Increasing lighting

[Mattant1984]

I would like to increase the intensity of my lights a little as they are only on 55% at the moment.

I wanted to know how much I could turn them up without affecting anything such as algae etc.

Would it be best to do it a little bit per week??

 

[Mattant1984]

Bump

 

[Andy Pierce]

Unless you are unhappy with your plants it's best to not increase lighting. There are a lot of problems from too much light and lighting is usually not growth limiting - CO2 is.

 

[MichaelJ]

I would like to increase the intensity of my lights a little as they are only on 55% at the moment.

Hi @Mattant1984, You want the tanks water column to appear brighter I assume?

I wanted to know how much I could turn them up without affecting anything such as algae etc.

No one can give a definite answer to that question other than your tank.

Would it be best to do it a little bit per week??

I have done this exercise a couple times. Most recently (last year) in one of my tanks which is very mature, excellent plant health with no algae to speak of... My recommendation is to go really slow... crank it in small and similar notches every week and a half or two, let the plants adapt and keep a sharp eye on how it goes - If you start to see algae or plants struggling dial it back two notches and wait. This assumes your plants are doing well, not already having algae to a problematic extent and you're doing proper maintenance and fertilizer etc. and wont change any of that in the midst of tweaking the light.

Let us know how it goes.

Cheers,
Michael

 

[Mattant1984]

@MichaelJ yes mate it's a very big tank 6x2x2 so not easy to light and I just want it a little brighter in all areas really.

I was thinking 5-10% a week and see how it goes. Currently using Solufeed 2:1:4 3 times a week with strict weekly 50% water changes and no real algae to speak of at the moment

 

[Happi]

I would like to increase the intensity of my lights a little as they are only on 55% at the moment.

what kind of Light Fixture is it? does it allow you to adjust the R, G, B spectrum ?

I wanted to know how much I could turn them up without affecting anything such as algae etc.

there is no straight answer to this, it will depend on several other factors.

 

[Mattant1984]

@Happi they are just cheap full spectrum Nicrew LED bars. You can't adjust the RGB separately just the whole thing as a %