Fluval Marine & Reef Full Spectrum Performance LED Strip Light

[David Nguyen]

Hi Everyone,
I'm new to the salt water game and I'm setting up a new 35G all in one tank. I'm currently cycling my tanks and ill probably wait about 4 weeks before trying to put in anything. My question is, does anyone have any takes on the Fluval LED lights? Model A3984. I will have a tank with fish and corals. Nothing special and probably all beginners corals. Hope to get some feedback. Thanks!

 

[David Nguyen]

This was given to me, so it would be great if I didn't have to buy another light.

 

[jakeh22]

This was given to me, so it would be great if I didn't have to buy another light.

From what I see at petsmart and what not the drag tanks with various corals are all fluval lights there are way more expensive lights but these will worl

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

I’ve been pleasantly surprised to see some pretty good results with these lights. Yes.
Edit. BUT, he first time you have a problem with a coral almost everyone will say it’s the lights.
Common.

Def look at the par specs and match them to the species if you can.

 

[NS Mike D]

i have few posts about these. they will produce the par and spectrum for sps mid to upper levels of a tank. the manufacturer lists spectrums that are near what you would expect for growing corals - which left me scratching my head as to why my sps were turning brown.

turns out that these rely heavily on white LEDs. you are seeing the better lights using a lot less white LEDs and using the rgb leds to produce white.

IME these lights will grow corals. i had very good success growing softies and lps with them. they did grow sps, but left me disappointed with the color. Blue/White only LEDs are limited

 

[Luna]

It should work fine. I use a aquasky on my 40b & a aquaneat on my 20 long both light work fine on my tanks without spending outrageous $ on them. Should be fine to start with.

My 20.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

i have few posts about these. they will produce the par and spectrum for sps mid to upper levels of a tank. the manufacturer lists spectrums that are near what you would expect for growing corals - which left me scratching my head as to why my sps were turning brown.

turns out that these rely heavily on white LEDs. you are seeing the better lights using a lot less white LEDs and using the rgb leds to produce white.

IME these lights will grow corals. i had very good success growing softies and lps with them. they did grow sps, but left me disappointed with the color. Blue/White only LEDs are limited

Hi Mike, can you show me those ?
We should talk about “white”.
Most of these are balanced at 14-20,000 kelvin. Using 8,000 kelvin white.
I’ve seen some birds nest and lower lower light sps stuff do pretty well with em. Browning is usually just lack of intensity or like my tank. High nutints.

 

[NS Mike D]

Hi Mike, can you show me those ?
We should talk about “white”.
Most of these are balanced at 14-20,000 kelvin. Using 8,000 kelvin white.
I’ve seen some birds nest and lower lower light sps stuff do pretty well with em. Browning is usually just lack of intensity or like my tank. High nutints.

give me a few minutes to dig up my review of the fluvals

i am not sure kelvin translates with LEDs. you can have awesome coral color, but put them under a general white light and they look brown. it's not a function of coral color but rather how we perceive color and how the white LEDs light reflects off the coral to our eyes

I'll see of I can dig up @Lasse good post about the problem with white LEDs which are actually blue LEDs that are treated. He does not use any white LEDs but rather creates white light by blending his RGBs

fwiw, i thought the brown in my sps were either lack of intensity (my nutrients were very low) so i added a second set. had to move some corals and cut down the duration of running the second set. the day i upgraded to the RapidLED Coronas, I was shocked at the amount of coral colors that appeared by creating white by upping the RGBs. It felt like I was cheating by using some sort of parlor trick. The fact was that the colors were always there, it was the whites drowning out the colors.

i've been running my coronas using spectrums close to what you see posted (heavy on the blues purples etc) with some white and hints of red and green and my corals are showing additional colors.

i am not anti Fluval (although their engineers blew the manual switch design - did they test them before putting it into production) , I think they are decent lights and my soft corals and LEDs popped with color with them. but if you want to see colors in the tips of a lot of the sps , LEDS that run two channel lights, day/white and moon/blue are limited

