Want to easily access the screenshots from this video for settings? Here you go: imgur.com/a/QpExw6i

Gosh, this sure would have been good info when first buying and starting with the Fluval light!!! This should be mandatory viewing! LOL!

I've had this light for a year and have been so overwhelmed. I don't know how I didn't find this series sooner, but I am so glad I found it now!

You're seriously my hero.. for real. This is the best KZfaq video for me that I've seen since one helped me fix my Saturn in 2010. Thank you! I had no clue what I was doing, first planted, low tech, 10 gallon Betta. I would have fried all my plants and had black algae everywhere within a week or two. I can't thank you enough. So well explained, with screenshots that even an idiot could save and follow. I've subscribed. Going to watch part 2 & 3 now!

You've made this video before and I followed your tips and settings and my plants went crazy! I also have a pressurized CO2 system. Once I got the balance right between the CO2, light, and fertilizer, everything grew like crazy! I would highly recommend this light to anybody!

This three-part series on the exact light I own has been AMAZING! Wish I'd seen this sooner. I battle algae on a frequent basis, and I am hoping the tips about not only slowly increasing light intensity over time, but also limiting blue light, will help. I was a "more is better" kind of aquarist and am learning slowly about the finer things. Many thanks for spending the time to put this together in a great format!

Glad your doing multiple parts here, I always wonder how other people use their 3.0 settings because there are so many options.

This is the most informative video I’ve seen. I’ve have 2 on a 75 gallon for 1.5 yrs and had NO IDEA blue causes BBA and I’m inundated with it. Do I have blue? YUP and LOTS of it. I just removed or seriously reduced blue. I can’t wait to see part 2!! You’ve taught me so much. Can you address tall tanks? I’m setting up a 3’ tall tank with plants. Thanks. 👍☺️

This will be the light for my new 75 gallon, and this information is just what I needed! The insight into the blue spectrum is invaluable! Thank you for sharing with us all.

This is wonderful! I have a 20g long planted tank and got a Fluval plant LED from my husband. I needed help figuring out how to set it up cause the auto presets were ssssooo bright. You did all the work for me! It was so thorough and simple and informative your whole video. Onto part 2!

It's now been almost a month since I've upgraded to CO² and I'm really starting to see the results. I increase my Fluval plant 3.0 light intensity by 1 - 2% every three or four days until I reach the maximum of 75% (as you suggested) while keeping the CO² at approx. 3 Bps. For the record, here are my color channels and percentages over the past week: -09/21- Pink -50 Blue -5 C.White - 62 P.White - 67 W.white - 56 ___________________ -09/24- Pink -52 Blue - 5 C.white - 64 P.white - 69 W.white - 57 I'm also aiming for the light to provide a maximum of eight hours however, this is getting a suddle transfer to a different "on/off" time period in the day. Everything will eventually begin at 11:15am (including the CO² injection.) The reason for the time shift is for two reasons. 1.. Allowing Water changes without removing the CO² within the water column. 2.. Providing admiration of the aquarium during the evening as well as keeping ambient light to a minimum.

Thank you SO MUCH for this series! I love my Fluval 3 but I’ve been struggling to find a balance of bright enough for my personal taste while not causing huge algae blooms. I didn’t realize increasing the intensity slowly would help discourage algae and I’m hoping this will be the key to solving my problem!

Just a quick point to add to part 2 Bentley, be sure to tell new viewers that you are a master horticulturist, as many people are also throwing out videos on this light and people may not know the level of experience and expertise that you are bringing too the table. Also I am sure that adding a link to Aquarium coop page with the exact light on would help people avoid ordering the wrong lighting off eBay and Amazon. In either case looking forward to the next part and I would like too add I have learnt so much from your videos regarding aquatic plants. 10/10

Thanks Bentley. I have 2 Fluval 3.0s. I am looking forward to the rest of your series. Keep up the good work. - Little Bobby

Great information. Having just set up a new planted tank I appreciated his recommendation of starting the light at 50% and slowly ramping up the light. That is something I had never thought of.Odds are you just saved me the headache of fighting algae in a new tank. Thank you so much for making this video.

Honestly man, I love it when youve covered a topic Im looking for. You tend to go into the details I am looking for. Thanks for this one!

Thank you so much, I got my Fluval about 2 weeks ago and wish I had viewed your video before I plugged it in, now I have a serious algae & diatom bloom.

Just bought this light and was able to perfect the settings in real time while listening to you - Excellent walk through. Thank you so much! My only disappointment is this one doesn't appear to have the storm settings and other fun stuff I've seen on other lights.

Super helpful ty. Almost certain getting this for my new 50g ... still researching

This is one of the best guides I have seen in a while! I wish I saw this before I started my first tank!

