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Showing results for tags 'lighting schedule'.
Found 19 results
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I wanted to add a bit more about why I like dual siestas, but I thought the topic should be separate from the Fluval 3.0 lighting thread. My dual siesta reasoning is 90% human, and 10% for a little bonus in organic soil Walstad tanks. I am not trying to promote it as a special formula for fish rooms or all tanks. I rejoined the hobby in 2018, after running marine tanks for a while until 2011, and under-gravel, plastic plant tanks as a kid. I spent a lot of time researching lighting, especially after I setup my first organic soil tank, and started to understand the balancing act between light, decomposition, algae, and plants. The corner case I was trying to solve involved the following: Organic soil Walstad tanks, bedroom setup, weekday enjoyment vs weekend enjoyment, and algae vs plants. I wanted to be able to grow my plants, let plants out-compete algae, and see what was happening when I was in the room, without disrupting anything. I could setup a weekday schedule, which was frustrating for weekends, or the opposite. There was no way to do a consistent 6-8 hour schedule without missing a ton of tank-viewing time. Before we got Fluval Pro Mode, I watched a few of Bentley Pascoe's videoes about using timers to trick the lights into more control points by resetting to midnight on a power-cycle. I also started reading Diana Walstad's book at the same time, where she discusses soil decomposition, CO2, plants, and algae, as well as siestas. My understanding is that plants ramp up photosynthesis faster than algae, so every slice of darkness-to-light favors the plants for a certain amount of time. In the meantime, with an organic soil substrate, the darkness allows for more production of CO2 from decomposition. The CO2 from decomposition is much lower than CO2 injection, but it is real. Once we got Pro Mode, I tried to find a way to slice up the time schedule so that I could get the equivalent of 6-8 hours of sustained light in a broken-up format, so I could wake up with my tanks at 07:00, enjoy them throughout the day, and have one hour of 1-2% blue from 21:00-22:00. I am getting 6-8 hours of normal light in 14-15 hours. That is what I tried to do with those schedules. I had to use triangle peaks rather than sustained peaks, since we don't have enough set points, but if you were to slide those triangles together, and overlap the middle ramp-ups, and ramp-downs, it would look more like a regular 6-8 hour schedule. I measured the pH changes with my Apex, along with temperature changes. Cheers- 63 replies
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I really want to get a great planted tank but I can't seem to be able to feed my plans without feeding algae. I wouldn't mind the algae but it grows on the plans and suffocates them. My lights are on timers and I'm adding flourish liquid fertilizer and root tabs. I've been trying to keep NO3 around 20 to 30 ppm and I've been pretty successful. My lights are on a timer and go on and off so they're on 8 of 12 hours (two separate two hour breaks in the day) I started using some gluteraldrahyde (the ingredient in easy carbon) to stop the algae and it's slowly killing it back but I'm afraid 1) it's harming the thin leaf plants 2) as soon as I reduce the dose I'm going right back to growing more algae. What should my next steps be? -
Aloha! So I just bought this LED and I am trying to work out a schedule for my (8x8x8)nano tank, (buce, rotala, stargrass, hairgrass, pearlweed, and weeping/xmas moss)very little co2... So I’m generally trying to see if what I have is going to be good enough for this tank. The bare minimum of light is what I’m trying to go for. So I have my lights up to 60% intensity for 7.5 hours. Aquarium fam, y’all think that’s good enough? much gratitude in advance 🙏🏽 -
Best setting for a breeding tank of L134 want to get the light right got a couple plants in there well for a South American tank -
I had a cheap top fin led strip light that came with the tank. My tank was clear and clean, but the plants always seemed like they were missing something. Yesterday I installed the fluval planted light. I can’t get the color to look right. It always looks dull or off to me. Does anyone have a good setting? Also, there’s seems to be algae growing on the walls already. -
Hello All, I am currently setting up my first aquarium and am trying a planted aquarium. I have watched and listened to so many guides and tutorials recently that I am forgetting where I found things, didn't think it was important at the time, or couldn't write it down. I thought I found at least two sources that said not to put full intensity light on your brand new plants. To start them off at like 30% and ramp up 25% each week. I am trying to find that guide again so that I am not under lighting my brand new plants. I have been trying to find it for the past 3 hours and am only finding general guides about lighting on established tank. If anyone knows of the guide I am talking about, I would be most grateful if you could link me to it. Thank you, Brad -
I have a 75 gallon established heavy(ish) planted tank with the fluval plant 3.0 light, root tabs, ferts, and co2. I also have a mix of tetras, Plecos, and rainbows. My light period runs on a 1 hour sunrise, 6 hours of daylight, then 1 hour sunset. I go to work, and only see my tank (somewhat) lit up for about 20 minutes. By the time I get home, my lights are out. I’ve been hearing about the 4 on 4 off method. Could I switch my lighting period with no negative consequences? Or could it cause and algae bloom or plant die off? I would really like to be able to come home to a lit up tank, just not at the cost of creating problems. Any advice would be appreciated!
