Floyd R Turbo
Either busy or sleeping
I have been running my scrubber lights 24/7 for about a year now - that started when I accidentally flipped the timer switch to the "ON" position instead of the "TIMER" position, and in 5 days I had as much growth as I did in ~8 days when I was running 12-16 hrs/day.
Since then I've left it there, first as an experiment but after that, just because it works for me.
I believe RHF chimed in on this thread at some point, might have been elsewhere, but there is no rule or law that says algae needs a dark time. In fact that has been pretty much disproven, anecdotally if anything (and most things in this hobbyare proven/disproven anecdotally)
For 24/7 lighting though, you have to have enough tank load to support that. Meaning, either you are running a small scrubber on a larger tank than you normally would or you are running it in a tank that is more heavily fed = more nutrients. Also the light intensity has a factor.
Also a factor is what kind of growth you are getting. You can't force a system to work on 24/7 lighting, it's actually the other way around. If you screen is growing great, increase lighting (photperiod first, then intensity if adjustable). Work your way up in hours and watch for growth reversion. If you can adjust intensity then don't adjust that at the same time you adjust hours/day.
If you can adjust intensity then once you have a full screen of growth you can pretty much go 24/7 and then watch the growth and adjust intensity until you maximize growth.
The key is allowing enough time at a set level/time to make sure that it's working correctly and the growth is not reverting.
Also never over-clean when running long hours. You want to remove 90% of the growth but leave a good amount on the screen, especially if your holes are not well filled in yet.
Since then I've left it there, first as an experiment but after that, just because it works for me.
I believe RHF chimed in on this thread at some point, might have been elsewhere, but there is no rule or law that says algae needs a dark time. In fact that has been pretty much disproven, anecdotally if anything (and most things in this hobbyare proven/disproven anecdotally)
For 24/7 lighting though, you have to have enough tank load to support that. Meaning, either you are running a small scrubber on a larger tank than you normally would or you are running it in a tank that is more heavily fed = more nutrients. Also the light intensity has a factor.
Also a factor is what kind of growth you are getting. You can't force a system to work on 24/7 lighting, it's actually the other way around. If you screen is growing great, increase lighting (photperiod first, then intensity if adjustable). Work your way up in hours and watch for growth reversion. If you can adjust intensity then don't adjust that at the same time you adjust hours/day.
If you can adjust intensity then once you have a full screen of growth you can pretty much go 24/7 and then watch the growth and adjust intensity until you maximize growth.
The key is allowing enough time at a set level/time to make sure that it's working correctly and the growth is not reverting.
Also never over-clean when running long hours. You want to remove 90% of the growth but leave a good amount on the screen, especially if your holes are not well filled in yet.
boo i know.
