Fluval Marine reef 3.0 review

[wowatracy]

Can you post a screen capture of your settings?

Unfortunately I took down the tank and the app won't let me see the settings without connecting to the light.

 

[ReeferDre]

R - 0%
C - 100%
B - 100%
P - 100%
W - 50%
Running 3 of these lamps on NUVO 20 gallons 11 hours a day for about 2 years. Mixed reef, no sump, skimmer, any mechanical or chemical filtration. All frags grew from tiny $10 pieces:

What’s your setup like? Maintenance schedule?

 

[sfin52]

What’s your setup like? Maintenance schedule?

I'll post mine tomorrow.

 

[nano reef]

I am happy with the lights.I have 2 Fluval marine over my 85 gallons for 7 months now,no other lights.

Wow! And even growing monti's and down low at that!

 

[nano reef]

I'm curious about these lights. It looks like getting 2 is ideal for a beginner mixed reef setup. Still cheaper than a IC Pro x2 and it comes with the bluetooth AND a 3 year warranty.

Defiently more expensive than current! I didint get god growth or color with current so thinking of getting 2 of these

 

[nano reef]

I'm using two of these lights for ~1.5 years, so far so good. It's on NUVO 20 gallons.

As you can see I have a few SPS frags, but, honestly, they were growing very slowly (doubled the size for all that period) and in strange patters. So, I decided to start tweaking the lights, shifting to warmer spectrum and noticed some increase in growth. I honestly didn't know each channel contribution to photosynthesis and could only guess. I was afraid to use too high values for anything as I have a bad experience with burning corals under Kessil. So, I was running both lights only at about 30-40% each channel, except Red (0%) and White (~4 times less than others).
Eventually, I decided to buy Seneye Reef Monitor to use it as a PAR meter. I know, it's not very precise tool, but better than just a naked eye.

So, today I've received it, did some measurements and I was shocked. Where my Stylophora is at the highest position (~6") I get only 80 PAR. And other corals below get even less. I didn't clean the lamps for a while, to be honest, and also the light goes through the NUVO's canopy, which scatters and absorbs some light. So, I've decided to measure what will happen if both lamps are at 100%. It was ~260 PAR at the Stylophora level, just about right. That's my goal now - slowly, week by week increase the brightness and see what happens. At least I'm not afraid of reaching that 100% level now. The giant frogspawn needs to be moved though, of course...
Also, to figure out a contribution of each channel, I did some separated measurements underwater:

(2 lamps!)
Channel______________________PAR
ALL at 100%__________________260
Red (called "Pink" )_______11
Cyan__________________________9
Blue__________________________62
Violet (called "Purple" )___22
White________________________172

I also did some more measurements in the air, fixing one (!) light between two chairs and putting the sensor 6" bellow it. Here is a table I put my data into:

(1 lamp, no water)
Channel_______PAR____LUX____PUR
All at 100%____184____6778___72 %
Red____________7______223_____83 %
Cyan___________6______181_____70 %
Blue___________44_____1577____84 %
Violet__________17_____596_____92 %
White__________120____4380____64 %

So, it's clear how much contribution the white channel has! I thought it's only bright to eyes, but it is actually very high PAR and even though the PUR is lowest, it's still the biggest contributor. It's temperature (white only) is ~7400K, btw. The PAR values are not far from the ones on the box, considering my lights are 1.5 years old and I didn't clean them)
I've also measure my old Kessil 160, just for fun. But reading were very strange. At 6" it was giving me crazy high values >300 PAR and just an inch lower it was almost twice smaller. At minimum brightness, I think... But that's probably expected for a point light, as brightness somewhat proportional to 1/R*R. That's why you have to keep Kessils far above.

My conclusions:
1) To grow corals (LPS or even SPS) you need a least two lights, which is still a cheaper option than buying top brands.
2) You have to use a lot of white to achieve high enough PAR for SPS.
3) The lights are great for shallow tank, but might be useless for too deep cube-like tanks, as they don't seem to have good penetration (very scattered light).
Overall, they are great lights and I'll keep using them. Let's see how long they can last)

 

[nano reef]

WOW! I dont think I iwll get these then! I dont like a really white tank. I do know that blue is supposed to be more responsible for growth though! I am having such a hard time since I only have 4 1/2. I saw some one measure par on a kessil a80 which can be mounted at 4 inches with no hot spots and the par under the light was only 140 but he said that no matter how much blue or white he used he noticed par levels stayed the same. They are only 15 wats a piece and very expensive buying 2 with the controller being 100 bucks more!

