Albie

I wasn't clear. It's a well established tank and the fish are not skittish under normal conditions. I've figured out the ramp up/ramp down in Pro Mode and that works great. The problem is when I switch modes in order to play with the light spectrum. It turns the light off suddenly (I have two lights on a 125g) between modes/functions and that makes the fish panic. I can actually hear them bump the glass so this discourages me from messing around as much as I'd like. If I could figure out how to do the adjustments without the lights flashing off first that would help.

Interesting info, thank you. It looks like I have some experimenting to do! I haven't done as much as I want because it really seems to freak my fish out. When I change modes the light goes off or goes to all blue between some of the settings. This makes the fish panic and I have some large ones that can really damage themselves by smacking into the glass. Gives me pause before playing with the lighting.

What a great resource! Thank you everyone for all of the information. After reading a lot on line and watching many videos, I found the opening post was really what I needed. I do have a question that's a bit different from what's being discussed here. I am looking for information on how lighting settings make your fish look. My biggest concern with my lighting is how the tank looks, not how to best grow plants. Of course I want my plants to thrive, but the plants are secondary to the fish. In fact, some of my fish (Uaru) eat plants unfortunately. So I am growing anubias and java fern because they are apparently not so appealing to the fish. I am looking for lighting suggestions that will best bring out the colors of the fish while also allowing for good plant growth. I have read in depth articles about what spectrums bring out what colors in fish, but the information was not useful in a practical sense. I would love some actual examples of settings on the Fluval 3.0. Does anyone have any correlations between lighting spectrums and fish color they have noticed when adjusting spectrums? For instance, I notice that most users here keep blue very low. I thought that more blue might bring out blue in the fish better, but when I experimented, I didn't find that. Curious if others have looked at this aspect in addition to plant growth and algae reduction? Another observation with my new lights is not necessarily a plus - they show every minute particle of debris suspended in the water as well as tiny air bubbles. This light is vastly better than my old light, but with the old light my fish looked like they were floating in air. My tank is 125 gal (72"x18"x20") and has been up for years. The lights are new - two 36" Fluval - and the plants are new. Thanks for any input!