Photo Period

[Aeros]

I'm in the process of ridding my 120 of GHA with an ATS. I slacked on making a new ATS when moving to my 120 DT and paid the price of GHA. ATS worked amazingly on my 55g. More powerful version in my 120g should make quick work of the GHA.

My question: Will reducing the light time help in a significant way to reduce GHA more quickly? Or, am I just saving electricity? I currently run a 8hr photo period without dusk/dawn.

Additionally, what is the minimal light cycle I can run to help starve the GHA in my DT while still providing enough light for SPSs?

Out of curiosity, what photo period does everyone here run?

[kdogg85]

Try 6hrs at first and see if that gives any ill effects. Little steps are better than giant leaps. I run that at the moment due to my HA and cyano which is slowly receeding and the phos gunk is surfacing now. i have two maximas and neither of them seem to mind. Been running for 3 weeks like that now. I do not know how lond the sps would show ill effect but I would suspect it would be pretty quick, unless you have alot of doc in the water column to help them out?

[SantaMonica]

Scrubbers filter better at lower nutrient levels. So keeping your display light on will keep the display algae in place, which will keep the nutrients from increasing in the water, which will allow the scrubber to filter better.

[Aeros]

Thanks for the reply. I'm running zero N, and P according to API's test, and my SPS are growing at a noticeable rate with full PE. I'm assuming there's plenty of DOC since my skimmer is a sea clone 100 pile of crap and I may as well not even have one and just use an air stone to add micro bubbles to my DT hah!

I'll drop down an hr a week and see how it goes. Something Santa Monica said about scrubbers with yellow slime was to reduce the photo period but not the intensity of light. I'd imagine 2x 400 watt radiums should be intense enough for my SPS even at 6hrs. That would also give the ATS a full 18hrs to photosynthesize the CO2 without competing with the GHA in my DT.

What do you mean phos gunk? Sounds awful. I've heard chemi-clean or similar products work amazingly on cyano. Too bad they don't do dick to GHA lol.

[kdogg85]

It's like this brown stringy slimy lookin stuff imagine slimy dirt in a way(phos gunk), I sucked out a bunch of it out a while ago. SM, that is the complete opposite about DT lighting than I hear when a pest algae comes around. Man, this scrubber thing throws everything out the door. SM, you are saying let the pest algae take some of the load off the scrubber and slowly but surely, the scrubber will starve the algae in the DT out? Did I ask that correctly? I was thinking the algae in the DT goes to "sleep" after lights out and the algae on the scrubber keeps on consuming. Then, the lights in the DT come back on and there is not as much to eat and then little by little, the algae in the DT dies off.

[Aeros]

Scrubbers filter better at lower nutrient levels. So keeping your display light on will keep the display algae in place, which will keep the nutrients from increasing in the water, which will allow the scrubber to filter better.


That seems counter intuitive. Would you elaborate further? I understand the ATS efficientcy at low N and P and I'm already at zeros there. My rationale was to allow the ATS to photosynth exclusively thus starving the DT a little more and putting that much more pressure on the GHA.

I was and am concerned about decomposing GHA from the DT as it falls out into the water column, I'm attempting to collect it in a filter sock that's cleaned daily. Will those bits raise my phosphate lvls as they rot away?

[kdogg85]

The phos will raise due to them dying and releasing it back in the water. and from them decaying(I assume.) But, depending on how maure your scrubber is, it should take up the slack and what you have left in the DT will as well. I just let my GHA go, it all winds up in my scrubber anyway. If you clean the sock everyday, you shouldn't have any troubles. There will be some that falls into the rockwork and rots, but it couldn't hurt

[SantaMonica]

you are saying let the pest algae take some of the load off the scrubber and slowly but surely, the scrubber will starve the algae in the DT out?

Yes. It about nutrient levels, not C02. If DT algae dies and put nutrients into the water, the scrubber algae gets darker and filters less efficiently. In the ocean it's not a problem because there is infinite surface area, so the algae does not have to get darker to absorb the extra nutrients... the algae just covers more rock/sand. But in a scrubber it has no more area, so it gets darker. This blocks light from reaching the screen, and you get more bottom layers dying and letting go.


I was and am concerned about decomposing GHA from the DT as it falls out into the water column, I'm attempting to collect it in a filter sock that's cleaned daily.

Physically removing gha is fine, because the nutrients don't go back into the water.