My tanks journey so far.

[fluxtor]

Your aquarium is a young setup and every aquarium does go through various algae stages but your aquarium is going to have issues in summer with that skylight over the top of it. Might pay to install a blind on that skylight window.

Try splitting your photoperiod, few hours in the morning and some for evening viewing.

Thanks!

How long would you expect before a tank becomes fully mature? I guess that's very tank specific and difficult to answer!

Yeah I realize the sky-lite is going to be an issue and to be honest if I get my way the tank won't be staying there for ever. If my plan comes to fruition and I get my nice big tank in the front room (somewhere around 1200 x 550 x 600 approx 300 liters) it will definitely be gone. I guess for now I'll just keep battling and keeping up with my weekly maintenance and hope it finds a balance. I may change up the planting a bit but we'll see.

To be honest nobody is home most of the day so could just shorten the photo period even more and maybe find a way to dim the lights a tad!

Thanks again for chipping in!

[Martinspuddle]

How long would you expect before a tank becomes fully mature? I guess that's very tank specific and difficult to answer!

Some say aquariums can take as little as three months, personally I think twelve months, some may disagree but there are a lot of factors involved. My 310 litre took around eighteen if I'm honest.


Click to enlarge

Yeah I realize the sky-lite is going to be an issue and to be honest if I get my way the tank won't be staying there for ever. If my plan comes to fruition and I get my nice big tank in the front room (somewhere around 1200 x 550 x 600 approx 300 liters) it will definitely be gone. I guess for now I'll just keep battling and keeping up with my weekly maintenance and hope it finds a balance. I may change up the planting a bit but we'll see.

To be honest nobody is home most of the day so could just shorten the photo period even more and maybe find a way to dim the lights a tad!

My Fluval Aquasky lights are only at their brightest for two hours per day and is the only piece of useful technology on my aquarium, a photoperiod control app.

If you know the aquarium getting light from that skylight at a certain time of day, I'd reduce the photoperiod accordingly.


Click to enlarge

For example, if you care to look at the image above, you'll see a large south facing window, one of two windows in this room. In winter, because the Wisteria is not in leaf, the sunlight is particularly strong through these windows. The sun is low currently, so as the sun travels from east to west, the aquarium quite a lot of the time the tank gets extra 4 to 6 hours of sunlight, particularly from 10:00 am. Normally, my lights are on 4 hours in the morning and 4 hours in the evening but at the moment the morning schedule is switched off to compensate for the extra light. When I shot this picture the sun is near enough out of sight of the aquarium and in around an hour the evening light photoperiod will start.

However, I could just close the blinds, curtains and use the lights instead but where's the fun in that ...it's using energy unnecessarily which makes the fat cats at EDF happy and my poor wallet very unhappy.

[fluxtor]

Some say aquariums can take as little as three months, personally I think twelve months, some may disagree but there are a lot of factors involved. My 310 litre took around eighteen if I'm honest.

Yeah I guess opinions and aquariums are different so you have to learn what's right for yours. Same as ponds really and one thing I've learnt is no two ponds are alike!

My Fluval Aquasky lights are only at their brightest for two hours per day and is the only piece of useful technology on my aquarium, a photoperiod control app.

If you know the aquarium getting light from that skylight at a certain time of day, I'd reduce the photoperiod accordingly.

For example, if you care to look at the image above, you'll see a large south facing window, one of two windows in this room. In winter, because the Wisteria is not in leaf, the sunlight is particularly strong through these windows. The sun is low currently, so as the sun travels from east to west, the aquarium quite a lot of the time the tank gets extra 4 to 6 hours of sunlight, particularly from 10:00 am. Normally, my lights are on 4 hours in the morning and 4 hours in the evening but at the moment the morning schedule is switched off to compensate for the extra light. When I shot this picture the sun is near enough out of sight of the aquarium and in around an hour the evening light photoperiod will start.

However, I could just close the blinds, curtains and use the lights instead but where's the fun in that ...it's using energy unnecessarily which makes the fat cats at EDF happy and my poor wallet very unhappy.

I think I always knew that putting the tank where I have might be a battle but I have had some LFS guys tell me it should not matter where you put a tank if you get the balance right including ferts and plants etc i.e. nutrients. I remember back when I kept an aquarium some 20 years ago putting it anywhere near a window was just a no no but technology and plants in particular have come a long way.

I usually get a blanket weed bloom in my pond shortly after spring which coincides with increased temps and feeding and the filters not quit being ready. Easily treated with product in the pond though!

Anyway I'm rambling now, thank you for the advice advice and guidance. It's for this reason I wanted to join a forum to learn from others more experienced than me but I am aware than it takes time to learn from your own mistakes as well!