Fluval Plant 3.0 Scheduling and Programming

[nabokovfan87]

On 7/14/2023 at 10:15 AM, PaigeIs said:

I found this post so helpful, I bookmarked it so I can reference it every time I adjust light settings.  Thank You!!!

That's awesome. As always huge props to Streetwise for all his efforts!

[purrmaid]

Hi everyone! I tried finding my answer without posting but I failed on my own. I have the Fluval 3.0 24"-34" plant light on a 36 g 16" deep aquarium with co2 and controsoil with root tabs. I'm trying to grow cabomba, mermaid weed, ludwigia, dwarf hair grass etc. I'm getting a lot of algae and I'm betting my light schedule is the culprit. Does anyone have a good one with a similar setup I can copy? Thank you so much!!

[JoeQ]

I have the same setup, a link for my settings is in my signature . Its a spreadsheet that you can adjust to certain percentages. You may not have a light issue as much as a healthy growing plant mass issue. 

Edit: except the contra soil and root tabs. 

Edited February 1 by JoeQ

[purrmaid]

On 2/1/2024 at 11:25 AM, JoeQ said:

I have the same setup, a link for my settings is in my signature . Its a spreadsheet that you can adjust to certain percentages. You may not have a light issue as much as a healthy growing plant mass issue. 

Edit: except the contra soil and root tabs. 

Thank you so much! I'm trying to work on that plant mass issue and just added several new ones to help. It's got 14 different plant species now but it hasn't filled in like the jungle-esqe pond aquascape I'm going for. My old nemesis 'Patience' will have to account for that. My nitrate is only at 5ppm though so idk. I just want these new ones to do well 😩

[JoeQ]

On 2/1/2024 at 11:40 AM, purrmaid said:

Thank you so much! I'm trying to work on that plant mass issue and just added several new ones to help. It's got 14 different plant species now but it hasn't filled in like the jungle-esqe pond aquascape I'm going for. My old nemesis 'Patience' will have to account for that. My nitrate is only at 5ppm though so idk. I just want these new ones to do well 😩

You are welcome, in full disclosure these are Bentley Pasco DaySim settings, I just made them into a spreadsheet so the same settings can be easily increased or decreased. I also have a setting that reduces the total time (its set to an incredibly long day) but those setting weren't reflected in the spreadsheet. 

[JoeQ]

@purrmaidthis is the change I made in the last few hours to reduce light while still allow viewing light. 

[purrmaid]

I know I started with a long, 12 hr day but my logic was 'tropical areas are on the equator, the equator has long days, right??'

I reduced it to 8 hours but there's still algae despite the co2 meter thingy being in the green. I'm considering adding more algae eaters too. All there is right now is a single 1" nerite snail, a hillstream loach, and a 3" sae that has outlasted his 2 companions but I'd like to add some otos, amano or cherry shrimp and some snail friends.

[JoeQ]

On 2/1/2024 at 2:13 PM, purrmaid said:

I know I started with a long, 12 hr day but my logic was 'tropical areas are on the equator, the equator has long days, right??'

I reduced it to 8 hours but there's still algae despite the co2 meter thingy being in the green. I'm considering adding more algae eaters too. All there is right now is a single 1" nerite snail, a hillstream loach, and a 3" sae that has outlasted his 2 companions but I'd like to add some otos, amano or cherry shrimp and some snail friends.

You are correct there, nature has laid out the perfect blue print (long days during the grow season being one aspect)

But another aspect you might be missing is water quality. In nature where do plants grow best? In a lifeless stagnant pond/lake with no flow & poorly oxygenated waters.

Or in pristine well aerated waters, with good flow and a good amount of diverse microbs that support other complex lifeforms. 

Understanding this is where the algae fight begins! Not cutting light hours which does more to harm your plants than it does to help fight algae. 

As far as co2, this is not an algaecide. Imo it is more of a growth accelerant and if you're not growing healthy plants it will grow healthy algae. 

