Con Solo the Convict

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
Had a tiny scare just now with Solo. Turned on the lights to see him swimming very erratically around the corner of the tank with his gills and fins fully flared. I’ve never seen him do this, so immediately I get pretty nervous and am wondering what the hell is going on. This went on for about a minute until he calmed down. I also decided to unplug the heater, not sure if maybe it’s malfunctioning and sending an electrical current into the tank. Tested the water, ammonia completely undetectable, nitrates at 5ppm.

Right now he’s acting completely normal, and I can’t notice anything wrong. I’m thinking I just caught him off guard when I turned the lights on. Most days he sees me and swims over when I go to turn on the light, maybe today he didn’t notice me walk in. I’m just going to replace this heater as well. Whether it’s malfunctioning or not, I’ve had for a little over a year now and I’d feel more comfortable just getting a new one.
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Fighting his reflection maybe?
 
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Get this. Set it and forget it. Pricey but worth every cent. I have these on all my tanks. You can customize the settings too. Fish have different behavior with a more natural lighting transition. No 'startling' or anything. They also seem to sleep better. Mine start settling down once the magenta light (6pm) kicks in. You will get algae with these they are really powerful. I leave some algae on the lids as it shades off excessive brightness and feeds fry when its on a wall. Fish love picking at it for a snack.

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FINWIN said:
Get this. Set it and forget it. Pricey but worth every cent. I have these on all my tanks. You can customize the settings too. Fish have different behavior with a more natural lighting transition. No 'startling' or anything. They also seem to sleep better. Mine start settling down once the magenta light (6pm) kicks in. You will get algae with these they are really powerful. I leave some algae on the lids as it shades off excessive brightness and feeds fry when its on a wall. Fish love picking at it for a snack.

View attachment 1526038

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Click to expand...
That’s the exact light I have, but it caused a big algae bloom. I basically only have it on for 6 hours a day now.

Can you give me an idea of what settings you use for it?
 
You can moderate the algae bloom

Use filter material (foam cuts or smoke color plexiglass) under the fixture in areas to block some light. It gives a nice mottled spotlight effect and depth to the tank. I've found the lights overwhelm smaller tanks without doing this. So a 36 inch tank is perfectly fine with a 20 inch light. The sides will be shaded off.

In this order spectrum light aids algae growth
1.White
2.Blue
3.Red

Extend full darkness time
Reduce the full spectrum "white" time
Custom settings allow you to moderate the prime grow colors.
You probably don't need a heater if you have one. I don't heat any of my HRP tanks and they're just fine. Extra heat in addition to the led can speed up algae growth.

My custom settings (colors in order of dominance) I go by 'eye' I don't have exact percentages. The standard white is way too bright UNLESS you have dark substrate like black sand.

12AM - 6AM total darkness
6AM blue/red/green (a deep purple violet color like pre-dawn)
9AM red/green/white (an orange yellow color like early morning)
12PM Noon - white/red/green (warm white)
3PM - white/green/red/blue (neutral white) if you want a cool white at this setting use white/blue or white/blue/red
6PM - red/blue/green (deep magenta early sunset)
9PM - blue/red (deep blue moonlight a cobalt blue)

It's worth noting the same light settings can look very different depending on background, substrate color and tank height. I might be able to take setting pics if that would help.
 
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FINWIN said:
You can moderate the algae bloom

Use filter material (foam cuts or smoke color plexiglass) under the fixture in areas to block some light. It gives a nice mottled spotlight effect and depth to the tank. I've found the lights overwhelm smaller tanks without doing this. So a 36 inch tank is perfectly fine with a 20 inch light. The sides will be shaded off.

In this order spectrum light aids algae growth
1.White
2.Blue
3.Red

Extend full darkness time
Reduce the full spectrum "white" time
Custom settings allow you to moderate the prime grow colors.
You probably don't need a heater if you have one. I don't heat any of my HRP tanks and they're just fine. Extra heat in addition to the led can speed up algae growth.

My custom settings (colors in order of dominance) I go by 'eye' I don't have exact percentages. The standard white is way too bright UNLESS you have dark substrate like black sand.

12AM - 6AM total darkness
6AM blue/red/green (a deep purple violet color like pre-dawn)
9AM red/green/white (an orange yellow color like early morning)
12PM Noon - white/red/green (warm white)
3PM - white/green/red/blue (neutral white) if you want a cool white at this setting use white/blue or white/blue/red
6PM - red/blue/green (deep magenta early sunset)
9PM - blue/red (deep blue moonlight a cobalt blue)

It's worth noting the same light settings can look very different depending on background, substrate color and tank height. I might be able to take setting pics if that would help.
Click to expand...
Thank you so much - this is incredibly helpful. I’d love to see photos of settings if you have them.

To avoid algae, I ended up reducing to just one period - so I’d really like to be able to have the lights on a little longer without blowing up my tank with growth.
 
For persistent or severe algae I would recommend increasing the dark time as well. I wouldn't go past this light setting. Shading off the light with foam or plexiglass would be better. The idea is to keep the light cycle as natural as possible with good transitions.

LED CYCLE - Alt 2 copy.jpg
 
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