Fluval Plant 3.0 Scheduling and Programming

[JoeQ]

On 6/28/2022 at 4:54 PM, Streetwise said:

@JoeQ, it is really going to be specific to what window light you have. I have a few tanks with only window light, and one tank where I had to install blackout curtains to stop window light.

Try something and report back in a month!

Welp..... Its a bit shy of a month, but evidently the easiest way to get rid of hair algea was to butcher the bejesus out of my aquarium and (hopefully) get things growing again! 🤣 It made no difference between 1% or a full 4h blackout. The only thing that did was grow green dust algea instead of hair algea. 

[nabokovfan87]

@Streetwise I have a slight issue and I'm not sure which way to swing the parameters. 

Sunrise / Sunset: 1.5 hours slope.  I prefer it to be longer, but trying to shorten it as much as possible due to algae (Staghorn / BBA)

Lighting window:  7 hours, I just adjusted this to 8 hours.

Here's my dilemma.  I've heard that when calculating your "lighting window" you take the halfway point of your sunrise / sunset and that would be included in the total time.  Meaning, my window is 8 hours + 1.5 hours so I'm at 9.5 hours total right now.

What do you use to determine the total "lighting window" in your setups?

The reason I ask, I have some DHG that just always seems to never get enough light if I don't have the light strong enough.  I can either bump the power, the window, or add CO2.  Right now I gave the tank a slightly longer hour, will be adding CO2, and then determine the intensity based on growth of the plants / algae.

[wuht]

I picked up a used nano for a good deal a little while back. I tested it and it turned on and everything appeared to be working well but it seems there might be a problem with the night mode settings.

The blue leds don't seem to turn fully off whether in manual or automatic/pro modes. If I use automatic settings and set everything to 0% including the blue it seems to stay on, and the same happens if I enable the sleep timer.

Like I said it's used and I got it for a good deal so I'm not too upset if that is something malfunctioning. Just wanted to check with others that those two options should turn the leds fully off.

[nabokovfan87]

On 7/26/2022 at 8:41 PM, wuht said:

Like I said it's used and I got it for a good deal so I'm not too upset if that is something malfunctioning. Just wanted to check with others that those two options should turn the leds fully off.

Are you using the app or the light itself?  Did you update the firmware?

[wuht]

On 7/27/2022 at 1:51 AM, nabokovfan87 said:

Are you using the app or the light itself?  Did you update the firmware?

Using the app and the light is updated to the latest firmware yup.

[nabokovfan87]

I wonder if there is a way to force it to re-update itself.

I think there's something wrong with the circuitry on your light unfortunately.  I've got 3 lights, 2 of the planted and 1 aquasky and they all work generally the same way.  If I turn the blue lights off, they go off completely.  Please feel free to share your app settings / screenshots that you think might help to try to show what's going on. @wuht

[Nanci B]

I am so sorry this post is very, very long—but lots of problems and backstory. 

Have had the Fluval Planted 3.0 on my 75 gallon for approximately 2-3 months and at first the auto setting was weird. I am using my poor memory so if this sounds weird I am probably not remembering correctly. 
so at first auto setting ( don’t remember sunrise) daylight came on around 7-8. Stayed on till around 4-5 and then went into sunset and then night. That’s 9 hours, but my plants were doing poorly and I am a night person, so this was totally unworkable. 
 

I fiddled around with the app and frankly did something funky. I was trying to adjust the lighting schedule. 
then I found this thread and did watch Benson’s YouTube videos, but I was not understanding completely. I couldn’t figure out how to adjust the lighting. 
 

And then I came across I think @Streetwise mention of a siesta and wanted to do that since it sounded like it would be better for my life. 
And the double siesta sounded perfect.
In the meantime, I somehow adjusted the lights in the auto setting to a very long light period.  It’s been this way for probably 2-3 weeks.  And that was the beginning of my huge algae issue. I already had a problem, but the bga went insane  and the staghorn became twice as bad.  And the crazy thing is I have so many plants to plant. They are floating in my tank right now. 
I knew I had a big problem, but I have several different health issues to the point that I am on disability and there are many days I don’t  leave my bed except for the bare necessaries. I only mention this because it definitely interferes with maintenance of my tank.
It also interferes with checking email, fb, and this forum. So even though I need to post, I usually don’t feel well enough to do so. (I wish I could just beam my thoughts up to the forum and you guys would know what I was dealing with. 😂) 
I do check water parameters and feed the fish, vacuum occasionally and usually only top off water due to water parameters remaining stable. Plants growing well, I use easy green. 
But of course after this crazy light change, the tank went nuts. Plants growing well but algae was getting worse. 

