Lighting schedule options for an ATS

[sabbath]

I'm reading that some say that they run their lights with more that one on time a day. Will this help as I'm burning up the algae on my hog.5 with only 6hrs a day.

-Is this helping any of you? What do you recommend?

-Or would you say that it made no deference?

[SantaMonica]

It's not just hours... it how many nutrients are flowing by the screen. More nutrients needs more light.

[sabbath]

I have have a overload of nutrients as my rocks are solid green with algae! Lol. If I did not have 2 tangs it would look like a rain forest. ;). But 8hrs per day burns the screen. So I'm a confused.

[SantaMonica]

More algae on the rocks usually means less nutrients in the water.

Anyway, the more flow you can get on your screen, the better, whether waterfall or upflow. For an upflow scrubber, this means more bubbles, more and larger holes on the sides (unless you don't like red light). Also, the further down you have the unit in the water, the more water will flow through it. And of course the screen should be flat against the black cover, and away from the glass.

[sabbath]

Okay goods info thanks.

What I was thinking with this thread was the idea of running our lights in multiple shifts a day. Am I saying this right?

[Floyd R Turbo]

are your burn spots showing up right in front of the LEDs only, or the whole screen? IIRC you have another thread and it was in front of the LEDs.

[sabbath]

are your burn spots showing up right in front of the LEDs only, or the whole screen? IIRC you have another thread and it was in front of the LEDs.

You answered on the L2 thread :). The ones in front of the leds on my Hog.5. I see I should maybe have kept this question on the my Hog exposed thread. Let me know. Just thought that it would not get seen by people with good experience with lighting ( like you...) and not looking at a scrubber thread of a type that they don't own. Hoping Both to help me and also others with similar situations.

I still need to get a diffuser like you recommended a while back. Just don't want to make a special trip just for that.

I have found that 8 hours per day is burning the center with:
Start at 9pm end at 1am
Rest from 1am to 3am
Second on at 3am to 7am off

Right now I have it set to run 6 hrs a day with;
2hrs on,
then for 1hr off
2hrs on,
Then for 1hr off,
2hrs on then off until the next day.


I'm new at scrubbers so trying to get this figured out.

Not new to tanks thou as I have had them going back to 1984. I wish I had a picture of my old 125g aquarium's wet/dry filter that had a rotating sprinkler bar on top of the bioballs.