How much light should I program my tank for?

I have a Fluval 3.0 plant light on my 90 gallon tank I have an assortment of plants 4 Amazon swords, 2 marble queen swords, 15 Jungle Val, 3 assorted Anubis, 5 java fern, and 15 assorted cripst the plants have been in the tank for about two weeks now and I have seen new growth on all but the jungle Val but I’m not expecting it to adjust until at least week four. I do have Thrive root tabs and use thrive fertilizer once a week there are no fish currently in the tank. I have watched videos on the light so I was just wondering if anyone else had something similar to my tank. And what they use for the specs on this light? I do have algae growth but due to the tank finishing its cycle I was expecting an algae bloom.

 

I would start with 6 hours per day and gradually work up to 8. Ideal photoperiod is 6-8 hours/day.

 

I have mine on about 12 hours a day without an algae problem. I had some early on, but a combination of amano shrimp, manual removal and a lot of floating plants and it's mostly gone.

 

kansas , did you raise the light above the tank or lower the intensity?

 

I only run lights for 1 hour in the morning and 4 hours in the evening.

 

I did not raise the light. I increase or decrease the intensity throughout the day, as the room is dark in the morning and bright in the afternoon. I don't use the red or blue light cause I don't like the red and I've read the blue encourages algae.

I have crypts, vals, anubius, frogbit and duckweed. The tank is about 8 months old. At first, I ran the light around 9 hours a day. I had a decent algae crop, but nothing I couldn't keep up with during water changes. After I got 8 amano shrimp, they pretty much chowed down on the algae and it's mostly gone.

So I've increased the light to 12 hours a day and still don't have a problem. I use Thrive liquid fert once a week and root tabs every 3-4 months. Parts of the tank are very shady casue of the floaters and that probly helps.

 

This is what I run mine at on a 75 gallon. I supplement with 2 squirts of easy green once a week and seachem tabs every 3 months.

 

Well … this is what I finally came up with for mine after FRYING everything for a few days

 

This is what I run mine at on a 75 gallon. I supplement with 2 squirts of easy green once a week and seachem tabs every 3 months.

that's beautiful tank.

 

that's beautiful tank.

Aww, thank you.

It seems to be the only thing that helps me relax.
I appreciate your kind words.

 

Well, I guess I'll post my tank too. I run my lights 8 hours a day.

 

I have mine for 12 hours a day. I am struggling to grow algae to feed my snails. >_<"

It kinda depends on how robust the nutrient processing in the tank is. Same feeding in the past but with no plants, I had a lot of algae (in a different tank). With the plants well established and competing significantly against the algae, well the plants are doing great while the algae not so much.

 

Azedenkae , A lot of it depends on the light. The OP has a Fluval 3.0 which is a pretty strong light as far as PAR goes.

Best Planted Aquarium Lights PAR Tested & Reviewed (2022)

This is what I run mine at on a 75 gallon. I supplement with 2 squirts of easy green once a week and seachem tabs every 3 months.

I really like your tank. I wish I could AquaScape that good.

 

Those 3.0’s really need tweaking into your specific plant/ tank needs. It took me a while , I won’t lie. I created an algea issue having mine on too high, too much blue , too long.

There’s a lot of YouTube vids to help though so that’s something the op should consider utilising. One thing I will say is reduce the blue light to 5% for only a few hours maximum if at all.

Maybe try one if the lowest preset light schedules as you don’t have a lot of plants and not a lot of stems or high light plants.

 

My time has always been 7 hours but my newly set up Walstad for the 2.5yo family betta stays on for around 8, sometimes even longer. I have no algae. This is a 3G, heavily-planted Walstad riparium with 1 betta and 1 ramshorn snail. It has L. nummularia 'Creeping Jenny', H. leucocephala 'Brazilian Pennywort', Buce pygmaea 'Green Wavy', A. barteri var. 'Nana', M. deliciosa 'Split Leaf Philodendron' and E. aureum 'Pothos Green Jade'. Plants thrive, Seachem Flourish and Miracle Gro Potting Mix with 8+ hrs of moderate lighting