PHOTOSYNTHESIS:
I have kids napping in my aquarium room for 2-3 hours mid-day every day. Which means my tank gets 5ish hours of light in the morning, a 2-3 hour break, and then 5ish hours of light in the evening.
Does this break time in the middle interrupt the photosynthesis process? It was brought up on Angel079's algae crisis thread that algae takes about 4 hours to start photosynthesizing once it is getting light. Is this also true with plants? Is it better to have a good solid 8-10 hours of light rather than breaking it up like this?
LIGHTS ON ALL NIGHT:
I took out my light timer (don't remember why) and one night I forgot to turn the lights off. The next morning, my stem plant had grown visibly taller and had lots of new growth at the base. The other plants were noticeably more dense as well (a bulb and a grassy one).
The question is: how does this impact the "whole" tank? CO2 and O2 levels? Fish health? Would it hurt to leave it on all night once a week to promote new growth?
PRUNING: How do you prune your aquarium plants? I have a bulb (Aponogeton Ulvaceous), a stem plant (some sort of Hygrophylia I think), and one or maybe two varieties of Vallisneria, and one Java fern which as yet needs no pruning. (Here's my tank: New Freshwater Tank - 29 gallon Freshwater fish tank)
Do you take plants out to prune? Use scissors in the tank? Pinch off leaves with fingers?
And when you take them out to prune, how do you replant them? I find that pushing the roots into the gravel sustrate as they try to float up while I bury them feels forceful and harmful on the root system.
Thanks in advance, y'all.
I have kids napping in my aquarium room for 2-3 hours mid-day every day. Which means my tank gets 5ish hours of light in the morning, a 2-3 hour break, and then 5ish hours of light in the evening.
Does this break time in the middle interrupt the photosynthesis process? It was brought up on Angel079's algae crisis thread that algae takes about 4 hours to start photosynthesizing once it is getting light. Is this also true with plants? Is it better to have a good solid 8-10 hours of light rather than breaking it up like this?
LIGHTS ON ALL NIGHT:
I took out my light timer (don't remember why) and one night I forgot to turn the lights off. The next morning, my stem plant had grown visibly taller and had lots of new growth at the base. The other plants were noticeably more dense as well (a bulb and a grassy one).
The question is: how does this impact the "whole" tank? CO2 and O2 levels? Fish health? Would it hurt to leave it on all night once a week to promote new growth?
PRUNING: How do you prune your aquarium plants? I have a bulb (Aponogeton Ulvaceous), a stem plant (some sort of Hygrophylia I think), and one or maybe two varieties of Vallisneria, and one Java fern which as yet needs no pruning. (Here's my tank: New Freshwater Tank - 29 gallon Freshwater fish tank)
Do you take plants out to prune? Use scissors in the tank? Pinch off leaves with fingers?
And when you take them out to prune, how do you replant them? I find that pushing the roots into the gravel sustrate as they try to float up while I bury them feels forceful and harmful on the root system.
Thanks in advance, y'all.