Aquamaxx Nemolight

[SelectdByNature]

Hello,

I recently bought an aquamaxx Nemolight for my planted tank (it's a new tank and I'm not very proficient at planted yet) and I set it up and went away for the weekend and came back to significant brownish hair algae growing.

I lowered the intensity of the light to 50% and I waited a day and still saw a bit of growth (I had brush cleaned the algae off manually).

I now tried lowering the timer settings (was 12 hours on - 12 hours "off" [5%/blue]) to 8 hours on and 16 hours "off".

I'm concerned about stimulating the algae to out of control proportions in the time it takes me to figure out an appropriate lighting intensity/schedule and was hoping for some guidance.

Also there is two channels in this light a "white" and a "cool blue" which is also very whiteish should I try lowering the white LEDs??

Anyone have experience with the Nemolight?

It probably pretty powerful for my 45 gallon...

Thanks for any help and for reading,

SBN

 

[Delapool]

Hi, it sounds like a LED light I have called a Nemo light. Are you running CO2 into the tank? Ferts?

If not, I'd turn the blue channel off completely for the moment. Mine can be dimmed for a white channel and a blue channel. I'd then try say 50% to 80% on the white channel and 6 hours a day. If not getting algae, then I'd slowly increase week by week. I'm guessing maybe 7 hours at 100% white channel and blue channel completely off. Assuming like mine.

If you are getting no plant growth at substrate (eg runners) I'd increase, if getting algae I'd decrease light. With a new tank, it all takes time. Make a change and give it a week or so to test, then another change. Hope this helps.

 

[SelectdByNature]

Hi, it sounds like a LED light I have called a Nemo light. Are you running CO2 into the tank? Ferts?

If not, I'd turn the blue channel off completely for the moment. Mine can be dimmed for a white channel and a blue channel. I'd then try say 50% to 80% on the white channel and 6 hours a day. If not getting algae, then I'd slowly increase week by week. I'm guessing maybe 7 hours at 100% white channel and blue channel completely off. Assuming like mine.

If you are getting no plant growth at substrate (eg runners) I'd increase, if getting algae I'd decrease light. With a new tank, it all takes time. Make a change and give it a week or so to test, then another change. Hope this helps.

Hi,

Thanks yes it does help a lot!

Yes, it is the Nemo Light I have the 54W freshwater version and it is pretty awesome. I since lowered the lights to 35% and no algae so far so I will increase it little by little. I am still running the lights on the default timer though 12 hours on 12 hours off.

Also I just lowered both white and blue channels to 35% and I am running ferts like excel and flourish excel but not dosing co2 directly just excel. I have flourite substrate and root tabs and stuff in there.

My plants are pretty low light plants though like two anubias and other plants I'm not sure what they are but advertised as low light from LFS, so I'm a bit concerned about the strength of this light.

Thanks for your response and any other insight would be much appreciated.

Should I lower the blue channel if I'm dosing some ferts? Is a 12 hour photo period totally unacceptable?

Thanks SBN.

 

[Delapool]

Geez, I'm pretty amazed we have the same light. I have the 72W freshwater version. I did do some PAR checks and the white channel has plenty of blue light in it. Blue light also penetrates water very well compared to red light so I found that it was a balance at substrate to get runners and shoots but not too much GSA (and no BBA). My tank is 2.5 ft deep so I've found it needs decent lights.

On yours if you are getting no algae and getting some growth I'd say job done. For trying to get more growth I'd increase white light only (and slowly).

It's mainly that the plants will run out of CO2 in the water at some point as light increases. The chart below will give you a rough idea of CO2 (very roughly). Injected CO2 tanks are aiming around 30ppm CO2 whereas natural tanks probably only have a few ppm CO2. Which is why I suspect the excel can make some difference even though it's only a daily one-off dose and of course very useful as low level algae killer. So the 12 hour period is ok as long as low light conditions (ie plants don't exhaust CO2). Keeping some water flow will help the water take CO2 from air as well for a natural tank.

http://i171.photobucket.com/albums/u312/plantbrain/Aquatic plants/CO2_Graph_zps9c124ef0.gif

 

[SelectdByNature]

Geez, I'm pretty amazed we have the same light. I have the 72W freshwater version. I did do some PAR checks and the white channel has plenty of blue light in it. Blue light also penetrates water very well compared to red light so I found that it was a balance at substrate to get runners and shoots but not too much GSA (and no BBA). My tank is 2.5 ft deep so I've found it needs decent lights.

On yours if you are getting no algae and getting some growth I'd say job done. For trying to get more growth I'd increase white light only (and slowly).

It's mainly that the plants will run out of CO2 in the water at some point as light increases. The chart below will give you a rough idea of CO2 (very roughly). Injected CO2 tanks are aiming around 30ppm CO2 whereas natural tanks probably only have a few ppm CO2. Which is why I suspect the excel can make some difference even though it's only a daily one-off dose and of course very useful as low level algae killer. So the 12 hour period is ok as long as low light conditions (ie plants don't exhaust CO2). Keeping some water flow will help the water take CO2 from air as well for a natural tank.

http://i171.photobucket.com/albums/u312/plantbrain/Aquatic plants/CO2_Graph_zps9c124ef0.gif

Thanks so much this information was truly helpful. I'm just getting started with planted tanks and especially with a decent light so I have a lot to learn... Thanks!!!

 

[Delapool]

Thanks so much this information was truly helpful. I'm just getting started with planted tanks and especially with a decent light so I have a lot to learn... Thanks!!!

Good luck with it and keen to see photos down the track