# Fuval 3.0 Lighting help



## AntAstrophY (Aug 6, 2018)

Hey all
Looking for advice from anyone who owns one of these 3.0 lights, or even maybe the 2.0 model in regards to using it properly and to its fullest ability.

1. Firstly when pressing the main power button (on the device itself) what is the difference between the green light and the white light?

2. When exporting lighting programs to from my phone to the light how come these lights never change?

3. Can anyone share/suggest some lighting programs (colour values, length, ect) that would work well with an immersed planted tank?


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## Kaiede (Sep 11, 2017)

Green means Bluetooth control. White means manual control. If you want to use schedules from the phone, it needs to remain in the Green mode.


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## AntAstrophY (Aug 6, 2018)

Kaiede said:


> Green means Bluetooth control. White means manual control. If you want to use schedules from the phone, it needs to remain in the Green mode.


Thanks that helps a lot! Luckily its always been in green mode, now I know why 
Any thoughts on lighting schedules/lighting parameters?


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## XeonBAMF (Sep 5, 2018)

The 3.0 comes with 3 "preset" profiles. Lake Malawi, good for an African Ciclid tank, Tropic River and Planted. The Tropic river cuts out the blue lights during the day and has the blue light run all night by default. The Planted tank setting, which I based my custom setting off of uses all the spectrum at various output levels.
I am using the 24 inch version of the light on a 29gal so I dropped the maximum output down a bit and turned off the blue all night as that doesn't appeal to me. 
I stuck with the Planted profile and tweaked it slightly to look the most appealing with my white sand and German Blue Ram. You can adjust them to whatever looks best for you using any of the profiles as a starting point. I attached an image of my settings for your reference.


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## AntAstrophY (Aug 6, 2018)

XeonBAMF said:


> The 3.0 comes with 3 "preset" profiles. Lake Malawi, good for an African Ciclid tank, Tropic River and Planted. The Tropic river cuts out the blue lights during the day and has the blue light run all night by default. The Planted tank setting, which I based my custom setting off of uses all the spectrum at various output levels.
> I am using the 24 inch version of the light on a 29gal so I dropped the maximum output down a bit and turned off the blue all night as that doesn't appeal to me.
> I stuck with the Planted profile and tweaked it slightly to look the most appealing with my white sand and German Blue Ram. You can adjust them to whatever looks best for you using any of the profiles as a starting point. I attached an image of my settings for your reference.


Thanks for the reply. I ended up doing basically the same. I run mine on an immersed tank so I was just targeting maximum growth.


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## Mike A. (Jan 6, 2018)

AntAstrophY said:


> Thanks for the reply. I ended up doing basically the same. I run mine on an immersed tank so I was just targeting maximum growth.


Could you do me a favor and measure the width of the Fluval?

Looking at a different mount for it and that's the only dimension that I can't find anywhere.


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## theDCpump (Jul 22, 2016)

Mike A. said:


> Could you do me a favor and measure the width of the Fluval?
> 
> Looking at a different mount for it and that's the only dimension that I can't find anywhere.


I have the Fluval 3.0 bluetooth 48-60inch model and I'd swear it is about 3 inches wide, but I am not at home.
It is quite a trim light.


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## jprime84 (Oct 23, 2009)

Three inches sounds close. I could also measure it later on. The app has bad wording in a few places for sure. "Export" is actually the button for accessing the saved settings. If you swap to manual and make adjustments you should see the light change in realtime.


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## Mike A. (Jan 6, 2018)

jprime84 said:


> Three inches sounds close. I could also measure it later on. The app has bad wording in a few places for sure. "Export" is actually the button for accessing the saved settings. If you swap to manual and make adjustments you should see the light change in realtime.


Thanks. Agree that the export is kind of confusing. With the smaller Nano Plant 3 that it have (which uses the same app) it does change in real time in manual mode. Does it not work that way with the larger lights? 

Also kind of a pain that you have to continually reconnect to it and can only have one controlling device paired at any given time but that's really more Bluetooth/IOS than the light itself. My Android tablet does hold the connection longer. But I do like the way that it works overall. The schedule control is great. If they'd give us another period block to create a break within it would be near perfect. 

If you (or anyone) can get a more exact measure of the width at some point that would be helpful. Trying to figure out whether I can use the Current clip-type mounts that I have that are somewhat dependent on the width.


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## jprime84 (Oct 23, 2009)

I made my own mounts from... plastic


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## theDCpump (Jul 22, 2016)

jprime84 said:


> I made my own mounts from... plastic


roud: *Scratch outside the box thinking....that's above the box thinking! Crafty!*

Also, I use a Fluval 3.0 48-60inch, but the tablet (controller) I use is not my device and return the tablet controller to the owner away from my tanks.
I set it and plug the light into a timer.
It always comes off and on without issue.