so back to changing the lights.
what I am thinking is setting up a schedule (still need directions on how to)  

I still think the plants need 8 hours of light: not sure how to set up because the only important part is that I need to  have the tank on from 5-11. That’s 6 hours. 
how the heck can I set up 2 siestas, in addition to sunrise and sunset? I don’t mean to come across as a dunce, but I am clueless. To make things extra tricky, is that the tank is located in a room with natural light (only place for tank) and that was the beginning of the bga in my substrate to the south. I finally blocked that off with a black poster board. So I’m not sure if the natural light will affect the siestas?

So anyone want to chime in on what my light schedule should or could look like  with the only parameter of tank light on from 5-11pm and needs to be on long enough to so my plants continue to grow.
 

(I also just read the post about RR and think I need to help my plants with that technique) 
 

please help before my tank disappears under the algae and my fish and plants are smothered to death. 😱

Many thanks 🙏🏻  🪷

[Streetwise]

A sunrise or sunset is just a two point triangle in pro mode, aka a ramp-up, or ramp-down. You have ten set points in pro mode to play with, although I wish there were more.

[JoeQ]

On 8/1/2022 at 4:37 PM, Streetwise said:

A sunrise or sunset is just a two point triangle in pro mode, aka a ramp-up, or ramp-down. You have ten set points in pro mode to play with, although I wish there were more.

Or at least not wasting 2 points with an 'on' and 'off' time...... The wifi adapter hack should work to reclaim these points, but I haven't expiramented with it. 

[Nanci B]

@Streetwise , @JoeQ:

Any thoughts on how I should set up the actual time periods? 
 

 

 

[Nanci B]

@Streetwise @joeQ 

what I meant to say is any thoughts on what times I should use to continue to let plants grow, decrease algae (I am going to remove all plants to put through RR) and have lights on from 5-11p?

Is it better to have lights reduced for a longer period of time or have lights at full intensity for shorter amount of time? 
 

I am going to rewatch Benson’s YouTube videos again. (I hope that’s his correct name)

 

ideas? I really appreciate everyone’s help 😊

[Streetwise]

My schedule is documented here with two siestas, and a one hour blue on some of my tanks. With only ten points, it is ramp-up, ramp-down, flat pause for a siesta, another ramp-up, and ramp-down, another pause, a final ramp-up, and ramp-down, and a final blue sleepy ramp down.

If I had more points, I would do a sustained bit for each peak. However, my tanks are so stable that I don’t feel the need for more changes.

[JoeQ]

On 8/1/2022 at 6:13 PM, Nanci B said:

@Streetwise ,@joeQ 

Any thoughts on how I should set up the actual time periods? 
 

 

 

I like Bentleys DaySim but this has the light on for 14h which is not recommended for most people. To suggest light settings I would need a little more information about your tank, light  hight to substrate messurements, plants, ect. Also MOST of algea control is about maintenance and growing your eco system {plant selection, algea/organic debris eating inhabitants) 

[Nanci B]

@Streetwise  @JoeQ I will dig in this thread for your schedule. I know it’s in the early part of the thread. My tank is a 75g. 

[Nanci B]

@Streetwise Ok I found your post and I have questions about your setting for the 15-20g. The name of tank is bowfront long 3.0.4

Is this your largest tank?

so I see your sunrise from 7-9a

Then 9a I guess start of daylight( 9-11?)

then from 11-14:00 0%  —- is this your 1st siesta? 

at 14:00 lights on until

16:00-19:00 0% Second Siesta? 

19:00-21:00 lights on

at 21:00 basically off

at 22:00-7:00a night

 

 Question—I see your lights are at 50%  do you think that is a good idea for my plants with a tank depth of 21” ? 
 

Question—I am curious about your lights being on for only 6 hours?? Why such a short period and what type of plants do you have? 
 

Thanks! 

 

[Streetwise]

This is my current schedule for 16, 20, 20.  Those peak color variations are just to make each peak slightly different. You can scale up for deeper tanks.