 

[NS Mike D]

one of my posts on these

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/lighting.351829/#post-4373252

fluval marine 2.0 $130

https://www.amazon.com/Fluval-A3993-Marine-Reef-24-34/dp/B013U25AXQ/ref=sr_1_2?s=pet-supplies&ie=UTF8&qid=1516222255&sr=1-2&keywords=fluval+marine+&+reef+2.0

here are the par specs from the manufacturer

376 @ depth of 3″ (76 mm)
222 @ depth of 6″ (15 cm)
90 @ depth of 12″ (30.5 cm)
47 @ depth of 18″ (46 cm)

you can add the wifi module later to get more control, but a simple timer for on and off - otherwise two bands actinics and full white (15k) can be dimmed manually

i wouldn't use these for high demand sps but they do grow softies, leathers and bta at the bottom (18"). my candy candy canes and duncans are thriving at about 12"and i do have some acros at the top.

I have dumped mine in the tank a few times and they still work. I don't recommend this, but I am really glad it wasn't kessils that fell in.

as strip lights they are laid out for even spread on standard rectangular tanks, like my 29 gal aqueon, but it's hard to find lights with published wave lengths and par mappings at this price range or lower.

these were my low budget selection.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

give me a few minutes to dig up my review of the fluvals

i am not sure kelvin translates with LEDs. you can have awesome coral color, but put them under a general white light and they look brown. it's not a function of coral color but rather how we perceive color and how the white LEDs light reflects off the coral to our eyes

I'll see of I can dig up @Lasse good post about the problem with white LEDs which are actually blue LEDs that are treated. He does not use any white LEDs but rather creates white light by blending his RGBs

fwiw, i thought the brown in my sps were either lack of intensity (my nutrients were very low) so i added a second set. had to move some corals and cut down the duration of running the second set. the day i upgraded to the RapidLED Coronas, I was shocked at the amount of coral colors that appeared by creating white by upping the RGBs. It felt like I was cheating by using some sort of parlor trick. The fact was that the colors were always there, it was the whites drowning out the colors.

i've been running my coronas using spectrums close to what you see posted (heavy on the blues purples etc) with some white and hints of red and green and my corals are showing additional colors.

i am not anti Fluval (although their engineers blew the manual switch design - did they test them before putting it into production) , I think they are decent lights and my soft corals and LEDs popped with color with them. but if you want to see colors in the tips of a lot of the sps , LEDS that run two channel lights, day/white and moon/blue are limited

Cool. Tag me there. Thanks.
All mixed colors can be kelvin , single NM cannot.
And yes. You are correct about the eyes. That’s actually why most make it more blue.

And yea, most folks are shocked when they run the ledgdary “Par Monsters” 5.6k and 14k metal halide for the first time. Or a 20k Radium for that matter. Lol.

Sorry for the hijack.

 

[Jesterrace]

For a few low maintenance corals it should work, if you want a full fledged reef though you will need to upgrade.

 

[NS Mike D]

here is a post by @Dana Riddle on the subject of spectrum and coloration. he also has a new thread on this


dana wrote:
Here are some numbers (for good coloration, shoot for PAR of at least 100 and up to 350.) Spectrum should look like this for perhaps 8 hours, with full spectrum (not to exceed ~25% on any channel, but see PAR values) for about 2-3 hours.
UV-A 1.20%
Violet (400-430 nm) 9.90%
Blue (431 - 480 nm) 64.60%
Green-Blue (481 - 490 nm) 10.30%
Blue-Green (491 - 510 nm) 7.60%
Green (511 - 530 nm) 2.20%
Yellow-Green (531 - 570 nm) 2.30%
Yellow (571 - 580 nm)
0.40%
Orange (581 - 600 nm) 0.60%
Red (601 - 700 nm) 0.80%

