Defeated The Green Algae

[Josh]

I just wanted to give everyone who offered me advice on my fish tanks a shout out. I beat the green algae. Months of water change after water change led me to a point where I was able to figure out what I was doing wrong. And that was thanks to you guys. I simply wrapped the tank with a black towel. Stopped doing water changes. And after about a week the green water is completely gone.

[CalmedByFish]

Awesome! So the #1 reason for the green water was too much light?

 

[Josh]

Yes for sure. The highest my lights go now is 60 percent but it only actually stays at that brightness for 2 hours. Lights come on at 7:30. They fade off at 7:30pm

[Josh]

Which sucks because I get off at 10:30pm and at that time it’s dark. But with a little bit of self control I don’t turn them back on when I get home

[lefty o]

you could always adjust the timer so they come on later, and stay on later so that you get to enjoy the tank. imo as long as they have a light period, and dark period, it really doesnt matter too much when that is.

[Perry]

To add to what @lefty o is saying maybe you could incorporate a midday "nap". I do this so that I can see my tank during my morning and again in the evening without having the lights on too long. In my case the lights are on between 7:45am and 12:45pm and again between 3:00pm and 8:00pm. During the "nap" time they are still getting ambient light from the room so it's not as if they are really in the dark (I figure it mimics a cloudy afternoon or being in a shady portion of the "river"). Perhaps you could come up with a routine that would have your lights off for a while in the afternoon so that they could stay on until 11:30pm or something and you could enjoy the tank when you get home. Anyway, nice job taking care of your algae problem!

[Streetwise]

If you are interested in siestas, this is a side topic to the Fluval 3.0 thread.