better cure for your "algae problem" than
keeping your *tropical reef* in the dark almost 22 hours a day...
I would never think I have too much light if I had lights on for less than
8 hours a day. A typical light phase for a tropical reef tank, recommended by
all respected sources, is 8 to 12 hours. Yours 2.5 hours is radically short.

BTW - a healthy tank will have some algae naturally and will never look
like a pinkish paved parking lot with corals sticking out the "floor" :-)
Some of the algae growth is even beneficial for a lot of reef critters.

p.s. how old is your tank?