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Fluval Plant 3.0

REDSTEVEO

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Joined
31 Mar 2008
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I recently bought the Fluval Plant 3.0 LED Light for my aquarium. It operates via Bluetooth and has a Manual, Auto and Pro functionality.

I am quite impressed with the versatility of this light, but still not found what would be considered to be the perfect settings for each light spectrum or the intensity.

Has anyone else who has got this light and has found the perfect settings to keep plants healthy and without creating algae?

TIA
Screenshot_20200618-145957_FluvalSmart.jpg
 
I've had the Plant 3.0 for around a year now.

I had the Plant 2.0 before that.

Before committing on the above can you answer the following :

1) What size is your tank WxDxH?

2) Are you injecting CO2?

3) What percentage of your substrate is planted (how much plant mass do you have)?

4) What is your fertiliser / fertiliser regime?
 
I've had the Plant 3.0 for around a year now.

I had the Plant 2.0 before that.

Before committing on the above can you answer the following :

1) What size is your tank WxDxH?

2) Are you injecting CO2?

3) What percentage of your substrate is planted (how much plant mass do you have)?

4) What is your fertiliser / fertiliser regime?

The tank is an Eheim 400 litre tank, LxWxH = 130cmx55cmx55cm

Not injecting CO2 at the moment, using Easylife Carbo but I've got all the kit for injecting CO2 if I wanted to. But I've got 2.5 inch juvenile Discus in there so not using CO2 I je tion.

60% of substrate is planted, but only recently added the plants.

Not using any fertilisers at present, but have followed the EI Dosing regime on previous tanks.

20200617_203118.jpg
20200617_212417.jpg
 
Nice tank.

I'm no plant expert but it looks like you have mainly low to medium light plants.

You also have a modest plant mass.

Without CO2 I would probably try:
Pink 50%
Blue 5%
Cold White 55%
Pure White 48%
Warm White 50%

For 7 hours per day.

That shouldn't give you much more than 40 Par at substrate.

A siesta is fine for a low light, no C02 tank, so your hour break should be fine.

I would avoid more than 1 hr ramp up and ramp down.

I would also have the lights completely off between ramp down and ramp up.

Edit: I would suggest you are going to need to start adding fertilisers. If it were me I would try 40% E.I. But with only 25% E.I. Nitrate as I understand Discus need around 10ppm Nitrate.
 
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Without CO2 I would probably try:
Pink 50%
Blue 5%
Cold White 55%
Pure White 48%
Warm White 50%
Is that on the Auto Function Setting? I shall reduce the ramp up and ramp down times.

Re the use of injected CO2 I stopped using it when I switched to a non planted tank. I am a bit wary of overdosing CO2 with the small Discus.

Not quite sure exactly what you mean regarding 40% EI at 25%
 
Sorry to jump in on your thread @REDSTEVEO .
Hope you don’t mind.
I got this light a little while ago. And was wondering the same thing, but for a high tech 12 inch deep tank, any thoughts would be appreciated
 
Is that on the Auto Function Setting? I shall reduce the ramp up and ramp down times.

Re the use of injected CO2 I stopped using it when I switched to a non planted tank. I am a bit wary of overdosing CO2 with the small Discus.

Not quite sure exactly what you mean regarding 40% EI at 25%

Hi @REDSTEVEO

I just setup the Auto settings and leave the light on Auto 24/7.

Why not have the lights come on a 10:30 so you have an even 30 minutes ramp up and ramp down?

If you go to the Rotala Butterfly website, it will provide you with EI dosages of N, P, K, CSM+B, Mg, and Fe, measured for your 400L. What I'm suggesting for your tank without injected CO2 is that you use 40% of the levels suggested by Rotala Butterfly, except for N which you should dose at 25%.

You can use booth these light settings and dosage settings as a base, and if no algae after 1 month push the lights 10% higher. If poor growth after 1 month, increase EI dosage.

