Bluefish Mini Controller settings

Susanedw

Well-Known Member
So I did the led retrofit (steve's led's) and am trying to get the bluefish settings set.

In setting times, does the "length" of time include the ramp up or down time? So if morning starts at 8 with a 90 min ramp and 240 min length (4 hrs), is it a total of 4 hrs or 4 hrs plus 1.5 hrs: ex: 8-930 ramp, 930-130 morning length

Also, for midday there is no choice of length setting so is the evening length of 4 hrs (example) the full length at high midday then start a ramp down to evening (90 min) or 3 hrs of midday with 1 hr ramp down to evening

And evening, does that start at the beginning of ramp down from midday and same deal: if length is 4 hrs, does it include that ramp time.

And night if it starts at 10 and has a 90 ramp, did that ramp start 90 min before 10 or at 10

Here's what I have. Just not sure of the exact times
8 Sunrise, 90 ramp, 240 minutes (or 180 minutes total)
130 (or 1230) midday, 90 ramp, 240 min. (or 180 total)
530 (or 430) evening, 90 ramp, 240 min. (or 180 total)
10:00 start night. But above ends ramp at either 930 or 830.

trying to draw my graph. If my ending time is 830 and my night is 10 do I have to fiddle to get it to time correctly. Hope this makes sense....

What is a good setting for night. Blues only at about 3%?

Also if I want to name my channels, does anyone know the color names?
 

Pat24601

Well-Known Member
I knew the answer to all of these questions, but I’ve left my settings alone for months and forgotten.

I’ll try to refresh my memory and respond tomorrow.
 

Pat24601

Well-Known Member
I'm going to make this two different posts just so it's a little easier to read. The first will be me trying to answer your questions. :) The second will be some posts of my settings and the results.

Q1) "In setting times, does the "length" of time include the ramp up or down time?"

Yes. So, if you have a 4 hour "morning" time with a 90 minute ramp, that means it is ramping for the first 1.5 hours and then staying stable for the last 2.5 hours.

Q2) How is midday length determined?

The "midday" length is determined as the remainder of your morning and evening length.

So, for example if I have a 9am start time for morning and a 4 hour length and I have a 9pm end time for evening and a 4 hour evening length, my "midday" length is simply the remainder.

In this case, that's 12 hours total day length since there is a 9am start and 9pm end. 12 hours - 4 hours morning length - 4 hours evening lenght=4 hours left for midday.

Q3) What percent blues to set for night?

I set mine at 2%. If you are doing 3% that's fine. It's whatever you think looks good.

Also, keep in mind that I'm running a FOWLR tank. I've deliberately set my overall intensity a bit low because the only thing my lights do is let me see my fish and grow algae. If I had corals, my settings would be higher.
 
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Pat24601

Well-Known Member
This is how I have mine set.

--------------------------
My morning starts at 9:00 and runs for 4.5 hours ramping up to 20% intensity for both white and blues over 90 minutes.

My midday runs for 2 hours ramping up to 50% both white and blues.

My evening is 4.5 hours in which the first 90 minutes is spent ramping down to 20% intensity for both white and blues and the last 90 minutes is spent ramping down to my night time settings.

My night time setting starts at 8:00pm and is 2% blues 0% whites. So, I just use my LEDs as my moonlights.

--------------------------------------

And here is the graph of how that looks:
Lights1.jpg

Also, there is something called "natural sun setting" which you can click on. If you do that, it smooths out the intensity over the day. This is what my lights look like with that setting on.

lights2.jpg
 

Susanedw

Well-Known Member
thanks Pat Will do some playing around. I do have the natural sunlight on. Do you know what they call each color?

So how is this
8-1230--90 ramp 4.5 blue 45, red 6, blue 45, white 20, gn 5, violet 25
1230-6--90 ramp 4.5 blue 70, red 16, blue 70, white 30, gn 15, violet 45
6-1030-90 ramp 4.5 blue 45, red 6, blue 45, white 20, gn 5, violet 25
Night 2% each blue

I need lights more on in evening for hubby and figure the extra time in the am and evening are ramp times and not so bright. I can always adjust to 9 or 930 in the morning when I get up
 

DaveK

Well-Known Member
Keep in mind that when it comes to setting up things like this, you usually can't go too far wrong. Even if you do make a mistake, it's easy to correct. Get something reasonable going and fine tune it as needed.
 

Susanedw

Well-Known Member
thanks. adjusting lighting is new as before I didn't have to do it. Now I have 3 different led set ups. hydra 26's on the e170, current on the 125 gal and now these new leds and the controllers are all different! I do like being able to adjust
 

Pat24601

Well-Known Member
thanks Pat Will do some playing around. I do have the natural sunlight on. Do you know what they call each color?

So how is this
8-1230--90 ramp 4.5 blue 45, red 6, blue 45, white 20, gn 5, violet 25
1230-6--90 ramp 4.5 blue 70, red 16, blue 70, white 30, gn 15, violet 45
6-1030-90 ramp 4.5 blue 45, red 6, blue 45, white 20, gn 5, violet 25
Night 2% each blue

I need lights more on in evening for hubby and figure the extra time in the am and evening are ramp times and not so bright. I can always adjust to 9 or 930 in the morning when I get up

OK. I do think there is something here that you might be confused on (or I am).

I believe that the channels with color bars by then that you are referring to above have nothing at all to do with the colors the channel controls.

