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I hate shimmer, is there hope for me

Hufsa

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Joined
22 Aug 2019
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2,205
Location
Norway
My new LED aquarium lights arrived today and I discovered that I hate shimmer. Like really hate it. I can hardly focus on anything in the tank with all the shimmering. Sounds a bit dramatic I'm sure but thats how it feels. I dont think I will get used to this :(

Does this mean I should get T8/T5 lighting for my tank instead? Or are there LEDs that dont have shimmer?
Very bummed about this whole thing :(
 
It is two of these LED light bars. Aqualight is the brand, not a very big brand it seems, I had never heard of it.
Worth noting maybe that I have surface ripples on most of the tank surface because of the spray bar mounted to the back wall.

52532_Akvarieboden_As_Led_50cm_ip68_6500k_10w_2.jpg
 
Multiple point sources of bright light and lots of surface ripple gives you more disco caustics. Get some Frosting Film and cut to size and affix over the LEDs to diffuse the point sources of light, it reduces the shimmer greatly.
 
I tried out a bit of baking paper as a diffuser right now just to see. It did reduce the shimmer quite a bit, but it still hurts to look at :sour:
Its the same kind of pain that you get when you watch things that trigger epilepsy o_O
 
Quite like shimmer effect like daylight sun effect on substrate but too much like some kessil users complain of way to distracting
 
Quick update to this thread, I ended up buying the Fluval 3.0 LED and found the shimmer levels of this unit to be minimal enough that I could get used to it :)
Hi Hufsa!

I also hate led shimmer, can’t stand it so I am still on T5s.
Unfortunately I have to change soon since T5s are absolite 🥲
Are you still happy with the Fluval 3.0?
Does it really not shimmer?
Tganks 😀
 
I also hate led shimmer, can’t stand it so I am still on T5s.
The shimmer is caused by light from a point source being diffracted by water surface agitation. If you decrease surface agitation whilst maintaining water flow, you will eliminate the shimmer. I have done this with a Kessil A80 LED point light by shifting the position of a VorTech powerhead either towards or away from the water surface - powerhead with a lot of water movement close to surface gives high shimmer / powerhead towards the bottom (my current setup) gives no shimmer.

Biophysics bit about surface agitation:
The "conventional wisdom" is that surface agitation promotes oxygenation. I think this is not entirely correct. Oxygenation into the water column via diffusion from atmosphere will follow Fick's law for gas exchange where the rate of exchange is proportional to the surface area of the water and the concentration difference between air and water. I suspect if you mathed it all up, the surface agitation would have an essentially negligible effect on the total surface area, so the surface ripples that are causing all the shimmer don't actually help much with oxygenation. What does help with the oxygenation relates to the second piece: keeping the oxygen concentration difference between air and the water as large as possible. If you didn't have any water movement, you'd get a build-up of (equilibrated) oxygen at the water surface but diffusion to the lower depths of the tank would be incredibly slow. With water movement from top to bottom, the oxygen from the surface is mechanically distributed so you don't get this build-up of a static highly oxygenated water layer at the surface. So water movement is good and important, but the ripples are not. There seems to be an assumption that ripples = good top to bottom water movement, but this isn't necessarily true. I expect if you played around with the geometry of your water flow, you could have excellent top to bottom water transport without making a lot of surface ripples, i.e. maintaining good oxygenation without causing any shimmer.
 
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Are you still happy with the Fluval 3.0?
Does it really not shimmer?
It shimmers very minimally, the extent depends on how much surface agitation you have as Andy has written. But it will never shimmer like crazy as those point source lights do.
I only noticed it for the first few minutes after I swapped from the tubes, after that it hasnt been visible to me unless I consciously try to see it. So I find it non-intrusive.
As for the Fluval 3.0 overall, which is not exactly what you asked but I think could be helpful, its a decent light. Not super powerful, and not the best spectrum for growing plants, but perfectly ok.
One of my pet peeves with it is that it will not turn on again after a power cut, so you have to manually turn the lights on through the app while you are in the same room. This is annoying especially if youre traveling away from the tank, and if you experience power cuts often, its something to keep in mind.
There are a lot more plant LED's on the market now, and you should look into Chihiros, Week Aqua and some of the other popular scaper lights before making your choice.
They are not rated as waterproof as Fluval 3.0 but they will give you a lot more light if you are gonna grow the most demanding plants. Some of them tend towards blurple (strongly red/blue coloration) and thats not everyone's cup of tea, especially not mine. But there are settings that can mitigate the impression somewhat. Other people hate the color rendition of Fluval, so its really down to personal taste 🤷‍♀️
 
Very helpful guys, many thanks!
For sure I do believe surface agotation is needed for the oxygen, that’s how I was taught 😀
But I will read more carefully and reflect on both your input!
Again, thanks!
 
Interesting!
So you place that loose under the ramp?

We used it on a small marine cube tank with strong leds that caused a lot of shimmer in and outside the tank.
We stuck it to a thin sheet of glass, the ones they use on cheap picture frames, it was only about 12" square a few cm below the leds, perhaps a bit more difficult on longer tubes .

Get a little bit of shimmer on our cube planted tank but do not use any film as our leds are relatively low power and the shimmering minimal, though the plant growth rate is still good enough for us.
We also use an intank surface skimmer which keeps the surface very clean avoiding some of the need to cause a lot of surface agitation and more shimmering.
 
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