Fantastic Fluval 3.0 course! Love it! Can’t wait for parts 2 & 3...first need to purchase more lights from the COOP!

Since a year ago, I finally got this light. I’m using the Auto mode for now. The Manual is lacking, but your tutorial is awesome. Thank you for sharing.

Thanks Bentley! We love our Fluval Plant and the way you explain things in the way we easily understand.

After a year I’m coming back to refresh my knowledge. Thank you Bentley.

Thanks for doing this, I have one of these on my 40 gallon blue dream shrimp tank. It seems to grow my mosses and red tiger lotus extremely well. I got rid of all blue light, and fluctuate mine doing a dual peak type schedule topping out at 85% power with a rest period in between them where the tank gets a little sunlight through a window. I have had it on the tank since new about a year ago and have had very little algae growth and great plant growth. Cheers.

Great video. So much useful info.I just bought the Fluval Nano 3.0 for my Fluval 13 gallon bow front for a new basic planted Betta & shrimp tank. I knew this light was capable of a lot of things. I'll never get out of the Auto mode but love even in that setting you can control the light output. This is my 2nd planted tank. I gave up after my first was taken over by algae 2 years ago. But I know so much more now which is why I went with Fluval. I don't take defeat well :-) I'm saving $$ for a 75gal community tank and you bet some of that $$ will go towards a Fluval light. Plants are expensive and I work hard for my $$ so anything I can do to make my tank a success is money well spent in my opinion. I tried the Amazon knoclk offs and to be fair are pretty decent lights. But, they are not programmable. Thank you for taking the time to make this.

thank you for all the tips on having a 10 gallon tank. in retrospect I should have got the half price fluvalsky as I dont need lights this powerful even though I am focused on planting After only 4 days I already have dark water so I have some down to 8 hours at 50%

Bentley, i bought 2 of these lights, 48 inch for 2- 90 gallon tanks from cory from aquarium coop, love them. also bought 2 more ziss hatcheries, now have three. Thanks for all your advice, really like your videos, full of great information. joe h navy seabee

Yay finally, looking forward to part 2 as well.

I had to come back because I had no idea my blue was set so high. I haven’t been overrun with algae but I have been waging a deep state battle with random patches of hair algae on leaves and after a week you may have helped me with the war! Thanks for all the great information.

a few months ago I purchased this light and I kept having algae issues starting with diatoms then green hair algae and black algae and it’s been a struggle keeping it from killing my plants and now that I come across this video I lowered the lights from default to ur 25% preset and I’ll be sure to update progress in 2 weeks thanks for the amazing info

Thanks to your previous videos of this lamp, I started increasing the intensity slowly, and nowadays bba is a far away nightmare. My planted tank with M. Praecox is healthy, and plants growing. THANK YOU. Note I got Melanotenias once I started to watch your videos. It's a dificult fish to get in my country, but all of them are amazing. They worth the effort to get them

Just bought one and found this video, thank you very much for the tips!

Thank you for keeping it simple 👍🏼 really enjoy your channel great stuff

My Reeve’s Turtle loves the Fluval Plant light because of the heat it gives off. She basks under the light quite often.

Just got this setup on my tank today and love the 24hr setting and simplicity of the app. Watching your videos to learn about pro mode.

Just got this light to replace my Radeon I used when the tank was salt. Buggest surprise was how low to the tank it sit. Helpful video though!

Had the aquasky for my 75 gallon and just purchased the plant 3.0 after hearing mix reviews using the aquasky on anything taller than 15 inches.

Very helpful. I’m looking for this light. Thank you for sharing your experience with us. I enjoyed watching. I subscribed and put notifications on, so that I can learn from you.

Watched your older video about it after i bought one as i had issues with blue algea so turned down the blues on my 15inch shallow tank a lot. had like 50% before now its like 2-3% and i hope they will vanish over time. I prefer to tune up the warm white like 5-10% more, the neutral one in the middle and the cold white 5% below the neutral white one. I start early morning with like 1% on all but blue to an 5% all whites and 15% pink. 6pm its at 15 pink, 2% blue, 45% cold/50% neutral/55% warm. till 12:30am it rises up to 35P/2B/50C/60N/65W and then sunset starts. somehow only the moss has blue algea and the other plants have just some fine hair algea on their leaves after nearly 5 weeks now. Thanks for the helpful video!

Hi Bentley! Maybe I’m a little simplistic on these, but I just have them both maxed out at 100% on my 90 gal. I did start with all the lights at 30% with a shorter photoperiod and gradually ramped everything up to an 8 hour 100% all color photoperiod with a 1 hour sunset and sunrise. I know Corvus Oscen uses all of the colors at the same level, too. My tank is pretty algae-free, too. *shrugs*. Thanks for the video!

