Fluval 3.0 Growing plants worse than previous light

[graucow]

Hello, I am looking for insight regarding the performance of my fluval 3.0 light.

About 4 months ago I upgraded from running a beam works 32 inch led and a nicrew 32 inch led to a single 48 inch fluval 3.0 light.

This is for my 75 gallon planted tank. Its is 48 inches long and 24 inches deep. I have run both lighting setups with and without co2 injection.

It seems that using the two lights I used before has worked much better for growing plants than my fluval 3.0 even though it is a high tech light. When I added the 3.0 I saw a lot of dieback in almost all my stem plants, mostly my 3 different types of ludwigia as well as my red melon sword.

The combination of the beam works and the nicrew grew all my plants very well except for my tiger lotus which I still have had trouble with. I am wondering if there would be any reason for the fluval to perform worse than the other two lights. Once I introduced it I also saw an increase in black hair algea growth but the plants mentioned only grew worse than before.

I run the light on the reccomend planted tank setting.

Does anyone know why this might be the case and what the remedy may be? Can a fluval 3.0 light be used without any co2 added?

 

[ZxC]

Too many variables to single out any reason why the Fluval was performing worse.

Sounds like you had a decent balance going on with the Nicrew and Beamswork, then changed it with the Fluval.

I would not run it on the stock setting.

 

[graucow]

Yeah I kinda figured it was a ton of variables. Just shocked my plants wouldnt respond better to a nicer light but I think I must have had a good balance.

I have somewhat modified the light from the stock settings. Do you have any recommendations on how to change the settings? Currently running no co2 and the tank is 24 inches deep.

My melon sword has put out much smaller leaves than it used to which at first I thought was from not enough light but now that I think about it, it could mean more light so smaller leaves to capture the same amount. Im not sure if my thinking is correct.

 

[ZxC]

Yeah I kinda figured it was a ton of variables. Just shocked my plants wouldnt respond better to a nicer light but I think I must have had a good balance.

I have somewhat modified the light from the stock settings. Do you have any recommendations on how to change the settings? Currently running no co2 and the tank is 24 inches deep.

My melon sword has put out much smaller leaves than it used to which at first I thought was from not enough light but now that I think about it, it could mean more light so smaller leaves to capture the same amount. Im not sure if my thinking is correct.

At 24" deep I would run it 100% power on all channels for 6 hours per day, see how this works, then bump to 7 after a few weeks and then 8 hours a few weeks after that.

 

[Mr. Breeze]

I only have a 29 Gallon, but I got (2) of the new 3.0's. I needed the wattage! These guys are 32 watts each. (24-34") model. Use CO2. Need highlight for ground cover.