Ramp Time Question

[MrBlobby]

This is probably a dumb question but do I include my 30 min ramp time (1hr total) in my plants 8 hr photo period?

 

[copperband]

Thats always been how I've done it. I actually have a 1 hour ramp up and ramp down within a midday to 8.30 lights on time. So peak for 6.5 hours which seems to work well.

 

[Kalum]

I doubt you need to worry too much either way tbh

EDIT: sorry that was a bit blunt and to the point the main time your lights are on at the higher intensity will have much more of a bearing on your plants rather than the ramp up and down times so just do what suits you, personally i've never counted them in the overall photoperiod times but you'll find lots of others that have

 

[MichaelJ]

This is probably a dumb question but do I include my 30 min ramp time (1hr total) in my plants 8 hr photo period?

Hi @MrBlobby,
I consider my photo period ~12 hours. Including the 30 minutes sunrise ramp and 30 minutes sunset ramp. Not unlike the conditions around the equator where most of our tropical plants originate from. Works well for my tanks.

Cheers,
Michael

 

[Hufsa]

I dont include it in mine 😊 The way I see it, mine are too short and dim for most of that time to be useful for plant growth. Its just for waking fish and plants up. So I only count the hours that are significant to the plants.

 

[copperband]

I guess it probably depends on your light. I have a Chihiros WRGB pro where the ramp up / down is incredibly well managed. The light literally dims certain colours in turn every minute. In my case that means that during the 60 min transition period the light can be 99% down to 1% of the set value “peak light”

 

[MrBlobby]

I have chihiros wrgb 2... thank you all for your input still trying to work out what settings are appropriate for my tank and having advice helps

 

[seedoubleyou]

I thi

I have chihiros wrgb 2... thank you all for your input still trying to work out what settings are appropriate for my tank and having advice helps

I think stability is more important than finding the perfect time and intensity.
Try a setting, and leave it be, your tank will determine whether you’re right or not, after that it’s just small adjustments until you find the balance that works for your system.

 

[Karacticus]

I have chihiros wrgb 2... thank you all for your input still trying to work out what settings are appropriate for my tank and having advice helps

I have the WRGB2 Pro and have had it up and running for a few months now. It's a great light, but powerful. I am fairly new to this too, but I have started with a seven hour photoperiod, which includes a 30 minute ramp each end. I have also started with the light settings on low power - so I think (can't get into the app this second) it is something like 50:40:50:40 (RGBW). My plants have grown pretty well and my diatom phase seems to have passed and I have no noticeable algae issues yet, so I will gradually increase the intensity and duration over the next few months to try and find some kind of sweet spot for growth with my CO2. You probably know already, so apologies if that is the case, but going straight in at full power and for eight hours might cause some algae issues if your scape is newly started.

My tank is fairly well planted and appears to be going well.

 

[MrBlobby]

Some really great advice ... thank you all
I have had my tank running now for a few months and so far I am pretty happy with the results I've achieved with being new to co2 .. I've always had and still have other low tech planted tanks but one day just decided I was tired of looking at the horrible low lighting in my fluval spec v 60l that just barley grew plants .. so I did my best to upgrade it ... for the first couple months I was using the stock light and I threw on another light that I had laying around (some full spec amazon budget light) and that was working ok.. the only way I could judge the amount of light I had was by lumens of these lights combined and it was just about 2300 ... so I felt like that was probly just not enough for some of the plants that I have and took the plunge to buy the wrgb 2 .. and wow I'm glad I did because the difference is vast IMO.. I shall share it with everyone..

 

[Karacticus]

Nice tank! Colours definitely pop more in the second photo!

 

[MrBlobby]

Thank you.. yes the chihiros light I think was deffinalty worth the ＄... took a couple days for eyes to adjust to such clear and quality leds seeing I've always had sorta budget ones (which have served me well and still do ) one down side is that all my other tanks look so dull now 🤣