Fantastic video, thank you!!! Turns out I was giving my plants waaaay too much light. No wonder I was farming algae.

Awesomeness thank you for this valuable information because I started @ full blast with a new established tank and low and behold I had a brown algae outbreak and it was ver frustrating thanks again for for time and knowledge

always great videos and yes we need more video 101's for sure and it helps when you have a master teaching you well done bentley... happy xmas by the way

Tanks for doing this Bentley P!

You convinced me Bentley, I’m gonna order one for my 40B. Thank you for your help as always.

Wow I just got this light and was trying to learn how to use it. This video came in handy bigtime! Thanks

If there is a part two, wouldn't this be the penultimate guide? haha. Thanks for doing this. I had low blue light but it probably need to lower it even more. Relationship to blackbeard was news to me. You rock!

Great video Bentley keep up the good work! Love mine on my display tank, but think I might just get a stingray for my 40 breeder.

Wow finally something on how to for this light. Great job looking forward to the next.

Hey, Bentley, greetings from Bulgaria. A great video as always! I started a planted tank about 10 days ago and started utilizing a shortened version of the Day Sim you had previously shown in a prior video on the topic. My light comes on at 14:00 and switches off at 23:59 with the following maximum output periods (or close to maximum) - from 17:00 until 19:00 it's at 65%, 5%, 100%, 100%, 80% and from 19:00 until 20:30 it's at 85%, 3%, 100%, 100%, 100%, and the ramping down to 35%, 2%, 50%, 65%, 65% (I have all the points the same as yours just shorter periods basically). I'm also injecting CO2. I don't seem to be having any algae issues at the moment (I did daily water changes the first 7 days, and now I'm doing a water change every other day). The tank is exactly 16" tall but the light is probably about 4-5 inches above it (hanging from the ceiling) since there are some pieces of roots sticking out of the water, on the other hand my hardscape is a bit elevated so a good portion of the plants basically are 8 inches below surface. Anyway after this long intro - do you think I should modify the settings as per your suggestion for shallow tanks or leave it as is and monitor what's happening.

Ummm so if my medium light can go 80% of their lumen level, and you're dropping down the levels to that? My medium light that cost 75% less is the best bang for my money. This light has nice features. The sunset mode is dope af. But for costing 200 compared to my Hygger, I am impressed with my light. And this video just made me feel better about it. Great video, not trying to talk shit. But this gives me a lot of hope with my newer tanks, and the plants I am growing. :)

Perfect timing. I’m about to purchase a new light and have been looking at this particular model pretty closely.

Wonderful video with thorough but hands on knowledge for everyone!

Thanks very helpful!

Awesome info! I was researching various lights and after watching Cory's video when it first came out, yours came up in the suggested. I have an Aquasky on my 10 gallon shrimp and like the app. I have Fluval 2.0's on a few tanks, but wanted to get a new light for my 55 new community tank and was looking at this and the Finnex. Biggest drawback for me was the warranty. I started to notice on the Nicrew lights the BBA outbreaks due to just white and blue leds. The planted Nicrew isn't bad as I have a dimmer timer. But I like the functionality of the app. I am going to check out the rest of your video on this light as I think this is one for me. Just based on the lower model Aquasky these are good lights and I love the 2.0, but I think this is the light for me after watch this video, Pretty sure after watch thr other videos it will seal the deal. Thanks for this in depth look.

Thank you for all this info! What a difference of results on my 120g tank 👏

You are the best! So detailed but easy to understand. I just got my first fluval and I will try to follow your advice. Perhaps I will be a more “aggressive” with the red light because I hear this promotes root growth. Maybe I am wrong but I guess this is the foundation for most plants to do well? I hope so! Anyway, thanks for a great guide. =)

He's right about the blackbeard algae, I had the blue light on at about 10 percent in my 55 gallon and eventually, maybe also with overfeeding, the Blackbeard algae took over

You are the Man! GREAT info and tips! AND as always I really like the way you explain EVERYTHING!

This great information. I’m looking forward to the next installment. Thanks!

Yasss been waiting for ever for this! I had been using your day sim, then you helped me with my algae and brought me down to 70%! But I ended up trying 50% and now i don’t have to do maintenance every few days! Writing this pre watching lol

Thanks so much for this series of videos! I’ve had this light for about 7 months and I love it. I’m just glad I can finally learn how to utilize it better !

Your video was so helpfull, Thanks from Belgium ☺️

I am looking forward to your next video on this. I have 15-24 inch one for my 16 gal tall tank. I should have gotten a longer one but was not thinking about how big the light section was, SO I move it around the top of the tank. This works out pretty well since i have the light sitting over the top of the plants that need more light, and the other plants that use lower light are in the perfect shaded spot. I am going to lower my blue and pink since my whites are set to 75.