So, for example, this is what I see when I look at my output on my screen.
bluefish.PNG


However, those colors by the side of the channel mean absolutely nothing. I think you can even change them to be whatever you want, but I haven't bothered.

I think what you really have is either 2 or 4 channels.

I literally check to see what each channel is by setting all the other channels to zero and only 1 channel to something like 50% and look so see which leds are on.

For mine, I have 4 channels and I think the channels control the colors as follows:

Channel 1 controls blues on the 1st heatsink. Note this is one with the blue bar.
Channel 2 controls whites on the 1st heatsink Note this is one with the red bar.
Channel 3 controls blues on the 2nd heatsink Note this is one with the blue bar again.
Channel 4 controls whites on the 2nd heatsink. Note this is one with the light blue bar.

BTW, I wouldn't swear to that. I'd have to go check and remind myself. I should probably write it down. :)

Channel 5 and 6 (the green and purplish bar) control nothing at all for me.

At least, I think that's correct.

I special requested how my channels were done, so I doubt yours work the same way. I suspect you have 2 channels and you'd need to play with them to see what they do (or ask Steve's).

I can play with this some more when I'm home to make sure I remember correctly.
 

Susanedw

Well-Known Member
I sent a question to Steve's. I paid extra to get the violet booster upgrade. Also on his website, for the controller, it says 6 channels. I do know that green is a color that is considered useless by some, and have read that we can't even see it. Here is what I took from steve's site. I'll post what I'm told
bluefish-mini-comparison.jpg
 

Pat24601

Well-Known Member
I sent a question to Steve's. I paid extra to get the violet booster upgrade. Also on his website, for the controller, it says 6 channels. I do know that green is a color that is considered useless by some, and have read that we can't even see it. Here is what I took from steve's site. I'll post what I'm told
bluefish-mini-comparison.jpg

Oh, OK. Let me know what you find out.

Like I said, no matter what I'm fairly sure yours doesn't work the same way mine does because I requested something pretty specific. So, I could be totally wrong about how yours works!!!
 

Susanedw

Well-Known Member
Pat, you are right. 2 channels.
<<CH1 will be the blue mix and CH2 is the white mix. Bluefish is a general controller that is compatible with many LED systems, and all systems don't necessarily use all 6 channels.>>

so adjusted just 1 and 2.
 

StevesLEDs

RS Sponsor
Sounds like you are getting the hang of Bluefish. Steve's will have their own app presets with the next Bluefish update (hopefully!)

You can actually change the color that appears next to each channel to set it to match your LED system. In my experience, it takes about 4 or 5 tried before it actually works. Bluefish is sensitive to using the app's back button instead of the phone's back button...

Slow and steady wins the race every time in reefkeeping.

On a side note, I'm not really a fan of having different settings for all the different phases. I have found to get better growth which the lights "rise" to a specific setting in the morning, then "set" to a specific setting in the evening. Corals thrive on the consistency and simple predictability of the lighting. This is also the Steve's LEDs recommended settings for getting about 4 fold coral growth rates compared to the natural ocean.

Hope that helps?
Jeff
 

Pat24601

Well-Known Member
Sounds like you are getting the hang of Bluefish. Steve's will have their own app presets with the next Bluefish update (hopefully!)

You can actually change the color that appears next to each channel to set it to match your LED system. In my experience, it takes about 4 or 5 tried before it actually works. Bluefish is sensitive to using the app's back button instead of the phone's back button...

Slow and steady wins the race every time in reefkeeping.

On a side note, I'm not really a fan of having different settings for all the different phases. I have found to get better growth which the lights "rise" to a specific setting in the morning, then "set" to a specific setting in the evening. Corals thrive on the consistency and simple predictability of the lighting. This is also the Steve's LEDs recommended settings for getting about 4 fold coral growth rates compared to the natural ocean.

Hope that helps?
Jeff

If I had corals in mine, I would do a sunrise/sunset just because it’s cool, but my lights would basically be steady for most of the day.

So, I completely agree.

Since I don’t have corals, I do whatever looks good to me at the time and grows the least algae.
 

Pat24601

Well-Known Member
Pat, you are right. 2 channels.
<<CH1 will be the blue mix and CH2 is the white mix. Bluefish is a general controller that is compatible with many LED systems, and all systems don't necessarily use all 6 channels.>>

so adjusted just 1 and 2.

Thanks for the update!
 

Susanedw

Well-Known Member
sounds reasonable, @StevesLEDs I'm going to just let it ramp 90 min in morning, stay, and ramp down 90 slightly lower in evening and then down 90 to night. So I start at 9am and at 9 pm I start the ramp down to night and from 5-9 the lights go slightly lower
 

StevesLEDs

RS Sponsor
Susan,
Sounds like you are on the right track. The clock time you set (9am/9pm) are the times where the controller starts and concludes it's functions. In otherwords, that's the time frame in which there is light in the aquarium and all ramping is done within that period of time.

You may want to have rise time at 8am, and set time at 10:30pm, and adjust from there based on your own bedtime. The whole point of having an aquarium is to enjoy it during your waking hours. Fish and coral really don't care so long as the schedule is consistent. We have numerous customers that work the night shift, so sunrise starts in the evening, and sets in the morning so they can enjoy their aquarium before and after work like the most of us.

Thanks!
Jeff
 
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