If it were me id add more nerite snails, cherry shrimp., other low bio load critters. Ottos are absolute algae hogs, concentrate on water quality for now and keep using mother nature as your blueprint. It makes this planted tank hobby sooo much easier in the long run. 

 

 

 

Edited February 1 by JoeQ

[nabokovfan87]

On 2/1/2024 at 11:13 AM, purrmaid said:

I know I started with a long, 12 hr day but my logic was 'tropical areas are on the equator, the equator has long days, right??'

I reduced it to 8 hours but there's still algae despite the co2 meter thingy being in the green. I'm considering adding more algae eaters too. All there is right now is a single 1" nerite snail, a hillstream loach, and a 3" sae that has outlasted his 2 companions but I'd like to add some otos, amano or cherry shrimp and some snail friends.

You could start with a week long blackout, then start with a window of 4 hours for a few weeks.  Then increase it to 6, then up to 8.  The max I would ever recommend is about 10 hours if you have a very high density tank with plants that are setup for that lighting scenario.

[Lilred]

I happened to find this thread and have been reading through this. There is a lot of pages lol, but great info. I have a 20 gallon long. I have a glass top and my light is set above my tank about 5". I was dealing with some algae, which is  getting better.  I am dosing every other day with easy carbon. I don't use CO2. I am trying to add more plants to help outcompete the algae. I have java ferns, Anubias, Buce's and stem plants. I also added more flow.  I watched Bentley Pascoe's youtube videos and set my light according to his recommendations, and started ramping up slightly each week by a percent or two. Right now I have my lights set for  sunrise for 1.5 hours,  blue at 2% red at 15% all the whites at 25%. sunrise is at 10:30, lights 12:00-18:00, then sunset for 1.5 hours. I was playing around with the whites today and realized I don't really like the warm white. Can I omit the warm white and just use a higher percentage of the other 2 whites? Instead of 25% each white can I do 50% of the pure white and 25% of the cold white? Today I changed my sunrise and sunset for 2 hours each instead of the 1.5 hours it was. 

I was also reading about a dual siesta lighting schedule but have no idea where to even start with that for my 20L. Can anyone suggest settings for a dual siesta for me if I decide to try that? 

Thanks for all this great info and this very informative thread. 

[nabokovfan87]

On 2/17/2024 at 6:34 PM, Lilred said:

I don't use CO2. I am trying to add more plants to help outcompete the algae. I have java ferns, Anubias, Buce's and stem plants. I also added more flow.

These plants all do well with low light. Increasing flow may increase an issue with BBA if that's something you're struggling with. Just something to note and keep in mind.

 

On 2/17/2024 at 6:34 PM, Lilred said:

I watched Bentley Pascoe's youtube videos and set my light according to his recommendations, and started ramping up slightly each week by a percent or two. Right now I have my lights set for  sunrise for 1.5 hours,  blue at 2% red at 15% all the whites at 25%. sunrise is at 10:30, lights 12:00-18:00, then sunset for 1.5 hours. I was playing around with the whites today and realized I don't really like the warm white. Can I omit the warm white and just use a higher percentage of the other 2 whites? Instead of 25% each white can I do 50% of the pure white and 25% of the cold white? Today I changed my sunrise and sunset for 2 hours each instead of the 1.5 hours it was. 

The main thing I use is lighting from say 30-45 minutes after the light is on you start your lighting window and run for ~8 hours and then you have the same gap on the other side for your sunset. (Think of your ramp up/down time, use the middle of that slope for your start-end time)

If you're having an issue, yes you can omit it. You can also just run only the pure white channels and go from there. The red-green hues on the warm channel are beneficial for overall plant health, just keep that in mind.

The way I run mine, PW is a at the ratio for my desired max value and then everything is based on a ratio of that PW value. Something might be 5% less, something might be 15% less, just depends on what I am trying to emphasize.

