Fluval Plant 3.0 Scheduling and Programming

[Streetwise]

Welcome to the forum, @Frederick! Your light will continue to run whatever schedule you have with or without your phone. You just use the app to change your settings, or sync the time if the power has gone out.

If you are thinking of having a split schedule, how much time do you spend with your tank before work, and how much after?

Edited December 3, 2020 by Streetwise

[Frederick]

Cool... could you share what the best lighting profiles for a planted 10gal set up. I have diyc02 also. I have 58gal customized coming as well and would love to know more about it bfore buying another one. Usually i wanted my light to be operated when im home in the morning say 5am to 9:30am and back again from 7pm to 10pm. Do i need to do different profile for this two diffrent time set up?

[Streetwise]

I mocked up a potential schedule you could try in pro mode. Your light would start coming on at 05:00, finishing ramping up at 05:30, then steady until 09:30, where it ramps down to zero at 10:00. At 18:30, it would start the second ramp, then run steady from 19:00 to 21:00, ramping down to just 1% blue at 21:30, then fully off at 22:00. This would be about equivalent to eight hours of light.

You would have to to test to see how you and your plants like it, and scale up or down as necessary, or move the times a bit.

[Frederick]

Wow, really appreciates it... would try this today when i get back home. I think the efforts of finding someone like you here is worthwhile... keep it up, we need more like you!!!!

[Frederick]

That’s the profile you gave me boss, thank you so much. I would definitely using this. Till i get my own sets. I hope i can knkw more about the pros and cons of each colors, how does it affects my plants in particular. 

[Streetwise]

Let us know how it goes, and we can help you refine it! Start a tank journal and share some photos of your setup and inhabitants.

Cheers

[Streetwise]

A little follow-up info:

In my schedules, you can see that I vary the three different white values. This isn’t because of some secret formula, but just because I like having some variation in the color balance.

If you wanted to try that, you could +/- each white value at 05:30, 09:30, 19:00, and 21:00. Then the color balance could shift slowly over your plateaus. I hope that makes sense.

[Frederick]

Hi someone notice that my lights were little dark on the left side of my aquarium. For my 10gal set up as you recommended, if am going to change something, what would be from the white light?

[Streetwise]

@Frederick, your tank looks gorgeous!

The first thing I would recommend trying is reversing the L bracket so that you get more height. You may have to screw in the set screw tighter to hold it. I tend to match the end of the L with the the bottom of the rim piece:

[Daniel]

As a side note I think it is interesting that this thread is the number 1 result on Google for 'Fluval 3.0 Scheduling'.

Thank you @Streetwise!

[Frederick]

Ohh thanks Man,😍😍😍😍

anyways, will try out later bout this recommendations. So far the lighting were not that too hasrh which i like, am not that so sure if i need more broghter light. I might stay still on your recommendation though. Also, my one anuvias has sign of algae in the front. The rest are okay. The algae were from bfore it just added a little more.

[Bunker]

New to the forum. This is awesome. Just got the 3.0 24-34" yesterday and love it. This is what I came up with to start any input is appreciated. It's on a 36 tall with co2. The plants were growing well with the stock light. But I wanted a better spectrum so santa came early. Its full of a good mix of plants. Endlers a few tetras Corry cats and an algae Eater 2 nitrate snails.

Edited December 6, 2020 by Bunker

[Streetwise]

@Bunker, check back in 2-4 weeks and let us know how things are going. I have only tested up to 50% on my 20 gallons and smaller tanks. If you get an algae bloom before then, drop the power, and reset your personal timer to evaluate the results.

Thanks for sharing your schedule! BTW, your tank looks awesome.

What is your CO2 solenoid schedule relative to your lights?

PS to everyone: remember that the manual settings are all about photography. You can turn off all other lights, and pump up the color values for the tank that you are photographing. Take your photos and/or videos, and go back to Pro mode when done.

Edited December 9, 2020 by Streetwise

[Crass]

Hi their! Need some help setting up a basic schedule. Planted nano light, 3 gallon tank.

 

Depth is 8 inches from water surface to dwarf hair grass (my only plant). Do you have a recomened intensity? Just a simple 8 hour schedule. 

 

Thanks! 

[Streetwise]

@Crass, are you running the light in the tall or the long configuration? You can do a little more light if you are higher up. I almost always use the tall configuration.