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I have a 20 gallon long tank and am trying to figure out how much lighting I should have. I'm not using CO2 and the plants are dwarf sag, limnophila sessiliflora, dwarf sag. The tank came with a 8W, 900 lumen LED light which is on for 10 hours/day - and I'm unsure whether this is enough? The lid has a second slot so I couldget a second light (they make a "plant" version which is also 8W LED but I think has more wavelengths that plants can use). So this would bring me up to 1,800 lumens. -
All my plants except the anubia have come from the co-op and have done better than I could have hoped. 60g tall Tank has been up nearly a year and everything is thriving except the flame sword. I mean it’s not dead but not really growing. Tank at planting and tank now, as well as light cycle on my AquaSky 2.0 are in the images. I put a couple root tabs around it very 2 months and dose easy green sometimes. Other plants probably need a little more easy green from the looks of things. why is my sword not growing when everything else is? Thanks -
Just trying to get some fresh input. How long do you leave your lights on in a planted tank? -
I've got a 37 gal relatively tall display aquarium been going for around three years. Fluval plant 3.0 on top with a few different plants that are growing well mid and background, easy stuff. Valisenaria, pogostemon stelatus octopus, Java fern, Amazon sword, micro sword, a red one I forgot the name of that is going nuts but, I cant get anything established in the front. Maybe cause too much traffic from the fish idk. I just bought some dwarf baby tears to try but wanted to ask if anyone knew of ant settings on the fluval plant 3.0 that might help my success. At the moment I'm just running the planted setting, Thanks. Chris -
Hey guys, My name is Bruce. I'm relatively new to the hobby ~6 months. I currently only have a single tank with a betta, 6 cory cats, 6 Harlequin Rasboras, some cherry shrimp, and 2 Bamboo shrimp. I've been considering starting a daphnia culture as I have 2 more tanks waiting to be set up and hope to start breeding soon. I was thinking with all the extra nutrients in the water as a byproduct of the daphnia plus the 24 hour lighting would this be an environment where I could grow out some plants or would the 24 hour light dry/stress them out? Also, if I do go about it this way would I be able to float heavy root feeders and will they absorb the nutrients through roots in the water column or will they die from this? Thank you guys in advanced for any answers!!!
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I've been thinking about how I run my lights lately! They used to be set at 8hrs but my plants were struggling so I thought I'd up it to 12. And I've got a low tech tank with two lights I bought on Amazon ones a hygger and the others a aquabasik. Both had great reviews. I was dosing easy green like it says on the box and yes I WAS using sand but have switched to Stratum with a white gravel cap. Anyhow I switched it to 12hrs And I'm still not getting ANY Algae. So my question is I run my lights from 5pm to 5am but as soon as the lights go out all the lights in my house come on time to get up for work. Is my indoor lighting putting off enough light to keep the plants from the 12hrs of resting time? Only time I've ever gotten algae is when I decided to dose with Flourish and it literally happed overnight. I've since than stopped using. Should I try upping my easy green fert until I start seeing some algae? Now I'm curious if my plants are consuming more than 1 pump/50G and i should up it and alter my lighting. Sorry for the long post! I'm just trying to dial this in and you all know I'm a beginner but am giving it my all
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I think I understand some of the benefits of using light siestas and have seen a lot of the programming complexity people get into. I have a Finnex Stingray for my 10 gallon as well as an outlet timer. What methodology do you use (and what variables play into) determining an appropriate on/off cycle? -
I have cut my light to 6 hours, but is it better to run the light during the daytime or into the evening. My tank has indirect room light during the day time and lights and TV during the evening hours. When will I get the most benefit to slow down the algae. I work during the day and would miss seeing the tank if it is off during the evening with dark at 5:00 pm now. -
Which light is better for seeing more nocturnal fish, blue or red? I want to use it a couple of hours before I go to bed to see some of these fish. I have a fully planted tank. -
Hey everyone! My Fluval Flora is a beautiful tank. Happy and healthy. Very green! I have mainly ephiphytes in it, Java Fern and Anubias. Some Hornwort to remove the bad stuffs, and some developing Cryptocoryne Balansae for texture. I love this tank. I am using the Fluval nano plant light (this is NOT the 3.0), which is adjustable with the phone app. This can be a powerful light (it's for plants, after all). And I'm noticing a lot of black algae (not BB, don't confuse the two) growing on the leaves directly beneath the light. I have, on occasion, scrubbed this off with a glass-cleaning pad, but it's not perfect, and of course, the stuff just grows back. My question is: If anyone else uses this light with their tank (the Flora is a 14g cube), what do they set it at, keeping in mind I have mainly epiphytes? I have included a shot of my own settings for reference. Thanks in advance! -
Hello! I'm new to the planted aquarium hobby. I've been researching quite a lot and have purchased and am in the process of setting up a Fluval Flex 32 freshwater aquarium. I have a good substrate (Seachem flourite dark) and plan to use only low-medium light plants with no Co2. I have 2 Aquasky 3.0 lights in the aquarium. What I'd like to know is what are the recommended settings for the Aquasky 3.0 for a low-medium light planted tank with no C02? I can't seem to find specific recommendations anywhere. Thanks! Scott P. -
In my 37 gallon planted tank, lights are required to see anything, obviously. My standard schedule at work is 2pm-12am, so often I don't see the fish in the evening because at the moment my lighting timer is set from about 8:30 am-8:30 pm. I'm trying to decide if it would mess with the fish too much to have the lights on in the morning, and then go off during the day while I'm at work, then turn back on when I'm getting back from work. Am I just being selfish and messing with the fish's brain by have the lights on and off unnaturally? I'd love some better brains than mine weighing in on when my lights should be on or off!
