TheGreatWave
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The goal of this thread is to identify algae that respond to photoperiodism in home aquariums.
Photoperiodism is the seasonal light cycle that causes algae to flower. So the question is asked, is the amount of time you run your display lights causing your algae headaches? How about that fuge light, is opposite light cycle still best if one person is on 12/12 while the other runs 18/6?
This isn't limited to algae, cyanobacteria can sense time.
Researchers at Nagoya University searched through a bunch of C. reinhardtii looking for mutated proteins. They found one mutant that responded normally to blue light but was defective with red and violet. They were still able to impair the circadian clock which suggests that algae responds to more then one colour of light.
The take away from this, is that we also should consider that alage problem could be a mutated algae which would complicate things for some.
Algae has the three ways to reproduce, vegetative, asexual and sexual reproduction. IMO light cycle likely has a big impact on at least two of these.
There are terrestrial female plants that will go to seed in the absence of a male due to light inflicted stress. (among other things) Algae has also been shown to have radiation damage if the dark cycle is not long enough to re-oxidize. The thought here is that IMO most aquariums have too much light, or want more light, or suggest more light. It could be that the high light is not causing the algae to grow more, actually it's been proven to grow less, rather the stress might be causing reproduction by cellular fission. In other words the algae is running away from too much light, trying to find a darker spot to grow.
Incidentally the above mentioned terrestrial plant will not sexually reproduce under 18 hours of light. It will however flower under 12 hours. If this plant is used for a fuge, what light cycle would you suggest or use? "Opposite light cycle" is not an appropriate term with regards to growing a fuge, it is only relevant when discussing pH in the display.
Another interesting tidbit is that some algae has been shown to respond to a 10Hz square wave pulse of light as well as a constant light. Growth wasn't inhibited until they got down to 1Hz and 5Hz. What I am suggesting is dimming a LED with the typical PWM may not be the same as raising the light, or using a smaller light. Dimming a red or green channel channel might still be full strength to some algae?
There are so many different types of algae I'm not expecting we are going to eliminate it all, however if we pool enough anecdotal information together perhaps we can learn enough about a few of them.
Photoperiodism is the seasonal light cycle that causes algae to flower. So the question is asked, is the amount of time you run your display lights causing your algae headaches? How about that fuge light, is opposite light cycle still best if one person is on 12/12 while the other runs 18/6?
This isn't limited to algae, cyanobacteria can sense time.
Researchers at Nagoya University searched through a bunch of C. reinhardtii looking for mutated proteins. They found one mutant that responded normally to blue light but was defective with red and violet. They were still able to impair the circadian clock which suggests that algae responds to more then one colour of light.
The take away from this, is that we also should consider that alage problem could be a mutated algae which would complicate things for some.
Algae has the three ways to reproduce, vegetative, asexual and sexual reproduction. IMO light cycle likely has a big impact on at least two of these.
There are terrestrial female plants that will go to seed in the absence of a male due to light inflicted stress. (among other things) Algae has also been shown to have radiation damage if the dark cycle is not long enough to re-oxidize. The thought here is that IMO most aquariums have too much light, or want more light, or suggest more light. It could be that the high light is not causing the algae to grow more, actually it's been proven to grow less, rather the stress might be causing reproduction by cellular fission. In other words the algae is running away from too much light, trying to find a darker spot to grow.
Incidentally the above mentioned terrestrial plant will not sexually reproduce under 18 hours of light. It will however flower under 12 hours. If this plant is used for a fuge, what light cycle would you suggest or use? "Opposite light cycle" is not an appropriate term with regards to growing a fuge, it is only relevant when discussing pH in the display.
Another interesting tidbit is that some algae has been shown to respond to a 10Hz square wave pulse of light as well as a constant light. Growth wasn't inhibited until they got down to 1Hz and 5Hz. What I am suggesting is dimming a LED with the typical PWM may not be the same as raising the light, or using a smaller light. Dimming a red or green channel channel might still be full strength to some algae?
There are so many different types of algae I'm not expecting we are going to eliminate it all, however if we pool enough anecdotal information together perhaps we can learn enough about a few of them.
