App Programming Guide
ReefBreeders / App Guide
Programming your light
A program is a chart. You pick when the light turns on and off, then place a few points for how bright each color should be. The light draws the line between them on its own. This guide covers Standard and Advanced programs, plus moonlights.
How a program works
Every program is a chart of brightness across the day. Once that clicks, the rest of the app is simple.
- 1Sunrise, 9:00 AM. Your on time. The light turns on at 0% and starts to ramp up.
- 2Segment 1, 10:00 AM at 30%. The light reaches this level after a one hour sunrise.
- 3Segment 2, 8:00 PM at 30%. Between segments 1 and 2 the light holds steady, because both points are at the same level.
- 4Sunset, 9:00 PM. Your off time. The light has ramped back down to 0% and turns off.
Sunrise and sunset are your on and off times. Segments are the points in between. Each segment is just a time and a percentage, which places one dot on the chart, and the light follows the line connecting the dots. Every color channel has its own chart, so each one can be set differently.
Six ways the same day can look
Each of these runs from a 9:00 AM sunrise to a 9:00 PM sunset. Only the segments change.
Try it yourself
This works like a single color channel in the app. Change a time or a percentage and watch the line move. Nothing here touches your light.
On the schedule page
Above the color channels
Light IntensityExample channel
Set up a Standard program
Standard is the right choice for nearly everyone. It has a fixed on and off time, so your lights always turn off at night, and it starts you with a sensible default you only need to adjust.
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Open your light's schedule
Tap the light in the app to open its schedule page.
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Choose Standard
Pick Standard as the program type. Advanced is covered in section 07. Natural is a premium program and is covered separately.
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Set sunrise and sunset
Sunrise is when the light turns on and sunset is when it turns off. Pick the hours you want your tank lit. Sunset can fall after midnight if you prefer a late viewing window, for example on at 2:00 PM and off at 2:00 AM.
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Create the schedule
Tap Create Schedule. The app builds a starting program on every channel: a one hour sunrise, a one hour sunset, and 30% in between. For a 9:00 AM to 9:00 PM day, that means two segments on each channel, at 10:00 AM and 8:00 PM.
You will see all of your light's color channels listed, with Light Intensity above them.
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Adjust the first channel
Tap the first color channel to open it. On a Meridian that is the violets. The chart sits at the top, with Copy from and then your two segments below it. Add segment sits below the last one.
Each segment has a time dropdown and a slider for the percentage. Use the minus and plus buttons on either side of the slider for exact 1% steps. The trash icon deletes a segment.
The simplest edit is to change the two percentages and leave the times alone. Set both to 50% and the light ramps up from 0% at sunrise to 50% an hour later, holds there all day, then ramps back down to 0% by sunset.
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Work through the other channels
Tap Next to move to the next channel and repeat.
Copy from, just above the segments, saves a lot of tapping. Pick a channel and its segments, times and percentages, are copied onto the one you are editing. Use it to make several channels identical, or to reuse just the timing: build all your segments on one channel, copy them to the next, then change only the percentages.
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Save and name it
After the last channel, tap Save Program, give it a name you will recognize later, and tap save.
Editing an existing program? The button reads Update instead of Save Program. -
It runs as soon as you save
Saving applies the program to your light straight away, and on the My Schedules page its switch shows as on. There is nothing else to tap.
Every saved program has an on and off switch there. To change programs later, switch a different one on. It applies in a single tap.
Reference. Tap any section to open it, and open as many as you like.
04Shaping the day
There are only three things you ever do with segments. Most people only need the first.
Shaping the day
Most common
Change the percentage
Raises or lowers the light at that point. Leave the times alone and you keep the one hour sunrise and sunset.
Longer sunrise and sunset
Change the time
Move the first segment later and the last one earlier to stretch the ramps. With a 9:00 AM sunrise, a first segment at 11:00 AM gives a two hour sunrise.
Shape the middle of the day
Add a segment
Tap Add segment, below your last segment, for a new point. It only does something once you set it above or below the line, like a noon peak.
Segment limits per channel
| Program type | Maximum segments |
|---|---|
| Standard | 12 |
| Advanced | 14 |
05Light intensity
One slider that scales the whole program, every channel at once. Light Intensity sits above the color channels, separate from them, and works with every program type.
Light intensity
Tap Light Intensity, drag the slider, and tap Confirm. The chart on the Set intensity screen redraws every channel at the new level as you drag, so you can see the effect before you confirm.
It starts at 100%, which means your light runs exactly as programmed. Slide it down and every segment on every channel drops by the same proportion. The shape of your day and the balance between colors stay the same. The light is just dimmer overall.
| Setting | Value |
|---|---|
| Segments on every channel | 50% |
| Light Intensity | 50% |
| What the light actually runs at | 25% |
06Getting the color you want
The default 30% on every channel is a good starting point. From there, most of the work is adjusting the color balance to your taste.
Getting the color you want
Meridian
Adjust the whites
Turn the white channels up or down to set the Kelvin, the color temperature, you want for your tank. More white gives a crisper, whiter look. Less white leans bluer.
Photon V2
Greens off, reds and whites down
Most people turn the greens off and drop the reds from 30% to about 3%. The Photon's white channel is much stronger than the Meridian's, so it usually wants turning down too.
07Advanced programs
Advanced removes the fixed sunrise and sunset. Every point on the chart is yours to place, including the ones that turn the light off.
