lighting for fish tank

Question
Hi Jaymie,

I have a question about fish lighting. I am getting a lot of brown algae in my tank. I change 25% of the water every 4 days. Every time I change water in my 20 gal, I always have to wash the plants and scrape the sides of the tank and either clean or move the gravel around because it's brown. I went to Petco today and the fellow told me that I need to lessen the hours of light. I do believe he's right. I think I have been leaving the light on about 10 to 12 hours a day. He told me I should only have the light on between 6-8 hours and that should really help. Then when I got home, I was looking on the computer and it said to lesson the light,I should start out slowly about 1 hour less a day. So the fish can get used to it. I find that a little slow do you? Also I was thinking about leaving the light off all day, and putting it on around 5 o'clock dinner time and then turning it off at bedtime. What do you think?   Thanks

Answer
Pat, you can change the lighting however you like. You do not have to slowly change the tank lighting times. 6-8 hours a day is the best. Fish do need some light each day. As long as the light is on for at least 6 hours a day you should be fine. Make sure, that when you are doing the water changes, you are vacuuming the gravel as well. This too will help with the algae.