# configuring led spectrum for juwel helialux 1000



## Hubi (Feb 20, 2020)

Hello everyone,

I have a Juwel Rio 180 aquarium with a Juwel Helialux spectrum 1000 LED light above it. The light is controlled by a smart controller. The aquarium has been running for 3 weeks now.
I am still trying to find out the correct spectrum of lighting (white, red, green and blue led's) I have configured a sunrise and sunset, and at it's brightest I run the following configuration:

White: 75%
Red:75%
Blue 50 %
Green:45 %

The brightest setting runs for 8 hours, both sunrise and -set last for about an hour.

I am not sure if these are the optimal settings, and I am struggling to find information on how to correctly configure my lights. I have a lot of low light plants in my tank (Anubias, Bucephalandra, Java fern) but also plants who require a bit more light (Limnophila, Hydrocotyle, Nympahea, Cryptocoryne, alternanthera)

I am seeing some diatoms at the moment, but not too bad. The plants seem to do ok, still adjusting to their submersed state, but I do see some new growth (most notable on the limnophila and nympeae, the hydrocotyle doesn't seem to grow at all however.

Can someone please help me in getting the right mixture of led colors? Please let me know if additional information is required.


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## minorhero (Mar 28, 2019)

Hubi said:


> Hello everyone,
> 
> I have a Juwel Rio 180 aquarium with a Juwel Helialux spectrum 1000 LED light above it. The light is controlled by a smart controller. The aquarium has been running for 3 weeks now.
> I am still trying to find out the correct spectrum of lighting (white, red, green and blue led's) I have configured a sunrise and sunset, and at it's brightest I run the following configuration:
> ...


So I have never used your aquarium, controller, or light before. But I did a search and it looks like your controller comes with 5 profiles including one called "aquascape" which is probably what you want to be using at a guess. Your tank is 19" tall and your light has about 6700 lumens which also tells me that you running your light full blast at 8 hours a day and less for another 2 hours is probably way too much. None of you plants are high light plants, medium will be fine (meaning less then 50 par certainly and possibly less then 40 par at substrate). 

If you do run the aquascaper preset you will also almost certainly need to dim your light as I would assume that preset is for folks running co2 which I assume you are not. I would start with 60% the light intensity settings under that preset and watch your plants to see how they do from there.


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## jaz419 (Jan 21, 2018)

Try reducing your green. Green tends to wash everything out.

I usually use green at about half of what I use red and blue at, sometimes less than half. For example, if you have red and blue at 50% try turning green down to 20-25%


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## Hubi (Feb 20, 2020)

minorhero said:


> So I have never used your aquarium, controller, or light before. But I did a search and it looks like your controller comes with 5 profiles including one called "aquascape" which is probably what you want to be using at a guess. Your tank is 19" tall and your light has about 6700 lumens which also tells me that you running your light full blast at 8 hours a day and less for another 2 hours is probably way too much. None of you plants are high light plants, medium will be fine (meaning less then 50 par certainly and possibly less then 40 par at substrate).
> 
> If you do run the aquascaper preset you will also almost certainly need to dim your light as I would assume that preset is for folks running co2 which I assume you are not. I would start with 60% the light intensity settings under that preset and watch your plants to see how they do from there.


I am not running for 8 hours at 100%, but at 70%. I am running pressurized co2.



jaz419 said:


> Try reducing your green. Green tends to wash everything out.
> 
> I usually use green at about half of what I use red and blue at, sometimes less than half. For example, if you have red and blue at 50% try turning green down to 20-25%
> 
> ...


thanks, I have made the following adjustments:

White:70 %
Red: 65%
Green: 28%
Blue 25%

would this be a better configuration? It looks pretty good on the eyes.


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## minorhero (Mar 28, 2019)

Hubi said:


> I am not running for 8 hours at 100%, but at 70%. I am running pressurized co2.


Ah pressurized co2 makes a huge difference. 

Any reason you are not running the preset that came with your smart controller?


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## jaz419 (Jan 21, 2018)

Hubi said:


> thanks, I have made the following adjustments:
> 
> 
> 
> ...




I don't have your exact light, so I don't really know. Personally I'd try and get the blue higher and if that makes it too bright take it from Green or even just take a little off everything else. 

But if what you've got looks good, just leave it be and see how you're plants like it


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## Hubi (Feb 20, 2020)

minorhero said:


> Any reason you are not running the preset that came with your smart controller?


Probably because I'm a bit stubborn  adjusting the presets seemed just as much work as creating my own. And the presets didn't really do what I wanted.

Bump:


jaz419 said:


> I don't have your exact light, so I don't really know. Personally I'd try and get the blue higher and if that makes it too bright take it from Green or even just take a little off everything else.
> 
> But if what you've got looks good, just leave it be and see how you're plants like it
> 
> ...


Will do, thanks!


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## SpringHalo (Oct 13, 2017)

The spectrum/color of the light has a marginal effect on plant growth in comparison to overall magnitude and exposure time. Tune the colors to whatever you like best and then tune the overall brightness to keep algae down. Too little light is safer than too much!

For best aesthetic color, most dutch styles use heavy red and blue so you can focus on those for more plant contrast, but it's all up to the user's preference.


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## Samsami (Jan 19, 2021)

SpringHalo said:


> The spectrum/color of the light has a marginal effect on plant growth in comparison to overall magnitude and exposure time. Tune the colors to whatever you like best and then tune the overall brightness to keep algae down. Too little light is safer than too much!
> 
> For best aesthetic color, most dutch styles use heavy red and blue so you can focus on those for more plant contrast, but it's all up to the user's preference.


Very interesting! I checked this with Juwel and they agreed that the colors (red, green and blue) are mostly important to make the aquarium look good while the white white 9000 K and 6500 K LEDs are the crucial ones for the plants.

So when you say "Tune the colors to whatever you like best and then tune the overall brightness to keep algae down" do you mean only tuning the White color down? And leaving the colored ones the way I like them? In other words are algae controlled by reducing white light only?


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