 

[nano reef]

Just wondering how the color pop is with this light compared to higher end lights? I only have 4 1/2 inches of space under my kitchen cabinets so thats why I m considering this light. Some people say barely any growth and some say great! I have some sps in my other tank I wan tto move to this nuvo 20 I have thats 24 x 12 so I had planned on two 24 inch ones. I am also looking into kessil a 80's that kessils says can be mounted 4 inches above but they are only 15 watts and 100 more for a controller so over 400 bucks!

I really wish I could use ai primes but the brs review shows crazy hot spots mounted at 6 inches, then right next to it is like 140 then the front and back is in the teens but thats on a 24 inch cube so the front and back wouldnt matter for my situation!

I have owned a current orbit marine in the past and as I recall I didnt get much growth or color pop but what I noticed and like about this light is the fact is has violet and the 420 nm's covered which current start's at 445 I believe. If anyone can give me some advice I would appreciate it! Literally going nuts!

 

[JTHING2]

I was wondering, does the lighting get consumed by the coral? meaning let's say at 18" the 32w produces 55 par. if I have 3 Corals at 18" and its working fine but if I add one more coral then it might not be enough?? also does adding another double the par or is that not how it works either?

thanks in advance!

 

[JTHING2]

WOW! I dont think I iwll get these then! I dont like a really white tank. I do know that blue is supposed to be more responsible for growth though! I am having such a hard time since I only have 4 1/2. I saw some one measure par on a kessil a80 which can be mounted at 4 inches with no hot spots and the par under the light was only 140 but he said that no matter how much blue or white he used he noticed par levels stayed the same. They are only 15 wats a piece and very expensive buying 2 with the controller being 100 bucks more!

I don't know much to be honest but I do own one and you can adjust it from all white to a very blue light. it has blue, purple, pink, white and cyan. its amazing how adjustable it is. I'm struggling to figure what is actually best. you adjust each color from 0-100% so pretty much for each color you have 100 places to set it which for me is the issue. I think once that's figured out then that would be a good thing though. I do recommend them btw

 

[ridgeburyreefer]

Hopping on this thread kind of late, maybe it will rebirth it haha

does anyone use the marine 3.0 with a glass lid that can supply insight? I have a 90 gallon I’m nervous to put an egg crate lid on bc my cat is a jumper and currently have a glass lid. Also thinking about adding a second light. Thoughts?

 

[sfin52]

Hopping on this thread kind of late, maybe it will rebirth it haha

does anyone use the marine 3.0 with a glass lid that can supply insight? I have a 90 gallon I’m nervous to put an egg crate lid on bc my cat is a jumper and currently have a glass lid. Also thinking about adding a second light. Thoughts?

I do. Its not enough on its own. I use it on glass lid and egg crate. It was not enough thats why I use it with t5ho

 

[art926]

Hopping on this thread kind of late, maybe it will rebirth it haha

does anyone use the marine 3.0 with a glass lid that can supply insight? I have a 90 gallon I’m nervous to put an egg crate lid on bc my cat is a jumper and currently have a glass lid. Also thinking about adding a second light. Thoughts?

I'm using it with an acrylic lid. 3 lights, not just one, so that way I can run them at about 50% intensity each and they don't overheat. Doing that for a few years already.

 

[BTimms]

So I just noticed the lights have an update and you can set several timepoints in it so you can finally have them shut off. Here’s what I’m about to run for a few days to see how it works out, opinions are welcome as well as your pics

How high are your lights above the water and bottom of tank?

 

[gjj1056]

I'm using two of these lights for ~1.5 years, so far so good. It's on NUVO 20 gallons.

As you can see I have a few SPS frags, but, honestly, they were growing very slowly (doubled the size for all that period) and in strange patters. So, I decided to start tweaking the lights, shifting to warmer spectrum and noticed some increase in growth. I honestly didn't know each channel contribution to photosynthesis and could only guess. I was afraid to use too high values for anything as I have a bad experience with burning corals under Kessil. So, I was running both lights only at about 30-40% each channel, except Red (0%) and White (~4 times less than others).
Eventually, I decided to buy Seneye Reef Monitor to use it as a PAR meter. I know, it's not very precise tool, but better than just a naked eye.

