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New planted tank light question

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Magnos

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So I had these lights from when I had a reef tank (Ocean Revive Arctic T247). Currently been running 2 weeks with 1 dwarf black ram my friend had to get rid of. I'm starting to get a redish brown algae on some of the plants and rocks. Had the lights set at 25% white 15% blue for 8hrs for the first week and a half but I've since switched to 5% for 8 hrs. I know the light is super strong want to make sure its new tank algae and not the light is too strong. Any help is appreciated
Screenshot_20230824_112417_Chrome.jpg
 
I added almost double the plants. Two large sponge filters and a bunch of pathos with roots hanging inside the tank
 
I do not know what the numbers in the charts are for, so I will be very general in responding to your question. Chances are, this is not good light for planted tanks. It depends upon the wavelengths; marine tanks need more blue, whereas plants need more red than blue, with green added. Blue will thwart plants, and promote algae. I don't know if you can change the diodes, but I would recommend this. The colour streaking in the water is not something I would want, and this may have an effect on plants/algae too, and possibly fish as it is unnatural.
 
Well full spectrum is full spectrum lighting right? It has every color. More asking about the % to set them and if it could be instigating the algae growth. Now I reduced to 3% 6hrs as the growth is continuing. Not much algae on the glass just on the prettiest plants in the tank...
 
Magnos said:
Well full spectrum is full spectrum lighting right? It has every color. More asking about the % to set them and if it could be instigating the algae growth. Now I reduced to 3% 6hrs as the growth is continuing. Not much algae on the glass just on the prettiest plants in the tank...
Click to expand...

In my experience, no, "full spectrum" can be very different, depending upon what it means to the manufacturer. For one thing, full spectrum would be white light that is uniform across the space. And for plants, it must be high in the red (primarily), blue and green. There is another thread on this that @Uberhoust posted some very good detail, so I am tagging him.
 
Byron said:
In my experience, no, "full spectrum" can be very different, depending upon what it means to the manufacturer. For one thing, full spectrum would be white light that is uniform across the space. And for plants, it must be high in the red (primarily), blue and green. There is another thread on this that @Uberhoust posted some very good detail, so I am tagging him.
Click to expand...
This light does have blue, red green and white
 
Magnos said:
This light does have blue, red green and white
Click to expand...

I may not be making myself clear, sorry. The light has to be white light; white light can be varying hues depending upon the wavelengths that make it up. We have warm white and cool white as an obvious example, so termed because the warm has more red and less blue, and the cool has more blue and less red, yet both are "white" light. This is not the same as having the coloured lights which is what shows in the photo. The blue and red for example are not going to benefit plants as much as white containing these colours. But algae is encouraged because it does not have the specific light needs that higher plants have, so it will grow under red, or blue, or whatever.
 
This light has discrete frequency LEDs in Red(660), Green(520), Blue(450), Blue(470), Violet(420) which covers a pretty broad band of frequencies, some nearing UV these do not provide full spectrum light. It also has two styles of "white" phosphor type LEDs with color temperatures in the 10,000k and 12,000k range, these will likely produce fuller spectrum light but heavily shifted towards the blue end and depending on the phosphors used with the lights. It pulls 120 watts per unit.

A typical good planted freshwater LED light is typically around 5000k to 7000k, and runs from 35 watts to 80 watts for a 48" x 18" 55 or 75 gallon tank. 60 to 120 PAR.

These lights are far to the blue end of the spectra overall, probably ideal for the algae that inhabit corals, and likely far too bright, 240 watts for two units, for a planted fresh water tank.
If you could turn the lights down to 33% output, but focus that output primarily on the warmer 10,000k LEDs, and the reds and greens discrete LEDs they might work pretty good.

There are some caveats:
  • The light is not designed for a freshwater planted tank
  • The output is a lot higher than many lights for this application
  • You will need to play with the settings more and not just the overall intensity
  • There is very little technical info on these lamps easily available.
Likely your algae is due to the intensity and blue color of the light, I would experiment with the lights but they are not ideal (but may be serviceable with adjustments)

FYI the charts look like the PAR charts some of the agricultural grow lights come with but without any other information that is only a guess. IF they are PAR values then they are too high and the output needs to be reduced. A starting point from my research on planted tank lights suggest a good starting PAR to be 80 to 100 at 12" below, higher if you use CO2.

It will be difficult for people to help with your issues because there are a lot of factors involved and you will have to experiment. Keep in mind your tank looks pretty new and the aquarium soil will have lots of nutrients right now, ideal for algae development. Would be interesting to see what your final results are.

This is the site I got the LED frequencies from, no manufacturers information was available. https://aquariumstoredepot.com/products/ocean-revive-t247
 
Uberhoust said:
This light has discrete frequency LEDs in Red(660), Green(520), Blue(450), Blue(470), Violet(420) which covers a pretty broad band of frequencies, some nearing UV these do not provide full spectrum light. It also has two styles of "white" phosphor type LEDs with color temperatures in the 10,000k and 12,000k range, these will likely produce fuller spectrum light but heavily shifted towards the blue end and depending on the phosphors used with the lights. It pulls 120 watts per unit.

A typical good planted freshwater LED light is typically around 5000k to 7000k, and runs from 35 watts to 80 watts for a 48" x 18" 55 or 75 gallon tank. 60 to 120 PAR.

These lights are far to the blue end of the spectra overall, probably ideal for the algae that inhabit corals, and likely far too bright, 240 watts for two units, for a planted fresh water tank.
If you could turn the lights down to 33% output, but focus that output primarily on the warmer 10,000k LEDs, and the reds and greens discrete LEDs they might work pretty good.

There are some caveats:
  • The light is not designed for a freshwater planted tank
  • The output is a lot higher than many lights for this application
  • You will need to play with the settings more and not just the overall intensity
  • There is very little technical info on these lamps easily available.
Likely your algae is due to the intensity and blue color of the light, I would experiment with the lights but they are not ideal (but may be serviceable with adjustments)

FYI the charts look like the PAR charts some of the agricultural grow lights come with but without any other information that is only a guess. IF they are PAR values then they are too high and the output needs to be reduced. A starting point from my research on planted tank lights suggest a good starting PAR to be 80 to 100 at 12" below, higher if you use CO2.

It will be difficult for people to help with your issues because there are a lot of factors involved and you will have to experiment. Keep in mind your tank looks pretty new and the aquarium soil will have lots of nutrients right now, ideal for algae development. Would be interesting to see what your final results are.

This is the site I got the LED frequencies from, no manufacturers information was available. https://aquariumstoredepot.com/products/ocean-revive-t247
Click to expand...
Thank you this is kind of the answer I was looking for. I'm going to get a new light as I can't play with individual % on the t247s only overall % to CH1 or CH2
 
I thought you might be limited to various channels. You might try with it further above the tank but it will be difficult to change the lights blue emphasis.
 
Byron said:
In my experience, no, "full spectrum" can be very different, depending upon what it means to the manufacturer. For one thing, full spectrum would be white light that is uniform across the space. And for plants, it must be high in the red (primarily), blue and green. There is another thread on this that @Uberhoust posted some very good detail, so I am tagging him.
Click to expand...
You guys were right I switched to twin star S Series not as pretty looking but the plants are doing really good.
 
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