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Re: Algae & sunlight
> From: "G.Tong" <gtong at sirius_com>
> >From: Ronald Tsang <jtsang at asiaonline_net>
> >
> > There are too many algaes on the plant leaves in my aquarium. I have
> >reduced the amount of sunlight a day buy a few hours, but still quite a lot
> >of algae grows.
>
> 1. No more than 11 hours of lighting. No direct sunlight. (If your plants
> need more light, increase the intensity not the hours.)
Hmmm... I would never suggest putting an old aquarium loaded with lots of
nutrients into sunlight since it would certainly have an algae explosion.
A tank with algae problems especially green water being put into sunlight
would only make the problem worse. Sunlight is very intense light and the
level fluctuates seasonally and daily according to weather and requires you
to use mechanical methods to limit the intensity and duration. You can saturate
your plants within a few hours using sunlight at which time the additional
light will be used opportunistically by algae if there are water borne
nutrients available.
I'm not sure that we should categorically say, however, that sunlight per se
causes algae. We have a small tank in our office growing plants using only
sunlight. There isn't an algae problem; the snails cope with what grows on
the glass. I think sunlight can be tricky but can give you good results.
I wish I had more sunlight but unfortunately I live in an apartment so I
can't experiment as freely as I'd like.
I'd be interested to hear how many folks have successfuly or unsuccessfully
experimented with using sunlight for aquatic plants. I suspect its more
than we might have thought.
As for controlling algae, well there is simply too much information to
condense here. There is a TON of information in the APD archives if you
can get to them. Patience is an important weapon in your battle.
Steve