# New tank - Lighting Period / Intensity



## Smithyithy (27 Aug 2020)

Hello all,

I finally got my nano aquascape up and running at the weekend, so just seeing through my first week with it filled. Fortunately I'm working from home, and the tank is in the same room as my PC / desk, so I'm able to monitor it all day and do any bits of maintenance as and when required.

My question is regarding the lighting period, with relation to the light intensity.

I have a Twinstar 300E (17w / 1100 lm) on a 30cm³ / 27 litre nano tank. This equates to 0.6w/litre, or 40 lm/litre, which I believe is at the upper end of Tropica's 'medium' band:






So my understanding is that the lumen rating is based on the LED running at 100%. Of course, with a dimmer (that I eventually got working) we have ramp-up / ramp-down so as to not deliver maximum lumens for the entire light-on period.

As the tank is in its infancy, obviously I don't want to attack the plants with too much light... I usually see recommended photo periods for new tanks of <6 hours - my question is, are those recommendations taking into account the ramp-up / ramp-down?

So for example, if I give my plants 6 hours of light per day initially, does that need to include the ramping periods? Does the LED need to be kept at a lower intensity? And a hypothetical example - would something like an 8 hour light period not exceeding 50% intensity be equivalent to something like a 6 hour light period not exceeding 75% intensity?

I am probably overthinking it! But my brain is thinking beyond 'light hours per day' and more towards 'total lumens per day', i.e. _a short period of intense light _vs _a longer period of dim light_ 🤕


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## dw1305 (28 Aug 2020)

Hi all, 





Smithyithy said:


> But my brain is thinking beyond 'light hours per day' and more towards 'total lumens per day', i.e. _a short period of intense light _vs _a longer period of dim light_ 🤕


It depends upon the plant, but a longer light period with lower light intensity may not actually provide enough <"photosynthetically active radiation"> (PAR) to allow for plant growth.

Each  plant species (and each leaf on each plant) will have a different <"light compensation point (LCP)">.

Because of all of these variables I take another approach, I use a longer photoperiod, and if I have a brighter light source I use a thicker layer floating plants as a <"net curtain">.

A floating plant <"takes light intensity and CO2 availability out of the equation">. 

cheers Darrel


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## Smithyithy (31 Aug 2020)

Thanks for the reply dude. I've made some slight adjustment to my dimmer settings - I also recently dropped my thermostat target temp by a degree as I think I was at the upper end of the temp range for the Monte Carlo (my room generally the warmest in the house so ambient temp is often sufficient).

I'm 8 days in now with the tank and growth looks good:





I should really get round to starting an actual journal post lol


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