My lights are technically on for 12 hours, not including sleepy-time blue.

[Nanci B]

@Streetwise why only 50% light intensity? What type of plants do you have? I ask because before the algae my plants were growing well. I just have mostly crypts and need more stem plants. Which I have to plant, but I need to have a good energy day to do the whole process. Pull 27 crypts and several other plants out of the tank, start the RR process, work on killing the gba in the tank with hydrogen peroxide and then replant everything. And I am changing the hardscape so that needs to be done before the plants go back in. I’m kind of worried about even starting the whole process to be honest. And I also have 2 quarantine tanks, one of which is doing great has 9 threadfin Rainbowfish, and the other started with 17 green neon tetras, and I have lost one sometimes 2 every single day. 

[nabokovfan87]

On 8/1/2022 at 3:22 PM, Nanci B said:

what I meant to say is any thoughts on what times I should use to continue to let plants grow, decrease algae (I am going to remove all plants to put through RR) and have lights on from 5-11p?

Is it better to have lights reduced for a longer period of time or have lights at full intensity for shorter amount of time? 
 

I am going to rewatch Benson’s YouTube videos again. (I hope that’s his correct name)

 

ideas? I really appreciate everyone’s help 😊

His name is Bentley 🙂

So you're saying 5-11P.  Let's say you're replicating a full day of lights.  Even if I assume something like 3-5 hour sunrise and sunsets, it's a massive amount of light.  I wouldn't suggest it for anything other than the most highly developed tank.  I would START with 8 hours as your window.  As an example I will show you mine, but I do not have siestas integrated.



This gives you an idea for how to view "active hours".  There is some confusion and differences in how people calculate this out.  This is my method and it's straightforward given that I don't have siestas.  My "main lighting window" is going to be when the light is actually on, not when it's turning on or increasing to something the plants can utilize.  I do have low light plants, but that isn't what I am basing the math on for the calculation for how long I run my light.

Let's say you want to run for an "active window" of ~8.5 hours.  this just means you want to check the above and see what your overall high and lows are for that window.  If you have algae issues with the big span, maybe you need to turn things down from 8 hours down to 6 hours, etc.

The goal is to find a balance, find something close, and then check to see what the plants do when you're doing everything right.  This means dosing ferts, lights, and CO2 are all working effectively.

On 8/1/2022 at 4:44 PM, Nanci B said:

Question—I see your lights are at 50%  do you think that is a good idea for my plants with a tank depth of 21” ? 

I would start at 55-65% for power with that depth of tank.

On 8/1/2022 at 12:27 AM, Nanci B said:

what I am thinking is setting up a schedule (still need directions on how to)  

If you have questions after this please tag or DM me and I'll walk you through how to use the app 🙂

 

Edited August 12, 2022 by nabokovfan87

[Streetwise]

I finally had a buddy 3D print the rimmed Nano mount:

Bruce Wayne: “Does it come in black?”

[nabokovfan87]

Awesome!  Let us know how it goes when you have a chance to fit check.

[Albie]

What a great resource! Thank you everyone for all of the information. After reading a lot on line and watching many videos, I found the opening post was really what I needed.

I do have a question that's a bit different from what's being discussed here. I am looking for information on how lighting settings make your fish look. My biggest concern with my lighting is how the tank looks, not how to best grow plants. Of course I want my plants to thrive, but the plants are secondary to the fish. In fact, some of my fish (Uaru) eat plants unfortunately. So I am growing anubias and java fern because they are apparently not so appealing to the fish.

I am looking for lighting suggestions that will best bring out the colors of the fish while also allowing for good plant growth. I have read in depth articles about what spectrums bring out what colors in fish, but the information was not useful in a practical sense. I would love some actual examples of settings on the Fluval 3.0.

Does anyone have any correlations between lighting spectrums and fish color they have noticed when adjusting spectrums? For instance, I notice that most users here keep blue very low. I thought that more blue might bring out blue in the fish better, but when I experimented, I didn't find that. Curious if others have looked at this aspect in addition to plant growth and algae reduction?

Another observation with my new lights is not necessarily a plus - they show every minute particle of debris suspended in the water as well as tiny air bubbles. This light is vastly better than my old light, but with the old light my fish looked like they were floating in air. 