You can also test your water for NPK to see how much of your dosage the plants are using per week.
 
Sorry to jump in on your thread @REDSTEVEO .
Hope you don’t mind.
I got this light a little while ago. And was wondering the same thing, but for a high tech 12 inch deep tank, any thoughts would be appreciated

Hi @Melv85

That's a much harder question, but assuming that you are happy you have plenty of CO2 and good flow in the tank, and are dosing full E.I. ferts, and that you have a reasonably high plant mass:

Pink 70%
Blue 5%
Cold White 75%
Pure White 68%
Warm White 70%

This should give you at least 90 Par at substrate. You will need to watch closely and dial it in from here. For me it's almost inevitable you will get some algae growth with high lights, so I'd also you ensure you have a clean up crew (Nerite snails, Amano shrimp, Otocinclus) - I hear that a Siamese Algae Eater is the best.
 
Sorry to jump in on your thread @REDSTEVEO .
Hope you don’t mind.
I got this light a little while ago. And was wondering the same thing, but for a high tech 12 inch deep tank, any thoughts would be appreciated

@Melv85 no problem at all. I think Nick has probably answered your question. In my opinion a 12 inch deep tank is a tad on the shallow side for a light like the Fluval Plant 3.0. But mine is the largest model at 58 watts. You dont mention the length or width of your tank, only the depth.

If you have the same light as mine I think you would either have to raise the light very high above the tank, or ramp down the light intensity a lot to avoid algae issues.

Keep in touch and we'll see how we get on.

Thanks to @Nick72 for his input.
 
Hi @REDSTEVEO

I just setup the Auto settings and leave the light on Auto 24/7.

Why not have the lights come on a 10:30 so you have an even 30 minutes ramp up and ramp down?

If you go to the Rotala Butterfly website, it will provide you with EI dosages of N, P, K, CSM+B, Mg, and Fe, measured for your 400L. What I'm suggesting for your tank without injected CO2 is that you use 40% of the levels suggested by Rotala Butterfly, except for N which you should dose at 25%.

You can use booth these light settings and dosage settings as a base, and if no algae after 1 month push the lights 10% higher. If poor growth after 1 month, increase EI dosage.

You can also test your water for NPK to see how much of your dosage the plants are using per week.
Morning Nick,

Thanks ever so much for the help with these light settings. If I have the lights coming on at 10.30 and follow your advice of having a 7 hour light period, the lights will be going off at 5.30pm:confused:

I know this is probably for the best. But I do like seeing the tank in the evening, but to do that I would have to have them coming on at 12.30 to get the extra 2 hours in the evening, which is probably not good either.

This is one of the reasons why I was having a mess about with the Pro settings to see if I could have the lights in longer with a ramp down to lower light intensity sometime throughout the day for an hour or two.

What do you think?
 
@REDSTEVEO

There is nothing wrong with the light coming on at 12:30 or even 16:30, if the aquarium is in reasonably dark conditions during lights off.

Unfortunately my tank is in the living room and my family open the curtains by 8am every day - my lights therefore turn off at 17:30.

So it really depends on where your tank is situated.

A one or two hour siesta in the middle of the day can be a good thing - as long as the tank is not getting lots of direct or ambient sunlight during this time.

What I would really caution against is having the lights set really low for several hours in the morning or evening - that's an algae growth plan.
 
Hi @Nick72

That's interesting. Would you mind explaining this?

JPC

Just for you JPC:

1) Issues with starting lights on with a multi-hour period of low light.
Your plants will naturally open during this low light period and potentially close before or earlier during the intended higher intensity photo period.

Your plants do not need more than 5-7 hours of light per day.

Algae will often thrive if provided long hours of variable light intensity, especially if the plants aren't competing through many of these hours.

2) Issues with a multi hour low light period after your photo period.
Your plants have already had there fill of lights and nutrients for the day and will close. This leaves this time for the algae to thrive, which it is perfectly happy to do in varying light over long hours.
 
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