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Fluval 3.0 lighting and my plants


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The 24" fluval light only has an 18" light surface.  I centered it my new 29 galleon tank (30" wide).  My aquascape has Pogostemon planted in the corner of the tank with the intention of it growing in to hide the filter behind it.  My Pogostemon is actually growing on an angle to recenter itself under the brighter light.  It is also growing rather long well spaced out leaves which would indicate to me my lighting is too low at least for it. I run 50% for ten hours and so far have had little to no algae so am hesitant to adjust.  

Think I should up the top rate at least for some portion of the day or rearrange plants?

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On 6/24/2021 at 11:19 PM, tnnlynch said:

The 24" fluval light only has an 18" light surface.  I centered it my new 29 galleon tank (30" wide).  My aquascape has Pogostemon planted in the corner of the tank with the intention of it growing in to hide the filter behind it.  My Pogostemon is actually growing on an angle to recenter itself under the brighter light.  It is also growing rather long well spaced out leaves which would indicate to me my lighting is too low at least for it. I run 50% for ten hours and so far have had little to no algae so am hesitant to adjust.  

Think I should up the top rate at least for some portion of the day or rearrange plants?

Here is a classic thread posted by @Streetwise on "day 1" of the forum. It may not answer everything you're asking, but if you'v not seen this one yet, it's really a great deep dive . . .

 

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  • 3 weeks later...
On 6/24/2021 at 10:19 PM, tnnlynch said:

The 24" fluval light only has an 18" light surface.  I centered it my new 29 galleon tank (30" wide).  My aquascape has Pogostemon planted in the corner of the tank with the intention of it growing in to hide the filter behind it.  My Pogostemon is actually growing on an angle to recenter itself under the brighter light.  It is also growing rather long well spaced out leaves which would indicate to me my lighting is too low at least for it. I run 50% for ten hours and so far have had little to no algae so am hesitant to adjust.  

Think I should up the top rate at least for some portion of the day or rearrange plants?

I think if you're algae free you can probably bump the light intensity a bit and see how the tank responds over a week. I have similar annoyances with the Fluval 3.0 and it's relatively narrow throw of light. At this point I'm replacing mine, but what helped me was to suspend it over the tank. Any way to raise it up will broaden the area lit in the tank. If you're only at 50%, you have room to increase the lighting, too (to compensate for the additional distance).

Edited by johnjohnjohn87
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  • 2 weeks later...

Sorry for the lack of response as I was out of town.  

@DebSills I like the Fluval application and controls and really appreciated the advantages of an LED light so I don't regret it's purchase.  Had I known the lighting area was 4 inches smaller than expected, I would have modified the layout to account for it. 

@johnjohnjohn87 I have upped my lighting to 60% for an hour a day for the last week.  I see an uptick in the brown spot algae but I was out of town so that might be due to the lack of normal maintenance.  The Val's have started to recover but the Pogostemon has essentially taken over the center of the tank by growing on an angle over my scarlet temple.  I will need to do some trimming and replanting.   Raising the light is a consideration I will have to think about.  

What light are you replacing the fluval with for your tanks? 

 

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On 7/25/2021 at 9:24 PM, tnnlynch said:

Sorry for the lack of response as I was out of town.  

@DebSills I like the Fluval application and controls and really appreciated the advantages of an LED light so I don't regret it's purchase.  Had I known the lighting area was 4 inches smaller than expected, I would have modified the layout to account for it. 

@johnjohnjohn87 I have upped my lighting to 60% for an hour a day for the last week.  I see an uptick in the brown spot algae but I was out of town so that might be due to the lack of normal maintenance.  The Val's have started to recover but the Pogostemon has essentially taken over the center of the tank by growing on an angle over my scarlet temple.  I will need to do some trimming and replanting.   Raising the light is a consideration I will have to think about.  

What light are you replacing the fluval with for your tanks? 

 

I replaced it with a pair of Finnex Planted+ 24/7 ACL lights. I'm only running the pair at about 60% for now, as that is already a decent bump in PAR (I think), but plan to increase a bit over the next few weeks. The reason I raised the 3.0 was because I wanted to light the rear of the tank after adding a decent amount of substrate to the rear as well. The narrow beam of light wasn't really working for me so I just raised in a few inches by suspending it from the ceiling. That actually worked well for me for several months before I decided to try replacing the 3.0.

Yea, traveling has made it a bit more difficult to maintain everything this time of year hahaha. Good luck with the spot algae! I'm very slowly combating some BBA, but I think the tides have finally turned for me!

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