Here are some numbers (for good coloration, shoot for PAR of at least 100 and up to 350.) Spectrum should look like this for perhaps 8 hours, with full spectrum (not to exceed ~25% on any channel, but see PAR values) for about 2-3 hours.
UV-A 1.20%
Violet (400-430 nm) 9.90%
Blue (431 - 480 nm) 64.60%
Green-Blue (481 - 490 nm) 10.30%
Blue-Green (491 - 510 nm) 7.60%
Green (511 - 530 nm) 2.20%
Yellow-Green (531 - 570 nm) 2.30%
Yellow (571 - 580 nm)
0.40%
Orange (581 - 600 nm) 0.60%
Red (601 - 700 nm) 0.80%

i am digging up my post with the fluval publish spectrums

 

[NS Mike D]

Cool. Tag me there. Thanks.
All mixed colors can be kelvin , single NM cannot.
And yes. You are correct about the eyes. That’s actually why most make it more blue.

And yea, most folks are shocked when they run the ledgdary “Par Monsters” 5.6k and 14k metal halide for the first time. Or a 20k Radium for that matter. Lol.

Sorry for the hijack.

no hijack. i would have preferred if this information was around three years ago when i bought my first fluvals (started with the 1.0s) .

I saw that fluvals published par numbers and their spectrum charts appeared to be in line with high end lights. lasse's build thread where he used no white LEDs was, pardon the pun, and eye opener for me and really helped my understand lighting.

these are good leds and great budget lights. they are set it and forget it - fluval set the spectrums so you don't have to tinker with them

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

here is a post by @Dana Riddle on the subject of spectrum and coloration. he also has a new thread on this


dana wrote:
Here are some numbers (for good coloration, shoot for PAR of at least 100 and up to 350.) Spectrum should look like this for perhaps 8 hours, with full spectrum (not to exceed ~25% on any channel, but see PAR values) for about 2-3 hours.
UV-A 1.20%
Violet (400-430 nm) 9.90%
Blue (431 - 480 nm) 64.60%
Green-Blue (481 - 490 nm) 10.30%
Blue-Green (491 - 510 nm) 7.60%
Green (511 - 530 nm) 2.20%
Yellow-Green (531 - 570 nm) 2.30%
Yellow (571 - 580 nm)
0.40%
Orange (581 - 600 nm) 0.60%
Red (601 - 700 nm) 0.80%

i am digging up my post with the fluval publish spectrums

Oh. I’m quite familiar with all of those.
A little too familiar some would say.

I would reccomend reexamining what white is.
White is not a color. Nor a temperature. It in fact can be many temperatures.
It’s slang.

 

[Lasse]

In short and absolutely IMO (with a little support of common sense and science)

The colours we see from most corals is from two sources – one is the reflecting light and what we see will be the sum of the colours that are reflected from the main light source. The other is the fluorescence – e.g. the colour of the photons the coral produce from parts of the main light (mostly the blue part). You can say that in this case – the corals act as their own light sources – but its weak light sources.

White LED is mostly constructed from blue led that have been covered by a thin phosphorus layer in order to produce most of the wavelengths in the visible spectra. They are mostly constructed for the need from the lighting industry – they shall give as good as possible light for our eyes. Because our receptors for intensity is based mostly on the wavelengths between 500 and 600 nm – a good common light have tons of power in that area. If you now combine this two different light sources for the colour of our corals – the reflecting colours (mostly between 500 and 600 nm) will outcompete the weak fluorescence from the corals and you will see a rather dull coral. Some vendors will try to fix this with using high Kelvin LEDs – it means that the phosphorous layer is rather thin – hence not create so much wavelengths in the wavelengths over 500 nm. But if you make it to low (wavelengths > 500 nm) your fish and other organism that only use reflecting colours will be very dull. The way I have seen as the best to solve this question is to use a lighting without any phosphorus coated light. Some do this by using only wavelengths below 500 nm but it will result in beautiful coral colours but dull fishes. The other trick is to use the RGB trick – the trick that gave us colour TV. The colour reception in our eye is based on three different receptors – one for blue, one for green and one for red. The actual colour our brain report is a sum of the intensity from each of these receptors. Are the intensity the same in all of these three receptors – the brain report a white light whiteout the heavy load of wavelengths in the 500 nm – 600 nm area. This type of “white” light give the weak fluorescence from the corals a chance to reach our receptors.