So, today I've received it, did some measurements and I was shocked. Where my Stylophora is at the highest position (~6") I get only 80 PAR. And other corals below get even less. I didn't clean the lamps for a while, to be honest, and also the light goes through the NUVO's canopy, which scatters and absorbs some light. So, I've decided to measure what will happen if both lamps are at 100%. It was ~260 PAR at the Stylophora level, just about right. That's my goal now - slowly, week by week increase the brightness and see what happens. At least I'm not afraid of reaching that 100% level now. The giant frogspawn needs to be moved though, of course...
Also, to figure out a contribution of each channel, I did some separated measurements underwater:

(2 lamps!)
Channel______________________PAR
ALL at 100%__________________260
Red (called "Pink" )_______11
Cyan__________________________9
Blue__________________________62
Violet (called "Purple" )___22
White________________________172

I also did some more measurements in the air, fixing one (!) light between two chairs and putting the sensor 6" bellow it. Here is a table I put my data into:

(1 lamp, no water)
Channel_______PAR____LUX____PUR
All at 100%____184____6778___72 %
Red____________7______223_____83 %
Cyan___________6______181_____70 %
Blue___________44_____1577____84 %
Violet__________17_____596_____92 %
White__________120____4380____64 %

So, it's clear how much contribution the white channel has! I thought it's only bright to eyes, but it is actually very high PAR and even though the PUR is lowest, it's still the biggest contributor. It's temperature (white only) is ~7400K, btw. The PAR values are not far from the ones on the box, considering my lights are 1.5 years old and I didn't clean them)
I've also measure my old Kessil 160, just for fun. But reading were very strange. At 6" it was giving me crazy high values >300 PAR and just an inch lower it was almost twice smaller. At minimum brightness, I think... But that's probably expected for a point light, as brightness somewhat proportional to 1/R*R. That's why you have to keep Kessils far above.

My conclusions:
1) To grow corals (LPS or even SPS) you need a least two lights, which is still a cheaper option than buying top brands.
2) You have to use a lot of white to achieve high enough PAR for SPS.
3) The lights are great for shallow tank, but might be useless for too deep cube-like tanks, as they don't seem to have good penetration (very scattered light).
Overall, they are great lights and I'll keep using them. Let's see how long they can last)

Hi, I know it's been 2 years, but how are the growth of your corals after you increased your whites to the PARs you wanted?

 

[art926]

Hi, I know it's been 2 years, but how are the growth of your corals after you increased your whites to the PARs you wanted?

You can see more recent photos from 1 year ago on the 5th page here. Everything was growing great under 3 lamps until last summer, when we had wild fires and heatwaves in California. I also made a mistake of overdosing "Carbo-Calcium" product, which is an organic salt of calcium. It caused a bacteria bloom. I tried to kill it with Chemiclean (red slime remover) and it turned into a catastrophe - it killed all cyanobacteria, screwed my balance and caused a huge dinoflagellate bloom. This turned my tank into a graveyard in a matter of one month or so:

New photo by Artem Klimov

photos.app.goo.gl

I lost almost all corals But I also learned a lot from these mistakes and now restored my tank:

New photo by Artem Klimov

photos.app.goo.gl

Not as pretty yet as one year ago, but everything's growing well again and I'm even selling some frags, as you can see (those little white disks are mine, I fragged a couple of grown corals and selling pieces)). I also removed green star polyps just a day ago, 'cause I got tired of them conquering the space.

The lights are doing great (getting back to the topic), and I wouldn't switch to anything else. Note, that I'm using 3 of them, but at lower settings, so they last much longer. My current brightness levels are - everything at 80%, except whites - those at 40%. I would try it even brighter, as I did before, but my nitrates and phosphates are already near 0 and I can't bring them up easily (corals grow fast and consume it), so I don't want to risk the higher brightness yet (who knows, maybe those dinos are still around). I don't use any filtration at all, no mechanical (filter socks, etc), no skimmer, no chemicals. I think, letting the water circulate freely allows much better plankton growth, so I don't even have to dose any plankton products for corals. And I do ~30% water change only once per 3 months or so) (but dose Alk, Ca, Mg regularly, of course). Thinking about it all now, when I'm in the hobby for many years - they sell to us so much unnecessary stuff in the fish stores, while you really need just a minimum - glass tank, good salt/water, Alk, Ca, Mg additives and light.