Note: I'm not sure if this hurts the light over time.

I have not yet made any custom setting changes to ramp up or down. 
So far it's cave person simple, on and off.


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## jprime84 (Oct 23, 2009)

theDCpump said:


> roud: *Scratch outside the box thinking....that's above the box thinking! Crafty!*
> 
> Also, I use a Fluval 3.0 48-60inch, but the tablet (controller) I use is not my device and return the tablet controller to the owner away from my tanks.
> I set it and plug the light into a timer.
> ...


Does it actually ramp up and down if the power goes out on it? I had presumed it would be reset to default or not know what time of day it was.


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## tamsin (Jan 12, 2011)

jprime84 said:


> I made my own mounts from... plastic



How have you done the section where it rests on the edge of the tank? I feel like mine could do with raising about 2" too.


The width of the light itself is 6.4cm - the 'leg bracket' is very slightly wider so tappers out to about 6.7cm. It's 1.7cm tall. Google will convert it if you want it in inches


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## Mike A. (Jan 6, 2018)

jprime84 said:


> Does it actually ramp up and down if the power goes out on it? I had presumed it would be reset to default or not know what time of day it was.


My Nano 3.0 version does maintain the time after a power loss. I'd be surprised if the larger lights didn't.

^ Edit to add: Actually that's not correct. I realize that when I tried it the other day I had my device here and may have changed it so just tested it again. If you cut power, then it appears to come on again in night mode. It picks up the time/schedule/mode from the controlling device when you go back into it again. So if you're away and power goes off, then I *think* that it may just stay in that mode until changed. That's how the Nano appears to work anyway, not sure about the larger.



tamsin said:


> The width of the light itself is 6.4cm - the 'leg bracket' is very slightly wider so tappers out to about 6.7cm. It's 1.7cm tall. Google will convert it if you want it in inches


Thanks. So ~2.5" wide. Unfortunately, that means that the Current mounts won't work as they come. They're made for a width near 8.9 cm/3.5". But I've already had to modify some to work with another light that's about the same width so those should be good.

Also just to help anyone who may be searching since I couldn't find it anywhere... To pair the Fluval Nano 3.0 to a different device, since there is no button, unplug it and then back in again and it will be in pairing mode for some period of time when it first powers up.


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## theDCpump (Jul 22, 2016)

jprime84 said:


> Does it actually ramp up and down if the power goes out on it? I had presumed it would be reset to default or not know what time of day it was.


I have not tried the ramp feature yet on the long 48-60inch 3.0 yet.
The blue tooth tablet will be mine almost permanently soon, then I'll be back to the lighting.
I'm not sure how it works yet truthfully when the tablet is away for a solid week or more.

This season is closing up with sales and the fish I had come in, so I have been buying and cycling tanks, quarantine, feeder/breeder tanks, and setting up filters and cycling.


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## jprime84 (Oct 23, 2009)

tamsin said:


> How have you done the section where it rests on the edge of the tank? I feel like mine could do with raising about 2" too.


The glass on my tank is 8mm thick. As it turns out, this is about the same thickness a standard one-stud lego brick. 

I found some 4x10x.33 lego plates and then added 2x10 bricks or whatever I could that was close, and 1x8 bricks on the other side of the glass. The risers are 5 bricks high. After I built and tested them for fit, I took them apart and reassembled with super glue to make them permanent.

I have considered designing "sleeker" ones and ordering the bricks for it but these work great so I have not been in a rush to do so.


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## tamsin (Jan 12, 2011)

jprime84 said:


> The glass on my tank is 8mm thick. As it turns out, this is about the same thickness a standard one-stud lego brick.



Thanks, I've 10mm, but I'm going to dig out some bricks and see if I can find a fit


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## Weidbrewer (Feb 14, 2018)

Definitely the worst thing about this light and my only real complaint is the (lack of) instructions, so the OP was certainly not alone in their confusion.


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## Fly2High (Dec 21, 2017)

I have the light set to 1% blue only at night with the day set to their planted settings. Does anyone find the light transitions very steppy? My Finnex is super smooth in comparison.

I wish they would change their interface as such:
They need more than 2 color setups and 2 transition slots. I would like to have night be from 7PM - 10 pm but then go completely off from 10 pm - 6 am. From 6am - 7am, I would like a different warm color setting for this transition. For me to do this, they would need 4 color settings and 4 transitions. 

I would like to be able to slide the 'current time' indicator to any section of the auto setup graph and see what the color of the light is at that time. When I do the programming, I only can see whatever color is defined for now or I have to run the preview. Would be nice to be able to see a selected time from the auto interface screen.

Love how bright it is on my 29(18" deep). Definitely brighter than my Finnex 24/7 CC. 




Can a single unit with 16" to substrate be enough to grow high light plants? Just about ready to buy some plants and might like to get something with greater light requirements.


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