But as Dana´s colour map indicates – there is more interesting wavelengths area for photosynthesis (and hence growth) than blue and some green and red. Wee need more of the green and reds wavelengths than before because we do not get them from any phosphorous coated LEDs. And – but this is strongly IMO – wee probably need some wavelengths in the infrared area too.

I use Pacific Sun fixtures with their SMT matrix (its 9 different LEDs that you can individually control) and are pleased with that. Lately I have add two actinic T5 tubes and around 30 W of IR (740 – 745 nm)

I hope that I have succeed to explain this in an understandable manner or att least my point of view in an understandable manner .

Sincerely Lasse

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

In short and absolutely IMO (with a little support of common sense and science)

The colours we see from most corals is from two sources – one is the reflecting light and what we see will be the sum of the colours that are reflected from the main light source. The other is the fluorescence – e.g. the colour of the photons the coral produce from parts of the main light (mostly the blue part). You can say that in this case – the corals act as their own light sources – but its weak light sources.

White LED is mostly constructed from blue led that have been covered by a thin phosphorus layer in order to produce most of the wavelengths in the visible spectra. They are mostly constructed for the need from the lighting industry – they shall give as good as possible light for our eyes. Because our receptors for intensity is based mostly on the wavelengths between 500 and 600 nm – a good common light have tons of power in that area. If you now combine this two different light sources for the colour of our corals – the reflecting colours (mostly between 500 and 600 nm) will outcompete the weak fluorescence from the corals and you will see a rather dull coral. Some vendors will try to fix this with using high Kelvin LEDs – it means that the phosphorous layer is rather thin – hence not create so much wavelengths in the wavelengths over 500 nm. But if you make it to low (wavelengths > 500 nm) your fish and other organism that only use reflecting colours will be very dull. The way I have seen as the best to solve this question is to use a lighting without any phosphorus coated light. Some do this by using only wavelengths below 500 nm but it will result in beautiful coral colours but dull fishes. The other trick is to use the RGB trick – the trick that gave us colour TV. The colour reception in our eye is based on three different receptors – one for blue, one for green and one for red. The actual colour our brain report is a sum of the intensity from each of these receptors. Are the intensity the same in all of these three receptors – the brain report a white light whiteout the heavy load of wavelengths in the 500 nm – 600 nm area. This type of “white” light give the weak fluorescence from the corals a chance to reach our receptors.

But as Dana´s colour map indicates – there is more interesting wavelengths area for photosynthesis (and hence growth) than blue and some green and red. Wee need more of the green and reds wavelengths than before because we do not get them from any phosphorous coated LEDs. And – but this is strongly IMO – wee probably need some wavelengths in the infrared area too.

I use Pacific Sun fixtures with their SMT matrix (its 9 different LEDs that you can individually control) and are pleased with that. Lately I have add two actinic T5 tubes and around 30 W of IR (740 – 745 nm)

I hope that I have succeed to explain this in an understandable manner or att least my point of view in an understandable manner .

Sincerely Lasse

White is misleading and should be used at all imo.
In my industry white is 3200k.
White for most should be 5600 kelvin.
White sold in many Led can be 1400kevin or more.
I make movies in 20,000 kelvin , in a valley or neighborhood outbid direct sun.
I can mix a 5600k or a 14000 kelvin with enough violet to make a corals Flouresce. Both with and t5 tubes.

White is relative.