[Lil' Swimz$]

So I was reading the Takashi Amano Nature Aquarium CompletemWorks book that I got for Christmas, ANC I found that he uses a 10-12 hour photoperiod for all his tanks! I'm wondering if any of you are also doing this, what is your findings, and the logic behind it.

 

[Steve001]

The logic behind it is this. Most plants receive about that much light naturally.

 

[freph]

I use 10 hours on both of mine. Growth is good and algae is at a minimal. Granted, I think balancing the tank ecologically is the most important part.

 

[fplata]

I use a 10 hour photoperiod as well


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[Jeff5614]

Eleven hours of medium intensity here. It's a much more manageable lighting scheme for me than using more intense lighting even for a shorter duration.

Seems I read in one of the ADA catalogs that Amano (ADA) also uses a "noon burst" on some tanks beginning with a couple of hours of lower light followed by a 4-6 hour noon burst then back to a few hours of lower light. The noon burst is of course to stimulate growth and the lower intensity lighting on both sides of the noon burst is to increase the amount of viewing time.

 

[Nunster]

I don't know why more people aren't doing what I am doing. I use three, 4' dual T-8 bulb fixtures hooked up to 3 chanale timer and plus 35w in led's. Here's my lighting scheldule
8:00am blue led's turn on
8:30am some multi colored led's turn on
9:00am The rear 4' fixture with a soft white and a daylight bulb turns on
11:00am The middle fixture turns on with a grow bulb and daylight bulbe turns on
1:00pm the front fixture turns on with a daylight and a soft white bulb turns on
5:00pm the rear fixture turns off
6:00pm the middle fixture turns off
7:00pm the front fixture turns off
9:30pm the multi led's turn off
10:00pm the blue multi led's turn off and the tank is now dark.

The led's are just 1/4watt each so there not that intense. But with this set up it sort of simulates the sun going over head. Oh and the lights are about 1' above the water. And this is on a 75g tank.

 

[mach_six]

I don't know why more people aren't doing what I am doing. .

Because a simple on and off schedule works fine.

 

[Lil' Swimz$]

I'm going to try a 10 hour period today from the original 6 hours. Hope to see more coast growth.

 

[Knotyoureality]

My riparium generally gets a 14-16 hr period and has the lowest algae growth of any of my tanks. As in ZERO green spot algae, never had to clean the walls,etc.

Much like the "noon burst" affect though, the best growing light comes for a couple hours mid-day from a nearby window.

 

[plantbrain]

PAR makes a big difference also if you want to discuss photoperiod.

Curiously, ADA does not discuss that data much.

I've measured a few ADA full set ups, they all had similar consistent low range PAR ranges.

While many assume that the tanks are high light, they are not by most standards. This makes a huge difference.