should i turn off my light over the weekend?

Can you put it on a timer

i guess i could but i would rather not, its at work and i dont even have timers on my tanks at home.

I went out of town a few weeks ago for the weekend and left my light on. I came home to a bad algae outbreak. I've been battling it ever since. I finally decided to do a black out to try to get it back under control.

i guess you could leave it on, on the weekends but i would be worried about the long term having long perids of light then 5 days of medium light. May lead to algea

Why would you rather not have a time at work?
It would be best to keep the tank on a light schedule than to leave it on all weekend, at your house you can turn your lights on before work and off after work but your office tank can't do it without you (or a timer) when you are gone. They aren't expensive and make it better for the plants, the java would probably survive with the lights off over the weekend but I'm not sure about the minuta, I think it would prefer a light schedule.

A friend of mine from work has had a betta in a bowl for a year (everyone else in the office has lost their's except one other person) and she was going to give him to me because she is tired of all the water changes, this weekend she brought over a little nano tank that she received and I set it up with A. nana and a Windelov Java Fern + driftwood and a timer for the light.
Now she has a filter, live plants and she won't have to worry about the lights anymore

You should get a timer. Right now you're thinking about the weekend, what happens when you are on vacation or a business trip for a week, are you going to leave it off or on for nine days straight? Timers are less than ten dollars at any megamart like Walmart or Target, it's a good investment.

PET- i spend allot of time at at wor im talkin over 12 mwf. and at home my wife can help with the lights.

gnome- when i am on vacation there are other people in the office that i trust to turn the light off and on.

all i know is that in nature clouds cover the sun for what seems like weeks at a time in some instances granted uv rays and stuff still penetrate the clouds.

im just trying to figure out whats better off or on over the weekend.

Wait, you're using sunlight?
And I'd say off since I really really hate algae... All my tanks have algae outbreaks all the time and I still have yet to rid of them. And you are growing pretty low light plants and get sunlight right?

...
I guess off

He's not using sun light, he's giving an example.

I'd turn it off when you leave for the weekend.
a couple days without light never hurt notin!

i leave all my lights off when i leave on vacation(2-5 day)

A timer is an absolute must IMO. Just spring the $10 or whatever it is to get yourself a timer and you never have to worry about forgetting to do anything again. Consistency is key!

I'd say a timer would be the best solution. But if the timer isnt going to happen, I would say lights off, too. Plants cant use a photoperiod longer than 10-12 hours/day. They need to rest. But the algae can. It would use light 24hrs/day it it were allowed to do so. But it cant use light that's not there . No light would at least allow the plants to respirate for a couple of days, but it wouldnt fuel algae growth. At least that is what it seems like to me.

But a timer would be a set-it-and-forget-it kind of thing As well as provide consistency for the plants.

Good luck with the tank!

timer - $7 at home depot - $8 at petsmart.
get one. you'll thank us.

and what does clouds & uv have to do with anything?

$5 timers at Tar-jay

mistergreen said:

timer - $7 at home depot - $8 at petsmart.
get one. you'll thank us.

and what does clouds & uv have to do with anything?

Click to expand...

all i was saying about that is in nature clouds can block the sun for days with no ill effect in nature.

i guess ill get a timer.

I'm only spouting this off because I've been into turtles for a few years and I wanted to say that in nature, even with deep shade and cloud cover there is uv/uvb. One way to say it would be (this will make sense to people who keep vivariums) in nature, in shady places you will find moss growing but inside in a tank you need kind of high light to keep moss alive. People can't figure out why the moss dies, "it was dark where I found it" but uv gets in all sorts of funny places so there is a day/night cycle and plants to get some sun even on overcast or cloudy days. I probably didn't say any of that right but hopefully someone will understand what I mean. lol

-Cassie

im with you, the tank is in my office and the office is a car dealership show room where 3 of the walls are glass, so there is allot of ambient light hitting the tank anyway.