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Needing help adjusting light intensities for Current USA Serene Sun Pro Le

Plant Boy

Seedling
Joined
29 Jun 2021
Messages
2
Location
United States
Recently bought the Current Usa Serene Sun Pro Le light fixture for my 75 gallon aquarium. There are glass covers on the top of the aquarium. There are medium/ highlight plants. Medium to heavy plant mass. Needing enough light to reach lower leafs of purple cabomba and alteranthia reneki, and to color them up. There are green plants in there too.Also would like to bring out colors of south american puffers and cardinal tetras.Question is what should I set the light intensities on the ramp controller. I can control the white,blue,red and green.
 
Hi @Plant Boy , Welcome to UKAPS! :) To get the best expert advice, the experts will need more info about your tank. Such as whether you Inject CO2 etc.
I am no expert, but in general, your choice of color wont matter, as long as it's not totally off (and that may not even matter, but your plants and fish will look unnatural)... I'd say go for a color scheme that makes the plants a fish look good and don't worry - intensity is the key factor. If your running a low tech tank my advice would be to to go low on light intensity - when you think it's low, go lower - best advise I was ever given. You will have a hard time doing high intensity light in a planted tank without injecting CO2. IF you are injecting CO2 then well, then it depends... posting a picture and more details will be helpful.

Cheers,
Michael
 
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There are medium/ highlight plants. Medium to heavy plant mass. Needing enough light to reach lower leafs of purple cabomba and alteranthia reneki, and to color them up.
Hello,
There really are no such thing as medium or high light plants. This is a myth perpetuated by people who sell high lights.
What grows plants and what keeps them healthy are CO2 and nutrients. So we should be concerned about how to get CO2 to the lower leaves, otherwise they are likely to actually fall off or wither on the stem. The plants you mention naturally have color and if they are healthy they will color up regardless. It's suggested therefore that you pay more attention to your filter's flow rate and your distribution method first and worry about light last. As mentioned by MichaelJ use whatever color makes you happy because it will not really matter to the plants what color you use as long as those colors do not have too much intensity. I would start the tank with no more than about 20% intensity and raise it only after you have mastered CO2/flow/distribution.

Cheers,
 
There is pressurized co2 being injected into a external reactor. The filter that is pushing it is a oase biomaster 600. I also have a power head to move the co2 to reach the lower leafs of the plants on the opposite side of the tank. There is 30ppm of co2 in the water. I moved on from a light fixture that I didnt have to mess with the colors or intensity. It was a set and go light. But it still didnt put out enough light. So that's why I am needing advice with the new light fixture and the intensity/ percentages I should set the colors at.
 
There is pressurized co2 being injected into a external reactor. The filter that is pushing it is a oase biomaster 600. I also have a power head to move the co2 to reach the lower leafs of the plants on the opposite side of the tank. There is 30ppm of co2 in the water. I moved on from a light fixture that I didnt have to mess with the colors or intensity. It was a set and go light. But it still didnt put out enough light. So that's why I am needing advice with the new light fixture and the intensity/ percentages I should set the colors at.
Plants use all colors for photosynthesis. Some a bit more than others.
Color is your choice really.
Only thing that really matters is if intensity is in step with nutrients and CO2.

ONE thing though.. Since plants adapt to the light environment it isn't best practice to be changing things drastically a lot.
I personally prefer to emulate nature a bit..
Morning ramp starting w/ red or red orange, increasing other colors till I get my preferred viewing "shade" and intensity then hold for whatever time period I decide on and then reverse morning ramp till lights off.
And this repeats every day.
Then watch your plants to see how they are responding.
 
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