Fluval 3.0 Or Twinstar 600ea For My 60uns

Debating now if I should get the Fluval 3.0 for $127 or the Twinstar 600ea with dimmer for $179. As mentioned before I could put the fluval on the acrylic risers I made in the pic below but I think the twin star wins the beauty contest. Is there a significant difference in the way the plants are viewed with the color spectrum of the twin star. Is the twinstar really worth $50 more without an app and control that the Fluval has?

I really appreciate all the advice here. Thanks in advance.

 

Finally made a decision and upgraded from my current beamworks 6500k light. That light has done a nice job helping me get back into the hobby. However I really wanted to find a light with a nice color spectrum that was programmable as well. I have been debating between the twinstar e vs the chihiros RGB vs the Fluval 3.0.

My main concern with the fluval was that it did not have any risers and was supposed to only sit on top of the tank. I am not a huge fan of this setup also and would expect to get a lot of water splashes from the carbon dioxide and oxygen bubbles degassing from the surface onto the light casing. But I bit the bullet and went for a DIY upgrade and built my ow acrylic risers. I also got a good price on the light from Ken’s fish online and bought the light for $127.



I received the light today and boy oh boy is it really awesome. And it looks amazing in my opinion on top of the acrylic risers that I built. The controllable color spectrum and intensity for the LEDs on this with the app is really special. You kind of expect the rest of the LED market to go in this direction. The light is super responsive with the app. I only had one issue with it and that was when I tried to update the app and I lost Internet My connection and the light turned off and I couldn’t get it to turn back on. However after a couple Google searches did I realize that you can upgrade the firmware on the light by erasing it and reinstalling it by swiping left on the light icon in the app without waiting for the light to respond. And it worked immediately.



To be honest I really can’t get over the difference that’s this light makes on my 60 uns. It puts a big smile on my face and I don’t feel like I broke the bank at all. Maybe Fluval will take a note and farther down the line will offer acrylic risers for their lights instead of only offering a hanging mount system. But raising this light above the water line has made all the difference and I have zero dark spots on my tank and an even distribution of light. Anybody on the fence I say go for it. The three-year warranty makes me smile. I’m also finally seeing my fish and plants in a whole new light (pun intended).

-Fat Guy

Loving the ramp up and ramp down feature.

 

Hey thanks for reaching out. I wish I had more acrylic laying around to help you out. This light is awesome but it’s even better when it’s not smack up against the water level. I wonder why Fluval didn’t make them an option for their setup?

How much are you willing to spend? You know you could always try making these yourself and if you don’t have a plastic store near you you can maybe order some online as well as the glue you need. Measure the pieces to the height you want and glue them together. Just be patient and precise if you do. Acrylic glues not be like the glue you are probably used to. It’s a usually a solvent based glue as I am to believe and creates a special bond. Weld on 4 would be a good brand to use. Let me know. Hope that helps! It’s definitely worth it IMHO.

best

fat guy

 

I like the ocean box design one the most out of those posted above. It’s too bad they aren’t less expensive though. The LEGO option is a fun idea.

If I were to make mine again I would possibly change one of the side sections using a less thick piece. But all in all I’m really happy with how they turned out and how they work with the rectangular design of the Fluval light.

 

Hey nice! Those lego risers work. You could probably glue them together if you haven’t already or use ones that are all one color, maybe black, if you wanted them to not stand out as legos and look more streamlined. They definitely do the trick though

 

I don’t think that the risers are a must. I definitely prefer the look of the light on the tank with them as opposed to without. Not only do they help with the spread of light but they also make tank maintenance a lot easier. I only remove the light if I want to clean the risers themselves and just work around the light when I am doing water changes etc. For me I prefer them.

I’m not exactly sure with your tank being 25” deep how that looks with the light on it or how much light is lost the further away it is positioned from the substrate. These leds are fairly powerful though so I’d be interested in hearing about how you run yours over your setup and what your plant growth has been like.

On a side note in regards to my planted tank journey- I run my light, when it ramps up at its peak, at only 30% for a few hours and then it ramps down. The easy control that this light offers has hands down made a positive impact on my plant growth in this tank and an extreme reduction in algae. I was experiencing a brown algae issue with this tank after adding additional substrate to the back right corner months ago. I went down the rabbit hole of trying to find a way to balance the tank and to rid myself of the algae that I was experiencing on a mature setup. There’s so much misinformation out there...especially when there are people in the hobby that are encouraging others to increase the light in order to combat the brown algae. Or those that say that diatoms are not an algae and do not photosynthesize....which is wrong. I found the best information here: https://www.ukaps.org/forum/threads/diatom-dilemma.27208/

Anyway, I realized that my lighting setup was the real reason for the algae issues. I had just way too much light on my tank, even though the photo period was for 6 hours. My plants were growing and so was the brown algae. With the addition of ferts and pressurized co2, my plants were also growing like they were on steroids. Even my kompakt crypts were huge. But having too much light was giving me sustained diatom issues.

However, the Fluval light gave me the control over the tank that I really needed and since reducing my photoperiod and lighting intensity have I been able to reduce the brown algae in my tank by almost 95% with hopes of ridding it completely within the next couple of weeks. This is definitely a tangent, but controlling the light as well as being able to raise it from the water line with these DIY risers has made a world of difference for me. I also like how the ones I made compliment the setup aesthetically, which is important to me because I have my tank displayed in a main room in my house so the look of the light over the tank is important to me. My plants are growing extremely well, and while the growth has not been explosive, it has been steady, consistent, manageable and more natural looking IMHO and everything feels balanced where as before I was chasing the horizon line trying to figure it all out.

-Fat Guy

 

Hey Stan, Which photo does the light look bland in? I think in Jeff’s photo you are seeing a lot of tannins in the water from the wood which is giving it that brown/yellow water color. Regardless It also may be hard to judge through a photo. I never heard that about brown algae and cool light before. Interesting.

For me I never thought I’d like an aquarium light a much as I do this one once you elevate it off of the water surface.