[falcooo]

Hey Everyone,

Having been out of the FW game for a while with only a reef tank, I’m back and excited to be setting up a new planted tank.

My primary question at this point, as the subject-line would suggest, is how can I repurpose my AI Prime HD (saltwater version) to light a low-tech planted tank. If you’re unfamiliar with the AI Prime, you can customize the intensity of each color spectrum individually. I’ve seen a few similar posts online where the consensus was to just sell the light and buy a FW specific light. And while I’m sure the SW one isn’t ideal, given the ability to customize along with my need for only low-lighting, I feel like this light should more than be able to suffice. It’s a very powerful LED, I can dial it down as needed.

Below are the lighting parameters I have it set to currently @ 6500K, with a 10-hour lighting period inclusive of a 2-hour ramp up and down. The current lighting settings/schedule is not overly thought out, just a simple low-light that looks good visually to get things started.

Please advise if anyone has any experience or input that would help as I would like to fine tune the lighting to best suit the needs of a low-tech planted tank. Thanks in advance!!

 

[Frshwtr]

Going to need to dial it way down if you are going with a low tech tank. 10 hours is also a really long photo period. Without CO2/ferts, IMO high intensity light + long photo period will lead to big time algae issues. FW favors the red spectrums over the blues/actinics like reef tanks.

 

[Aaronious]

Also green really does little for growth and if taken higher I would imagine would be an algae feeder, I usually keep this as low as possible, only set for aesthetics. Green is generally the lowest set light in my FW setups.

 

[jeffkrol]

Hey Everyone,

Having been out of the FW game for a while with only a reef tank, I’m back and excited to be setting up a new planted tank.

My primary question at this point, as the subject-line would suggest, is how can I repurpose my AI Prime HD (saltwater version) to light a low-tech planted tank. If you’re unfamiliar with the AI Prime, you can customize the intensity of each color spectrum individually. I’ve seen a few similar posts online where the consensus was to just sell the light and buy a FW specific light. And while I’m sure the SW one isn’t ideal, given the ability to customize along with my need for only low-lighting, I feel like this light should more than be able to suffice. It’s a very powerful LED, I can dial it down as needed.

Below are the lighting parameters I have it set to currently @ 6500K, with a 10-hour lighting period inclusive of a 2-hour ramp up and down. The current lighting settings/schedule is not overly thought out, just a simple low-light that looks good visually to get things started.

Please advise if anyone has any experience or input that would help as I would like to fine tune the lighting to best suit the needs of a low-tech planted tank. Thanks in advance!!

View attachment 1050845

Tank dimensions please

 

[falcooo]

Thanks! Appreciate the insight on green.

And the tank is a Nuvo 10, so roughly a 12inch cube and the light is approximately 10 inches above the surface.

 

[Aaronious]

Also, I imagine using some UV light wouldn't be a bad thing either. Probably get some good penetration for those higher frequency lights. But I might do this more as an experiment down the road once things are more established. Unless you can find something that others have done with UV on planted tanks.

 

[falcooo]

Hey all- I just wanted to add a friendly bump to this post hoping for a bit of additional insight regarding the color spectrum/intensity.

I’ve since dialed down the green and incorporated a bit of UV.

And also, what would be a good desired PAR for a low light tank? Once I have the color spectrum allocated properly, I can play around with the intensity to achieve the desired PAR. I’ve read anywhere from 10-50 for low-tech/light, but would that be at water surface level or the bottom of the tank.

Any thoughts or input here is much appreciated, thanks!!!

 

[Frshwtr]

Anything above 100 PAR in a planted tank is high light. I would say anything below the 50 PAR mark is going to be low light. This reading should be taken at the substrate and not at the water surface.

The Reds and Blues should be dominant. Plants do not use any type of green light which is reflected off their leaves. What aquariums DO need green light for is color rendition and is strictly cosmetic. If you were to use only blues/reds, the aquarium would look almost actinic and violet. The desired spectrum should match as close as possible to daylight, while still giving you a pleasant color rendition to look at. Here is a pic of the spectrum you should be shooting for:

As far as how much to use for each color channel in that AI fixture - hard to tell. Reef lighting is primarily in the blue spectrums. Might need to mess with it for awhile to properly dial it in. You may also see that your red channels don't provide enough and your blues way too much. It's definitely hard to use reef lights on planted tanks and vice versa. Only real way I see you can do it easily is by using a T5 fixture and interchanging bulbs. That's one of the primary reasons I went with a T5 fixture in my high tech tank so I can possibly switch to saltwater down the line and not have to buy a completely new set of lights. Here are the current T5 bulbs I'm using and you can see the Red/Blue dominate spectrum:

Hope that helps!

 

[rzn7z7]

I had the saltwater version of Ecotech Marine Radions over my tank for years that had a similar set of LEDs as your AI Primes (uv, violet, etc.)....the light was adequate and they were plenty powerful and plants grew...what they were lacking in was reds

I've since switched to Chihiros and am very happy...the colors 'pop' and some plants (like my limnophilas) have exploded in growth...even the greens stand out and, let's face it, we have a lot of green in our tanks

The point being that your AI Primes will grow plants fine but I wouldn't call them optimal...they're saltwater lights after all....and that spectrum matters

 

[eXa]

Plants do not use any type of green light which is reflected off their leaves.

This is untrue. Green and far red is what penetrates deepest into the leafs.
I suspect this is a myth spread in the early beginning of led when red and blue LEDs was the only "efficient" led available. So the myth that only red and blue was needed was pushed by looking solely at chlorophyll a and b. Ignoring
cartenoids and other stuff going on.

It's not like PAR is 0 in green, far from it. It's hardly any less than blue.
Oh, speaking of PAR, it's getting extended to 750. And with recently more efficient LEDs in the 380-405 range I suspect it's getting extended further that way too, with more research.

This is a more realistic chart.

 

[jeffkrol]

Oh, speaking of PAR, it's getting extended to 750. And with recently more efficient LEDs in the 380-405 range I suspect it's getting extended further that way too, with more research.

Prof. Bugbee isn't keen on extending PAR lower than 400nm.
His logic is it has little influence in photosynthesis.
It may have other physiological effects not related to par though.

 

[eXa]

For now atleast. There is plenty of photosynthesis going on at 405nm. It doesn't just shut right off at 400nm. So I wouldn't be surprised if it get extended to... Lets say 380 in the future.