Fishguy1111
Aquarium Advice FINatic
I have one amazon sword as to plants. My lighting is moderate, I have been leaving the light on for nine and half hours.
If 9.5 hours is working for you without algae problems then I would say that's the right amount of time for your tank. If you start noticing algae growth however then I would look at lowering the amount of time the lights are on down to 6-8 hours.
Normally 6-8 hours is adequate in a planted tank as long as there are no algae issues. If you want to use the siesta period you run lights 3 or 4 hours, have them off for 2 hours, then run them 3 or 4 hours.
+1 "listen" to your tank to see what it needs... Excessive light and long photoperiods are almost always the root cause of algae problems...
Rivercats is right. I learned the hard way (My lights were on for 9 hours) as I'm in the process of getting rid of black brush algae.
I'm going to agree with billbug on this one. My 55g planted tank is on 12 hours a day and i have no algae issues except for a tiny amount of green spot algae that accumulates over the course of a few weeks. It took me months to get it this way but I'm happy now that it's there.
I have my lights on 12 hours also. Then again, they are really cheap top fin LEDs