Fluval 3.0 - Not what I expected

[Redhawk]

So!  I recently purchased a Fluval 3.0 light for my planted aquarium.  I'm still VERY new to this but I think its going pretty well.  With that being said, Can someone please tell me what timezone the light uses or how to set it?  I set my light to a 5 hour on time and it stayed on well past that.  Midly frustrated at the company (Fluval, NOT Aquarium Co-Op) selling such an awesome piece of hardware with crap software. (My opinion)

Any help would be very much appreciated!

 

[nabokovfan87]

On 10/29/2022 at 4:49 PM, Blade2021 said:

Any help would be very much appreciated!

Hey there, welcome to the forums!

First, have you connected the light to your phone via the app at all?

I would suggest starting with Cory's, Bentley Pascoe's reviews and beginner light videos.  I'll grab them for you, but I think both show how to connect the light.

It doesn't use a "timezone" per say.  It's going to be set via bluetooth directly off the app.  You can use the light manually with a timer like a kasa timer and the on/off modes.  You would set the brightness by press / holding the power button when it is illuminated white.  You can also do this with blue (blue mode = night light).  Red = off.  Green is where you are connecting the phone to the app, running it via bluetooth.
 

 

Happy to help with any further questions 🙂

[Redhawk]

Hello there,  Thank you for the warm welcome and info you posted.  I'll check those out.

I did connect it to my phone via the app and bluetooth and that's where the heart of my frustration seems to be coming from.  I think the hardware side is absolutely top notch and have zero complaints but the app just seems undercooked and quite frankly, almost worthless.  I'm no stranger to SmartHome/IoT gear and I do have a coupler of smart switches like the kasa laying around that I can use.

As far as the app goes, I guess I'm just still not sure on how the light knows that 7am IS 7am.  Is it synchronizing with whatever time the phone has?  I'm planning on giving them some feedback but I wanted to make sure I didn't miss anything first.  Is there any feedback from the light to say it has the correct time?  I know they have the preview button that lets you cycle through which is helpful but it doesn't help if 7am on the light is 11am in real world time.

(Watched the videos)

The profiles make more sense now.  I'm glad they had that included in their explanations cause I would have never guessed thats how that worked.  (The export button).

Also instead of making a new post I will just ask here.  I have seen a pretty significant change in my water from yesterday to today.  Its more "cloudy".  I've only had my plants for a couple of days so maybe its just cycling but I want to make sure I am setting my lights appropriately.  I did watch a few videos about only having the lights on for 4 to 6 hours to start and also starting them with a much lower level then the final setting.  Right now I have mine set to around 17% for all spectrums (except blue.) and this runs for about 5 hours.  

I'm also dealing with a 20G High tank.  

I've tested my water this morning, everything looks good. Nitrites and Nitrates, PH and Chlorine all look good.  Should I just give it time and see what happens?  Any other suggestions are greatly appreciated.  I know I'm very new to this and probably asking redundant questions but I don't want to be overcome by algae or any other negative effects that may be resolved now.

Thank you,

[Splush]

I also added the Fluval 3.0 to a newly planted tank several months ago. It took me a while to get mine dialed in. Finding the balance of lights and nutrients took some trial and error. I experienced a big bloom of hair algae. I dialed back the light intensity quite a bit and once my new plants stared flourishing the hair algae went away.

[TheSwissAquarist]

On 10/30/2022 at 1:49 AM, Blade2021 said:

So!  I recently purchased a Fluval 3.0 light for my planted aquarium.  I'm still VERY new to this but I think its going pretty well.  With that being said, Can someone please tell me what timezone the light uses or how to set it?  I set my light to a 5 hour on time and it stayed on well past that.  Midly frustrated at the company (Fluval, NOT Aquarium Co-Op) selling such an awesome piece of hardware with crap software. (My opinion)

Any help would be very much appreciated!

 

You're not the only one who's completely bedazzled by IT!

These days there's an app for this, an app for that, and even an aquarium light has an app!

[nabokovfan87]

On 10/30/2022 at 10:30 AM, Blade2021 said:

As far as the app goes, I guess I'm just still not sure on how the light knows that 7am IS 7am.  Is it synchronizing with whatever time the phone has?

Correct. so based on daylight savings, and other things, you'll need to resync the light.  When it loses power it defaults to a specific on/off, but it's not programmed anymore until you sync it again.

 

 

On 10/30/2022 at 10:30 AM, Blade2021 said:

Also instead of making a new post I will just ask here.  I have seen a pretty significant change in my water from yesterday to today.  Its more "cloudy".  I've only had my plants for a couple of days so maybe its just cycling but I want to make sure I am setting my lights appropriately.  I did watch a few videos about only having the lights on for 4 to 6 hours to start and also starting them with a much lower level then the final setting.  Right now I have mine set to around 17% for all spectrums (except blue.) and this runs for about 5 hours.  

I'm also dealing with a 20G High tank.  

I've tested my water this morning, everything looks good. Nitrites and Nitrates, PH and Chlorine all look good.  Should I just give it time and see what happens?  Any other suggestions are greatly appreciated.  I know I'm very new to this and probably asking redundant questions but I don't want to be overcome by algae or any other negative effects that may be resolved now.

That should be good.  I agree with the method of lower hours, less intensity, and then slowly increase it.  Max is typically 8 hours. 

The hazy water is probably just a bacterial bloom and will clear up with water changes and time.

[Rita]

There should have been an option upon set up to pick a region I believe.... but I was under the impression it uses the time on your smart phone since it's only able to connect locally via bluetooth.

I've chosen to tackle my lighting by never changing it lol. I have them set to 11 hours with 1 hour ramp up and 1 hour ramp down. Trust me I've had my share of algae cycles... diatom, hair, cyanobacteria, black beard... But I chose to get snails and shrimp to help out while I dial in my ferts and feeding. Two of my tanks are two years old and finally look pretty balanced (except some very very slow growing black beard algae). My younger tanks are still ebbing and flowing with algae... but I feel like I'm a bit more casual about it than most since algae doesn't necessarily mean your tank is unhealthy... it's the growing the wrong plants. 

[nabokovfan87]

On 11/11/2022 at 9:49 PM, Rita said:

I have them set to 11 hours with 1 hour ramp up and 1 hour ramp down.

I would cap out at 9ish hours.  But if your tank can handle 11 it must be pretty packed with plants!

Edited November 12, 2022 by nabokovfan87

[Rita]

On 11/11/2022 at 10:00 PM, nabokovfan87 said:

I would cap out at 9ish hours.  But if your tank can handle 11 it must be pretty packed with plants!

Here's pics of my two oldest tanks... the 20 gal long I've added plants over time and it's filled in pretty nicely.... the 10 gallon has water wisteria that has stole the show so I just let it grow to a jungle then trim back every so often. The 10 gallon also has floating plants to filter some light.

[nabokovfan87]

That's awesome.  The lily and the Wisteria probably love the intense lighting.

[Redhawk]

You have beautiful tanks! 

I've started low and am slowly ramping it up but I still hate the app with a passion.  I've finally realized that even with the numbers at 3 or 4 for intensity it still lit the tank up quite a bit so that was throwing me off for a while.  I really hope they make it better in the future.

nabo, you were correct.  I think I had a bacteria bloom going.  My water is still a bit cloudy to some degree but I am just letting the cycle do its thing.