Planted Tanks

[timbruun]

Just curious what the best light schedule is. I like to see my fish in the morning and night but I'm starting to get algae growth since I have the lights on from 8am to 11pm. So I cut the time to 11am to 11pm. Is that best or can I have the lights turn on in the morning then off in the middle of the day then on again later on? Would that screw with the fish and plants too much? Should it be a shorter period?

In one of my tanks I have alot higher lighting than the other. Should I leave the one with lower lighting on longer?

Now with the gravel vac, how often does everyone vac their substrate in their planted tanks? I did it almost every week when I just had fish but after I got plants I had a tough time doing it without disturbing all the plants so I've somewhat just left it. What's best?

And with snails and shrimp in the tank, if I have to gravel vac what is the best method without sucking up half the small ones that I can barely see? Vac into a pail and look with some bright light?

Thanks in advance.

[jvision]

With a planted tank and lots of MTS, I don't vacuum the substate. Although, I have sand as a substrate, so must detritus stays onthe surface and is easy to suck up at WCs.

For your tanks, having the lights on for 4-5 hrs in the morning and 5-8hrs (10-12hrs total) would be fine. I've read a few studies that say an interupted light schedule is great for keeping algae at bay.

[fishclubgirl]

If you're worried about sucking up little ones, use a bucket that's the opposite colour of the little ones. Makes them easier to spot.

[catshanon]

The duration of light also depends on the amount of light that you have. If you have 5 or more WPG then I think lights can be on for 6-7 hours. Personally, my lights come on at 8am and they go off at noon and then they come back again at 3pm and stay on till 10pm. With this schedule, I have some hair algae, but nothing more. So, I have them on for 11 hours and I have 4 WPG. It will be best if you can stagger your lighting, like have the brightest during midday and then have a dawn to dusk effect. Algae also depends on other factors, like too much nutrients that your plants cannot soak up.

I do a gravel vac twice in a month, and thats because I am just lazy. However, I do get a lot of gunk as my magnum's flow reduces significantly after 3 weeks. I just don't like to stir up the gravel and uproot the plants, so I minimize the number of gravel vacs.

[timbruun]

I'll try that light schedule. I have nowhere near 4 wpg. The one with the most lighting is right around 1.5 wpg.

I was planning on switching my tanks with gravel substrate to sand anyways partly for that reason.

Edited January 14, 2010 by timbruun

[catshanon]

I'll try that light schedule. And I was planning on switching my tanks with gravel substrate to sand anyways partly for that reason.

Not to hijack your thread, but if you need sand, and are making the trip to Edmonton sometime soon, I can give you lots. I have taken down one of my planted tank and most of the sand (playsand) is heavily mixed with black fluorite.

[timbruun]

That would be great. I'll see if I can get up to the city soon.

[werner]

You do want some crud to build up in your substrate. Think of it as "soil" supplying nutrients for your plants (Cation Exchange Capacity, blah, blah...)

What you don't want is for it to compact too much, and go anaerobic. This can happen more easily with finer sand/gravel. Trumpet snails, and occasionally uprooting/replanting will help. Heating cables are supposed to keep water moving through the substrate too.

I mostly suction off the larger pieces of detritus when doing a water change, and don't really disturb the substrate.

[fishclubgirl]

Do you vacuum off any mulm when you do that?? What's the difference between that and detritus?? Please let us know, you planted goddess!!

[jvision]

Detritus is the technical term for mulm... or is it the other way around?

Edited January 14, 2010 by jvision

[fishclubgirl]

We don't we let Werner enlighten us?? She's an expert on both!!(and will kill me for saying this!!)

[darkangel]

The last time I did a gravel vac on my planted tank (about a year & a half ago) it pretty much came up clear, so I don't do gravel vacs in my planted tank. As far as trumpet snails, I can't get them to survive in my planted tank (shells disintegrate).

I have my lights on from 8am to 9pm (13hrs) with 3 watts per gal and have no problems.

[werner]

Detritus and mulm are pretty much the same thing. At least, they seem to taste the same when starting a siphon. :tongue:

[fleshgear]

i rarely vacuum the gravel on the planted tanks, more like never unless something happens to the tank like if water quality goes down. then i check for hidden dead fish and if i cant find that i will vacuum the gravel. maybe it get done once a year. other wise i just suck up the dead plant leaves that are on top of the gravel.

when i do vacuum the gravel it appears to be very dirty, but that is all that goodness that the plants like.

[timbruun]

So I did the math and I have 1.48wpg on my 90 gal and 0.55wpg on my 55gal. With that amount of light is it actually the light causing the algae? Or is it an excess of somethign else. The algae is only in the 90 gal. I switched my light schedule to on at 7am off at 12pm, then on at 3pm and off at 12am. So 14 hours total. Does that work?

The only thing I add to the water is prime at water changes. Excel at half the dose because I think my vals were melting at full dose. And I did try Flourish to see if that helped. Maybe that's what's causing it? I didn't have green algae before that. I had brown algae/diatoms which disappeared on its own.