As for the tank, the setup, my low demand 29g tank (taller) is at about 35% max value without a riser. I would LOVE to have the riser to help spread out the light as I did with one of my other tanks. I would expect that with a shorter tank, you're going to end up around 40-55% or so as a max value, but more likely 30% is a good range to shoot for and see how the plants are behaving.

[MannyThakk]

Ive found someones light schedule settings on plantedtank.net before i cam across this post here. I just set mine to this for now to see if i can prevent algae from coming back in my 55gal. Its not too heavily planted in my opinion atleast but if anyones got something to change to get a better result id love to see. Ill post the pic of the settings ive found along with a pic of my tank as well when i get home from work 

[JoeQ]

In my signature you will find a spreadsheet where you can manipulate Bentleys Day Sim setting based on output percentage. Check it out

[JoeQ]

Also, algae control has more to do with water quality/plant mass than tweaking light settings.

[nabokovfan87]

On 7/24/2024 at 3:09 PM, MannyThakk said:

Ive found someones light schedule settings on plantedtank.net before i cam across this post here. I just set mine to this for now to see if i can prevent algae from coming back in my 55gal. Its not too heavily planted in my opinion atleast but if anyones got something to change to get a better result id love to see. Ill post the pic of the settings ive found along with a pic of my tank as well when i get home from work 

What specific plants are you working with? I have been using fluvals on 55/75 for about 8ish years or however long it's been with a variety of plants to varying success.  I've learned a lot, but the main thing is going to be about what is your setup, your goals.

 

[purrmaid]

The ones making extra roots are pennywort, cabomba, and some mini clover looking stuff whose name I forget. The ludwigia occasionally makes a few extra but nothing crazy

[nabokovfan87]

On 7/31/2024 at 1:39 PM, purrmaid said:

pennywort

basically will grow regardless of anything you do.  It can tolerate a lot of light.

On 7/31/2024 at 1:39 PM, purrmaid said:

cabomba

One of the more unique stems from what I remember. I have never personally used it, but I would equate it to something like val or bacopa caroliniana.  It likes medium to medium-high light. The main thing is to make sure it has nutrients to stay thriving. Trim it when you need to. Let it grow leggy and healthy.

On 7/31/2024 at 1:39 PM, purrmaid said:

mini clover looking stuff whose name I forget.

hydrocotyle tripartita?  Same family as pennywort I believe. It will basically grow and do anything no matter what. It can tolerate a lot of light.
 

On 7/31/2024 at 1:39 PM, purrmaid said:

The ludwigia occasionally makes a few extra but nothing crazy

This is what I'm working with right now.

Because you're running multiple lights, you are far better off than I am.  I have one light, suspended above the tank, but I suspect the light is far long in the tooth and losing its intensity.  I say that because it seems to be lower in strength as I increase the power from 50 to near 100% at this point.  If I had two lights and I had the plants you had, my mainline white LED power would be around 70-85% to start with.  I would track how the tank is doing, let the plants settle in and focus on very good nutrition for those plants.  Once you have it dialed in and you're seeing new, healthy growth on everything, then I would increase it slightly +10-15%.  With two lights you shouldn't need to max out the fixture and you're going to have some pretty high par due to crosstalk between the lights (overlapping).  Placement of the plants in that section will be important. You would want to be sure to keep a foothold on algae and adjust accordingly with nutrients or light if things go haywire. 

If you need it, I can show you my current setup on my 75G.  The ratios would be good to go and you just adjust the intensity in concert with the mainline channel by whatever % you'd like to use.  The blue LED channel basically never gets touched.

[Goski]

Hello there!

I'm new and have been reading here alot lately. Right now I've got a fresh water aquarium and I've probably done every mistake there is so far... or could it just be the beginning of a few more 😉

I have a question. I've got a 30 liter (8 gallon) tank with a serious amount of plants. I do like having alot of plants and my tenants (shrimps, 3 small fish, snails) seem to like it. I started out with a fixed intensity LED light that went full blast 100% until I recently got a Fluval Plant 3.0 and I've gradually been lowering the light intensity. I'm a little afraid of going too low because of all the plants. I've got liquid carbon supplement if needed. The tank is about 2 months old and I haven't got a problem with algae or animals showing distress. Water levels are fine.