For your needs, I would suggest trying an Auto program with a one hour Sunrise, Daylight with peak whites no more than 25%, red at about 10%, and blue at 1%, and lasting maybe six hours, and then a one hour Sunset, and then one hour Night with 1% blue. You could then tune this up or down depending on the balance you see in the tank.

I can try to mock something up if this isn't clear.

Edited December 20, 2020 by Streetwise

[Crass]

Hey @Streetwise  , thanks for the help! New to this light lol, what are you referring to when you say tall vs long config? I have the light 3 inches above water surface, and another 8" of water depth to my hairgrass. 

 

Attached pic of the tank, + current schedule. 

I am definitely open to a good multi peak schedule like you had posted earlier, if you wouldn't mind creating one for this size of tank! It would be much appreciated. Definitely like the idea of a longer viewing schedule 

 

 

Edited December 20, 2020 by Crass

[Streetwise]

@Crass, you can use the L bracket in either configuration. If you want to try the tall setup, take out the bracket and use the long section vertically, and the shorter section horizontally.

If you scroll up, I have a photo from December 5th.

[LonBeMe]

Looking for examples to have a nice colorful sunrise and set. Any help is appreciated. 

[Irene]

@LonBeMe I just saw that @Bentley Pascoe released a new video on his Fluval 3.0 schedules for different types of tank setups.

They seem to imitate sunrise and sunset quite nicely, so I'm going to be trying his shallow day sim schedule. Here is a link to the different variations he posted: 

Fluval 3.0 Plant Pro Mode Settings

IMGUR.COM

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Imgur: The magic of the Internet

 

[Julia]

Help!

I have a 55 gallon low tech setup. I use root tabs and flourish. I switched to a 48” fluval 3.0 plant spectrum from a standard flourescent that came with the hood cause I felt like the sagittaria and other lower plants werent getting enough light. 
but now Im having so many issues! I went from just a little green spot algae that my pleco happily enjoyed to Hair algae, green spot algae and black beard algae. The tank has been running since april. 
i have been adding excel for weeks but seems to do nothing. 
i want to maintain a low tech set up. 
i simply have Val and wisteria (which is brown with algae) willow, and anubias(which have the black beard but also now these tiny white dots everywhere...mold? I dont know! No, not nerite eggs. I have those too though, lol)

the lights are at red 75% blue 20% all the whites at 60%
i read that algae gets worse with low light  but if the light is too high then the balance with the nutrients will be off and cause algae anyway. So do I need to increase or decrease light??

also, my nitrates are always low, at zero after a cleaning. I water change every two weeks and by two weeks nitrates are back up to 5. But do i need to add a nitrate fertilizer? 
Help. Im in the weeds here. 

[Julia]

Thank you for posting Bentley Pascoe’s videos!!! So helpful! I am going to try his suggestions regarding starting slow. My blue and pink is likely too high. These videos are everything I needed. Thank you again!

[pedrofisk]

I'm struggling to get swords to grow in my 55. To be honest they grew better before I got the Fluval 3. 

I've got it pretty cranked down with a long photo period. I heard swords like a long day. Not sure. I also give root tabs once a month.

The amber and red are to give a more sunrise and sunset look. Any advice is appreciated.

[Machete]

Wow this thread is gold! Thanks @Streetwise and everyone else who posted their schedules! 

I am running 2 of the 36-48 inches in my 40 breeder and a nano in my 5 gallon. Both have CO2 injection. 

I haven't experimented with the pro feature because the Planted mode works fine for both tanks. I do have a shorter 8 hour schedule though.

(I am currently using this tank just to keep the trimmings from the other one until I find someone to take them 😁)

Edited January 6, 2021 by Machete

[Andy's Fish Den]

@Machete two of the 3.0 on a 40 breeder? Are you growing a lot of high light plants? I am going to get one for a 40 breeder project, I saw on the co-op website it says that one would be med-high light and should be plenty for most of the plants I would grow. Do you think one would be enough? I will have co2, but not planning on any light demanding plants.

[Machete]

3 hours ago, Andy's Fish Den said:

@Machete two of the 3.0 on a 40 breeder? Are you growing a lot of high light plants? I am going to get one for a 40 breeder project, I saw on the co-op website it says that one would be med-high light and should be plenty for most of the plants I would grow. Do you think one would be enough? I will have co2, but not planning on any light demanding plants.

Yes, I have a lot of carpeting and high light plants. I also got a second light because the first one wasn't reaching everywhere. It was more a mater of coverage than intensity, really.