Pretty dang good video. Very well explained and thorough. Excellent

Thanks for the info

Fantastic video! many thanks for sharing!

Yeah, Bentley! Been waiting for this.Bring it on. Been holding back to get one myself. feel like its been "too much light" for me. I mean why buy something and run it at 50% ? Is there a better option in that case. Is Fl. Aquasky a "lesser" version?. Guess I have to wait and see, Huh.

Thank you so much for this video, I got this light as a replacement light for the fluval flex 9.8 gallon aquarium and was wondering why I was having algae blooms like crazy and it turns out I had it all at 100% when it was supposed to be near 50% light

This is fantastic!! One thing I’d like to ask for your expertise is: I have a 20 gallon tank. Several neons and some Cory’s”s. Several pieces of drift wood and only two plants (Hemigraphis Colorata / Purple Waffle) Now, what settings recommendation do you have for this tank? The plants are small and I do not have any CO2.

Much learnt today

Thank you for the tips with the blue lights. I’ve been battling black beard for a while now.

Great job with your videos. Just found you and happy I did! I have a 40 breeder with a fluval 3.0. I am 1 year into planted aquariums and definately not that good yet! I recently got co2 and I am getting some good growth. For me the reason I have kept light down and not progressed with the plants is the hair algae. I cant seem to get rid of it and cant seem to figure out if I should go up or down on light. Hoping to use these videos to get some guidance. Keep up the great work!

Hi! Thank you for this video. I have a question, I have a 6ft 125 gallon. Should I get the 48” or get two smaller ones to span the whole tank?

Thanks for the info! Looking forward to the next one.

This is very helpful, thank you!

Excellent video!! Thanks so much. Im getting one for my 40 breeder for Christmas. Now I know some of the basics on how to start. Can't wait for part 2. I've wanted this light ever since I saw it. A Little pricey but im learning why.

Awesome. Thanks for your tutorial!

Very helpful. Thanks!

Great video Bentley 👍🏾

excellent looking forward to the pro mode video

This has helped a lot thanks

Thanks for nice video. I think of getting this one but have some wonderings. I have a tank of 59x24x20 inch (length x width x height). I plan for the up to 60 inch (59 watt) led. Is it enough with just one device to cover the full area of the tank?

Thanks for the information.

Man, you mean I've been racking my brain on the algae and it's the "starry sky" setting I was using at night?

Maybe this is an obvious question, but if you have a silly deep tank (about 30'), does all the light mixture options go out the window and you just want to crank the thing to max?

A couple of points. I own 2 of these and can confirm that altering any of the settings is a total pain when the changes are not saved. In my case I have to have my phone virtually touching the lights for the changes to be saved; if I try it from a few feet away it will only save perhaps once in every 6 or 7 attempts. The only saving grace is that changing the settings is something that only needs doing very occasionally, once you have it where you want it there's no need to alter it. You also mentioned, almost as a throwaway line that the early versions had a problem with not turning back on. I can confirm this - any slight interruption to the power supply even if just for half a second turns them off and I have to open my phone, go to the app to restart it. It this problem being addressed by Fluval? Having said this I love these lights, once they are programmed and running properly.

So great. Thank you!!!

I planted plants about a week ago in my 20 long and all of the plants look awful. Lots of brown and decay. Would you recommend doing your 20 long settings or something more intense to bring them back?

This video is awesome! I have been running the automode setting in my 54 gallon corner bow (wet/dry sump- internal overflow box) and everything seems to be great. I noticed the temperature has increased and staying at 78.4. Is this ok? I plan on cycling the tank for at least a week before moving my 3 slim bodied goldfish over. Also, any suggestions on a good bubbler to use?

Thank you for giving ouy excellent info about this fluval light!! May i ask for the Part 2 link? Thanks!

Thank you so much good information

Go to for my fluval 3.0 information!

Oh my. I watched your older videos, but this is everything. I do have a question that is totally off topic about this light. Any idea where to find information about how to find information about how to adjust this light for terrestrial plants? I have an extra nano light I want to use for a terrarium... Maybe succulents. Idk.

Thanks for the info!

Great informative video. If I have two of the strips would I halve the light settings on each so both then equal the final result full result or keep the full settings on both strips?

Would the 24-34" model of this light be good for a planted 24x24x20 height tank?

Looking forward to part 2! I am using this light for my heavily planted 55 Gallons with ada substrate system and CO2 infusion and the plants are doing great except for the carpeting plants. I am using the Planted tank Pro mode. I will be adding a second strip of the same light. I hope that's not a bad idea? Thoughts? Thanks!

Good day Sir. I like this video a lot. I have 10gallon Planted tank with low-medium plants but I'm wondering how high should my fluval light above the water? Thank you