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Re: Greenwater and lighting



Scott writes and makes a number of excellent points.  I respond to a few.

<< I run the lights in my fishroom on timers set to gradually go on one after
 another. "Sunset" also is a gradual process.>>

        You are truly committed to the welfare of your fish and plants!  My 
lights 
    come on and go off all at once.  But all the tanks get some indirect 
daylight, so 
    it's not too great a shock.

        I don't think daphnia care as much as fish do, but they too get some 
indirect 
    daylight.

<< By the way, livebearer guru James Langhammer, in a much alluded to posting
 on his Russian daphnia, recommends leaving at least a small light (kind of a
 moon?) on 24/7 over the daphnia so they will not gather in a corner of the
 raising container and suffocate.>>
 
        Before the lights go on my daphnia seem to be well scattered, but 
maybe   pulex are different from moina.  

<< Especially if you are using your light to grow greenwater in with your 
daphnia, 
you want you light as close to the tank's surface as is possible, safe and 
realistic.>>
 
        I have never been able to produce green water consistantly for a long 
period,
    so I use the soy flour and yeast food, which works quite well, although 
maybe 
    green water would give a greater yield. 

<<. . .  snip . .  By the way, on the killie list they have had several 
threads recently alluding to lighting. One which especially got my attention 
was the consideration of how reflective the light cover/ hood is. That can 
make a huge difference in what really gets to the tank. Someone kidded about 
using the aluminum foil from potato chip packages (like I need another excuse 
to eat potato chips). Wright Huntley, who sometimes also holds forth on this 
Digest too, startled some readers by noting that the reflectivity of those 
foils might  indeed be useful that way.>>
 
        There was a recent posting to The Angelfish Forum by a woman whose 
angelfish were showing significant distress, collecting in a corner and not 
moving even for food.  She received a lot of replies about possible chemical 
or disease problems.  Finally one person suggested that perhaps the aluminum 
foil she had recently added to her reflector could be causing distortions and 
confusing the fish.
The foil was removed, and the fish immediately began to act normally.   

<< Raising daphnia, what with the feedings and water changes which will
 increase your culture's productivity, (actually 2 or more cultures is
 better...) begins to sound a lot like raising fish.>>

        LOL!  Actually, sometimes I think that I get a bigger kick about 
raising food 
    than the fish.  At the present time I have white worms, daphnia, micro 
eels, 
    Grindal     worms, and microworms.  And the mosquito larvae have just 
started in 
    the     backyard tubs, too which some of the indoor daphnia will soon be 
    transferred.
 
Good luck to all!

Bill