Should I increase the light somewhat even though it's a very small tank? Maybe doing the "double siesta" with slightly higher light intensity? I'll attach a few pictures so it's more obvious what I'm talking about.

Sorry for my English, it's not my first language. Thanks for all the tips earlier in the thread btw! Very much appreciated.

Edited August 19 by Goski
Picture size

[nabokovfan87]

On 8/18/2024 at 8:01 AM, Goski said:

Should I increase the light somewhat even though it's a very small tank? Maybe doing the "double siesta" with slightly higher light intensity? I'll attach a few pictures so it's more obvious what I'm talking about.

I wouldn't do a siesta unless you were running pressurized CO2. From you're profile below, I would recommend lowering the blue LEDs to 5% or lower. In terms of all of the other channels and ratios I would adjust them based on the actual shrimp you're keeping. What color and species?

On 8/18/2024 at 8:01 AM, Goski said:

I'm a little afraid of going too low because of all the plants. I've got liquid carbon supplement if needed. The tank is about 2 months old and I haven't got a problem with algae or animals showing distress. Water levels are fine.

I see you have some algae in the middle/center of the tank. (First photo)  Are you seeing healthy growth on all of the plants? Do any of them seem to be struggling?

[Goski]

Thanks for the reply! I have blue, red, yellow, red/white striped Neocaridina shrimps and also 3 Amanos. They seem to get along but maybe the mix is too much? They do play around and seem more active after I turned the lights down to the 25% line a week or so ago.

Does "cold white" count as a blue source? Otherwise pure blue is at 4 %. 

Regarding the algae, there are a few small green spots on the glass that I can see and they're visible only when very close. If you mean the bigger green brownish spot close to the floor of the center front of the tank it's a piece of moss that's coming out tomorrow. I'll attach a closer picture of it below.

The only plant that's still a little bit of a worry is the Cryptocoryne spec. 'Flamingo' (the pink plant) that seems very sensitive to light. It's the second time I'm trying to get that one to survive. The first time it just melted. Since I changed the settings to the present ones it seems to like it a bit more. The rest of the plants seem healthier than 2-3 weeks ago. 

Best regards!

Edited August 20 by Goski

[Tracy T]

I am new here to this forum. I have seen some of the examples of the siesta programs, but those that I saw were for a nano tank, utilizing only 25-30% of the lighting parameters. 

I have just started a Seapora 36x18x18 dirted, planted aquarium, and plan on using the Walstad method.  My previous 20 gallon breeder was using this method, but using just a non-programable LED light (4 years ago before I moved).  I purchased the Fluval planted LED light that has the programable 10 time changes. I am not going to use CO2, but will be using Excel. The plants that I am interested in will all have moderate to high lighting needs. 

My question is...Does anyone have a schedule with spectrum colors, times, etc.  I just laid down my substrate the other day, and will be getting my plants within the week. 

Thank you all for any help with this issue. 

[nabokovfan87]

On 8/26/2024 at 10:02 AM, Tracy T said:

I purchased the Fluval planted LED light that has the programable 10 time changes. I am not going to use CO2, but will be using Excel. The plants that I am interested in will all have moderate to high lighting needs. 

My question is...Does anyone have a schedule with spectrum colors, times, etc.  I just laid down my substrate the other day, and will be getting my plants within the week. 

This is mine, or a version of, but it's all very similar in setup with the ratios adjusted according to whatever I have the pure white channel on.



For the tank you're mentioning, I would adjust down in power, especially considering you are first starting out with a fresh tank.

Pure White: 30-35%
Warm White: 25-30%
Cool White: 20-30%
Blue: 3%
Pink: 35-40%

As the tank gets settled in, then you would just go up by 5-10% on each of those, excluding blue.  the blue you can max out at about 5% or so without much fuss or just keep it at the lower 3%.  You do get blue from other channels as well.