Fluval Sky

[Neptunius]

I have a 40long, planted tank. I mostly have anubias and java fern. Pretty easy maintenance hardy stuff. I had it under an older light fixture with a T5 bulb. I was running a split light cycle with 4 hours of light twice a day ad things were going spectacular. That light fixture bit the dust and when I went to find a replacement it seemed that all that was available were LED fixtures. Rather than shopping further I caved and bought a fluval sky. It has some neat features, but I have several frustrations.

1. I can't run it connected to a timer. When the timer clicks back on it seems that just the blue lights come back on.
2. On the app if I set a light cycle I haven't figured out how to turn the fixture completely off
3. The app doesn't provide for an interrupted light cycle like I was running before

One of the unfortunate side-effects of all this is that I've had an algae spike.

Any suggestions to my frustrations on working with a fluval sky?

 

[dougall]

lower the intensity of light to handle the algae, it's a decent amount of light over that size of tank.

you should be able to turn the lights all the way off using the app, I think, it should be definable in the app I believe.

But you cannot have a 'siesta' lighting period using the fixture, at least for now. maybe just shorted the light period you are using, to say afternoon/evening.


Note I have the fluval plant V3, not the sky, so it may be different for you.

 

[Neptunius]

What do you think would be an appropriate level of light?
I haven't figured out how to turn them off completely. The best I can seem to do is the nighttime setting.

 

[dougall]

Appropriate really depends on the plants you want to grow, and the levels of fertilisers and CO2 you want to put into the aquarium... but in short, if you are getting algae, you want less light, or more of the other 2.

again, I don't have exactly the same light as you do, do I cannot be sure it's exactly the same,

But in mine, via the app, I set the light settings to auto, so I just need to control the light levels and times, and then tap on the nighttime values then turn everything down to 0%, and it goes off at night.


I can look more into it if you need, but if it's possible it shouldn't be too difficult.

 

[Neptunius]

I guess I need to try out the levels a bit more
I havdn't noticed that the night time setting can be turned completely down to 0%. That in itself is already a big help. Thanks!

 

[dougall]

Yeah, at least in mine, you should be able to change the start and stop times for the lighting, and the levels for each stage.

So you can lower the amount of light during the day, and have it all the way off at night, and change the time taken to ramp up or down to those levels


Again, at least you can on mine, which is related, but a different model.