My tank is 125 gal (72"x18"x20") and has been up for years. The lights are new - two 36" Fluval - and the plants are new. Thanks for any input!

 

Edited October 31, 2022 by Albie
typo

[nabokovfan87]

On 10/31/2022 at 6:11 AM, Albie said:

I do have a question that's a bit different from what's being discussed here. I am looking for information on how lighting settings make your fish look. My biggest concern with my lighting is how the tank looks, not how to best grow plants. Of course I want my plants to thrive, but the plants are secondary to the fish. In fact, some of my fish (Uaru) eat plants unfortunately. So I am growing anubias and java fern because they are apparently not so appealing to the fish.

I am looking for lighting suggestions that will best bring out the colors of the fish while also allowing for good plant growth. I have read in depth articles about what spectrums bring out what colors in fish, but the information was not useful in a practical sense. I would love some actual examples of settings on the Fluval 3.0.

I tend to lean towards reds in my tank to highlight the reds of the fish.  This is a visual thing and it's something you'll see a few places where they want to highlight a warmer or cooler spectrum of color based on the fish that is the focal point for that tank.  Grey, blue, blacks and cooler tones being where you'd bump up the "cool white" as opposed to the "warm white" coloration.  On some of the presets there is a few of them for lake and amazon tones which also correlates to these setups.

Depending on what you specifically are looking for, those are the two settings I play with as well as the pink/red spectrum. 

Generally speaking, I have the "pure white" as my value that guides all of the other settings at a ratio.
-Pure white (for this example let's say it's at 100%, but that would generally lead to algae)

Reddish color highlights:
-Cool white at 30-50%
-Warm white at 60-90%
-Red/pink at 70-90%

Blue color highlights:
-Cool white at 60-90%
-Warm white at 30-50%
-Red/pink at 15-40%

[Albie]

On 11/4/2022 at 3:15 PM, nabokovfan87 said:

I tend to lean towards reds in my tank to highlight the reds of the fish.  This is a visual thing and it's something you'll see a few places where they want to highlight a warmer or cooler spectrum of color based on the fish that is the focal point for that tank.  Grey, blue, blacks and cooler tones being where you'd bump up the "cool white" as opposed to the "warm white" coloration.  On some of the presets there is a few of them for lake and amazon tones which also correlates to these setups.

Depending on what you specifically are looking for, those are the two settings I play with as well as the pink/red spectrum. 

Generally speaking, I have the "pure white" as my value that guides all of the other settings at a ratio.
-Pure white (for this example let's say it's at 100%, but that would generally lead to algae)

Reddish color highlights:
-Cool white at 30-50%
-Warm white at 60-90%
-Red/pink at 70-90%

Blue color highlights:
-Cool white at 60-90%
-Warm white at 30-50%
-Red/pink at 15-40%

Interesting info, thank you. It looks like I have some experimenting to do!

I haven't done as much as I want because it really seems to freak my fish out. When I change modes the light goes off or goes to all blue between some of the settings. This makes the fish panic and I have some large ones that can really damage themselves by smacking into the glass. Gives me pause before playing with the lighting.

[nabokovfan87]

On 11/6/2022 at 1:13 PM, Albie said:

I haven't done as much as I want because it really seems to freak my fish out. When I change modes the light goes off or goes to all blue between some of the settings. This makes the fish panic and I have some large ones that can really damage themselves by smacking into the glass. Gives me pause before playing with the lighting.

I totally understand. slower (longer) ramp up / down times should help the fish with light changes.  It's not necessary in almost every situation to have the lights on blast, especially if they are skiddish.  I'd encourage you to show off the tank and make a thread in the other sections so we can potentially offer some advice on scape or something that might help with the fish being skiddish.  A lot of times, a minor adjustment to the scape and the fish feel more comfortable. 🙂

[Albie]

I wasn't clear. It's a well established tank and the fish are not skittish under normal conditions. I've figured out the ramp up/ramp down in Pro Mode and that works great.

The problem is when I switch modes in order to play with the light spectrum. It turns the light off suddenly (I have two lights on a 125g) between modes/functions and that makes the fish panic. I can actually hear them bump the glass so this discourages me from messing around as much as I'd like.

If I could figure out how to do the adjustments without the lights flashing off first that would help.