Without a 0% segment, the light never turns off.
Advanced programs
That freedom is useful when you want channels to behave differently at the ends of the day. For example, you can leave the royal blues running at 1% for a couple of hours after everything else turns off, or through the whole night.
If a soft blue glow at night is all you are after, moonlights do that on a Standard program, with no risk of the lights staying on. See section 08.
- 19:00 PM at 1%. The other channels have reached 0% and are off. The royal blues ramp down to 1% instead and hold there.
- 211:00 PM at 1%. Between points 1 and 2 the royal blues hold steady at 1%, because both segments are at the same level.
- 31:00 AM at 0%. This segment is what turns the royal blues off, and it can fall after midnight. Leave it out and they stay at 1% all night.
08Moonlights
A soft blue glow after sunset. Set the level once, then choose whether it stays the same every night or follows the real moon.
Moonlights
Moonlights run on the cool blue channel, around 475 nm. At moonlight levels that gives your tank a visible blue glow at night while staying far too dim to drive photosynthesis, so your corals still get to rest. The moonlight level goes up to 10%, and a little goes a long way. The screenshots below use 1.5%.
Bluetooth or wifi
Manual
The moonlights come on at your level right after sunset and run all night. Same brightness every night, with no variation.
Wifi only
Natural
Follows the real moon where you live, using live astronomical data. Your level is the brightness at a full moon, and the moonlights dim from there with the moon phase.
They also follow your local moonrise and moonset. While the moon is below the horizon, the moonlights are off.
What Natural does with a 1.5% setting
| The moon tonight | Moonlights run at |
|---|---|
| Full moon, 100% lit | 1.5% |
| Half moon, 50% lit | About 0.75% |
| Crescent, 25% lit | About 0.4% |
| New moon | Off |
| Below the horizon, any phase | Off |
09Saving and sharing
Every program you create is saved to your account, not just to the light.
Saving and sharing
- Your library. Each new program is saved to your account, so you can come back to it later or use it on another light.
- One tap to switch. Each saved program has an on and off switch on the My Schedules page. A new program switches on as soon as you save it. To try a different program or go back to an old one, switch it on. It takes a single tap.
- The community. You can share any of your programs with the ReefBreeders community, and browse programs other people have shared.
- It survives a reset. Because a program lives on your account, resetting the light does not lose it. You just reapply it once the light is reconnected.
Your saved programs live on the My Schedules page, shown in step 08 of section 03.
10Programming over Bluetooth
Standard and Advanced programs work exactly the same over Bluetooth as over wifi. What changes is where you can be when you program, not how you program.
Programming over Bluetooth
Bluetooth
Local, between phone and light
Programs are saved straight to the light and nothing goes through our server. You need to be within Bluetooth range to make changes. Your phone needs an internet connection, the light does not.
Wifi
Connected through our server
Program from anywhere. Being connected also lets our support team help with your program remotely, and unlocks the features that rely on live data.
Common questions
The things people ask us most about programming.
Do I need to enter a segment for every hour?
No. Segments are points on a chart, and the light draws a smooth line between them on its own. The default program has two segments per channel and is already complete. Add more only when you want to change the shape of the day.
Do I have to change the segment times?
No. Changing the percentages is enough for most people. Move the times only if you want a longer sunrise or sunset than one hour.
I added a segment and nothing changed.
It is probably sitting on the line that was already there. A noon segment at 30% between two 30% segments changes nothing. Set it higher or lower than the line and you will see the difference.
My lights never turn off.
Almost always an Advanced program missing a 0% segment. Advanced has no built-in off time, so every channel needs a segment at 0% where you want it off. If you do not need Advanced, switch to Standard and the off time is handled for you.
My light is dimmer than my program says.
Check Light Intensity, above the color channels. It scales every channel at once, in any program type, so segments at 50% with intensity at 50% run at 25%.
Can a program run past midnight?
Yes, in both Standard and Advanced. Set a sunset after midnight, for example on at 2:00 PM and off at 2:00 AM, and the light follows the program through the night.
How many segments can I use?
Up to 12 per channel in Standard and 14 per channel in Advanced.
How do I switch between programs?
On the My Schedules page, every saved program has an on and off switch. Switch on the one you want and it applies to your light straight away. Your other programs stay saved, ready for the next time you want them.
Do I have to set every channel up from scratch?
No. Use Copy from, above the segments on each channel, to copy another channel's segments. Copy everything to make channels match, or copy just to reuse the timing and then change the percentages.
Can I use the same program on more than one light?
Yes. Programs are saved to your account, so you can apply one to another light. On Bluetooth, apply it to each light in turn and they will run in sync.
Does my light need to stay connected to run its program?
No. The program is saved on the light itself and keeps running whether or not your phone is nearby or your wifi is up.
Why can't I use a Natural program over Bluetooth?
Natural programs and Natural moonlight follow live weather and astronomical data from our server, which needs a wifi connection. Standard and Advanced programs, and Manual moonlight, work the same either way.
My moonlights did not come on.
If they are set to Natural, check the moon. Natural keeps them off while the moon is below the horizon where you live, and around a new moon they are off. Natural also needs your light on wifi. On Manual, they come on right after sunset every night.
Do moonlights keep my corals awake?
They are designed not to. Moonlights use the cool blue channel at very low power, capped at 10%, which gives a visible glow without enough light to drive photosynthesis. Your corals still get their rest.