That thing with lights ..

[hwscot]

That thing when a tank that's been fine for months suddenly seems to have a lot more algae. So you lower the light level, and cut back on the feeding, and it makes no difference. And you're baffled. Otos are fine. Nerite snail is fine. It's a grow-out tank for livebearers (gets fed a lot. Have I been overdoing it?) they love eating algae. Then you check the timer on the lights and it's reset itself to be on 24/7. You think, perfectly calmly, 'goodness, why didn't I think of that before?'

That thing. That's it. That's the post.

(Free of swear words. It's been a few days now, I've attained equilibrium.}

 

[MichaelJ]

reset itself to be on 24/7. You think, perfectly calmly, 'goodness, why didn't I think of that before?'

Well, good you figured it out. For how long do you think you had it running 24 hours per day?

Occasionally I override my timer to get an extra hour or so in the night, but I have to manually switch it off if I do so, and sometimes I forget.

Cheers,
Michael

 

[hwscot]

For how long do you think you had it running 24 hours per day?

Times like this, I take comfort from Wittgenstein, who said, with exactly this kind of situation in mind, 'Concerning that of which we cannot speak, we must pass over it in silence'.

Honestly, I dread to think. At least 10 days .. but we could be talking a couple of weeks plus. Also, my sense of shame just deepened.

 

[MichaelJ]

Wittgenstein

Great quote!

 

[Myrtle]

Honestly, checking the timer would be the last thing I considered!

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,

Honestly, I dread to think. At least 10 days .. but we could be talking a couple of weeks plus.

I can do <"much better"> (worse really) than that.

....... A long time ago I had some very yellow frogbit in one of the tanks in the lab. and I couldn't work out why. I started feeding them more, I gave them different iron chelates etc. but all with the same result, reasonably large rosettes of very yellow leaves. The plants didn't die, they just looked horrible and sickly.

I was only ever in the lab. when the lights were on and I could see that the mechanical time switch was keeping time, and that the timing pins were in position. One evening I was working late and when I came back past the lab. at ~20:00 and I could see the tank lights were still on.

The lights had (and I still have the same) time switch with a button on the side for "timer" or "on" and at some point it had been changed from "timed" to "constantly on". I don't know when exactly, but the Frogbit had been yellow for several months, so I imagine it was several months of 24 hours light.

When I changed the timer back to "timed" the plants greened up over the next few weeks.

cheers Darrel

 

[hwscot]

Hi all,

I can do <"much better"> (worse really) than that.

cheers Darrel

That is so reassuring. Thank you!