MarkO":16gtey7r said:
Over the past 6 months my nitrates have been creeping up to as high as 60. I thought the 2 main reasons were the wife's generous feedings and the failure of the pump running my protein skimmer. Now that the wife is not allowed to feed the fish and the PS is back online, my nitrates are slowly coming down. But when I empty the protein skimmer, I wonder how much of the skimmate is from waste and how much might be generated from the 550 watts of light on a 14 hour cycle.
Will cutting down on the light cycle reduce my bioload? Wondering if it may ultimately lower my nitrates.
Any thoughts/ideas appreciated.
in a sense, the light is connected to the waste your skimmer pulls out.one of the things in your skimmate is phytoplankton-one of the ways your lighting and skimmer work together for nutrient export from the tank
i think that a 14hr.photoperiod is a bit excessive, anyway-your tank should do just fine with 8-10 hrs.
the slow reduction of NO3 after correcting those two problems shows a fairly direct cause and effect relationship between the overfeeding,skimmer problem,and the NO3 level-if it's steadily going down, it should eventually hit zero test level.if you can't wait-try some supplemental water changes-they will benefit you in other ways, as well
cutting down the light will reduce the amount of photosynthetic activity in the tank,don't think it will reduce the overall bioload,though-and will prob'ly not have nearly the effect as the corrective measures you've already taken.
(though, technically speaking, it could be said that the reduction of phytoplankton/photosynthesis is a reduction in bioload-it's probably a minor one overall,the feeding is a far major bioload contributor :wink: )
i would also advise a GRADUAL shortening of the photoperiod, say, by a couple of hrs/wk.
hth
