Until a week ago the algae in my brackish F8 tank was very fast growing. In a matter of a week algae would almost cover the tall plastic with long strands extending into the tank. Very unsightly!
I then read something about using a two hour siesta period whereby the lights are turned off for 2 hours in the day. The lights come on at 9am, go off at 2pm, back on at 4pm and off at 9pm. They're now on for a total of 10 hours and the algae has hardly grown at all in the last week.
If anyone is having similar troubles with algae I would definitely recommend giving it a go. My tank has gone from looking very messy to looking nicely lived-in!
Yeah, I was a bit sceptical but it's such an easy thing to do that I thought I would give it a try. It apparently interrupts the algae's growth cycle enough to slow it down.