 

[99gtbaby]

For all those curious I’m doing a review of the Fluval Marine reef 3.0 for a low tech light it’s pretty good, the app is decent although without a par meter you might find yourself lost adjusting the spectrums the light by itself will support softies however for any LPS and SPS corals I would strongly suggest extra lighting seems pretty durable has a excellent water resistant rating of IP67 so it could be submerged and still be fine, I would recomend having this light directly above the water using the mounting legs it gives you and unobstructed from water as this light is not the strongest but not the worst by the time you get to 18” the PAR reading is around 55 so water penetration is not the best, At 3": PAR=390, At 12": PAR=102 this will get the job done for softies the blue spectrum on this light is fantastic the app has a sunrise and sunset mode witch works great I would recomend this light to new hobbyists as it is easy and user friendly and can maintain softies and if you want to get in to LPS or SPS and anemones you will need to add lighting that about sums it up thanks for reading feel free to hit me with more questions! The pictures are corals I have maintained under this light and this light only.

I had one on my 125 and I had two Duncan’s in there and they Duncan’s seemed to love it.

 

[gjj1056]

You can see more recent photos from 1 year ago on the 5th page here. Everything was growing great under 3 lamps until last summer, when we had wild fires and heatwaves in California. I also made a mistake of overdosing "Carbo-Calcium" product, which is an organic salt of calcium. It caused a bacteria bloom. I tried to kill it with Chemiclean (red slime remover) and it turned into a catastrophe - it killed all cyanobacteria, screwed my balance and caused a huge dinoflagellate bloom. This turned my tank into a graveyard in a matter of one month or so:

New photo by Artem Klimov

photos.app.goo.gl

I lost almost all corals But I also learned a lot from these mistakes and now restored my tank:

New photo by Artem Klimov

photos.app.goo.gl

Not as pretty yet as one year ago, but everything's growing well again and I'm even selling some frags, as you can see (those little white disks are mine, I fragged a couple of grown corals and selling pieces)). I also removed green star polyps just a day ago, 'cause I got tired of them conquering the space.

The lights are doing great (getting back to the topic), and I wouldn't switch to anything else. Note, that I'm using 3 of them, but at lower settings, so they last much longer. My current brightness levels are - everything at 80%, except whites - those at 40%. I would try it even brighter, as I did before, but my nitrates and phosphates are already near 0 and I can't bring them up easily (corals grow fast and consume it), so I don't want to risk the higher brightness yet (who knows, maybe those dinos are still around). I don't use any filtration at all, no mechanical (filter socks, etc), no skimmer, no chemicals. I think, letting the water circulate freely allows much better plankton growth, so I don't even have to dose any plankton products for corals. And I do ~30% water change only once per 3 months or so) (but dose Alk, Ca, Mg regularly, of course). Thinking about it all now, when I'm in the hobby for many years - they sell to us so much unnecessary stuff in the fish stores, while you really need just a minimum - glass tank, good salt/water, Alk, Ca, Mg additives and light.

Thank you and sorry it took a while for me to see your reply.

I have a Fluval 32.5 and running one stock light at the moment (Fluval Marine 3.0) and my 2nd set is coming this week.

I am running 100% in all colors for now since I have only 1 set and will be setting them at 50% whites and 100% for the rest of the colors when I run them in pairs.

I noticed that the hammer coral I recently purchased about 2 weeks ago lost its vibrant green colors (but still glows well under blues) and that it has longer tentacles than when I just got it. Same goes for my frogspawns too. Could it be lack of light? They are sitting in the middle level of my tank.

My parameters are in recommended ranges.

 

[art926]

Thank you and sorry it took a while for me to see your reply.

I have a Fluval 32.5 and running one stock light at the moment (Fluval Marine 3.0) and my 2nd set is coming this week.

I am running 100% in all colors for now since I have only 1 set and will be setting them at 50% whites and 100% for the rest of the colors when I run them in pairs.

I noticed that the hammer coral I recently purchased about 2 weeks ago lost its vibrant green colors (but still glows well under blues) and that it has longer tentacles than when I just got it. Same goes for my frogspawns too. Could it be lack of light? They are sitting in the middle level of my tank.

My parameters are in recommended ranges.

Depends on how the color changes. Usually, when you have enough nutrients (nitrates and phosphates first of all), but not enough light, the color shifts to more brown (as the number of symbiotic algae increases). But if the opposite happens - too little nutrients and too much light, it just gets more pale and transparent. So, be sure that your nitrates/phosphates stay at detectable levels and then slowly add more light.

 

[Sleeping Giant]

I love this light, going to be getting a 2nd one soon.