# Finnex Planted+ or Ray2? 24" Tall



## jeffkrol (Jun 5, 2013)

flutterbug said:


> My Odyssea fixture stopped working yesterday. I have been trying to decide what to get to replace it. My first thought was a Finnex Planted + so I have spent the entire day reading up on here about them and other LEDs on tall tanks.
> My tank is 22" to substrate if the light is directly on glass. The front & sides go up to 24". I looked on Hoppy's chart and my Odyssea was probably giving me about 35 Par. My tank has a pretty decent balance with that so I would like to keep it close to that or slightly higher.
> With that said I am stuck between Finnex Ray 2 and Planted + The par on Planted + is supposed to be the same as or slightly higher than FugeRay. However I wanted to use 2 - 30" strips so it will span the entire length of my tank. But when I look at the Par Charts it is showing the par on the smaller fixtures as way lower. So I think I am stuck getting the 48" and not having light 1' in on each side, which is my current situation. Is this correct? I think it is weird that under the fixtures par will change due to the length. I know the further away the plants the less light but I can't get why this is if you measure directly under the light.
> I could just get a Marineland Double Bright that expands to 60" and it looks like the 35 par is right on for me but it doesn't seem to be popular so I am sure for good reason.
> ...


your better off w/ something like this for $90


> NEW Version 4 60" - 65" Aquarium 6500K LED Light Fish Bright Plant aquascaping
> 5600 Lumen


rules don't allow me to tell you where to buy it from.
The Marinelands aren't popular because cheaper "versions" are available..Unfortunately 60" is a bit of an oddball size.
I'd recommend lights w/ 1W or better LED's but again.. hard to find size for a freshwater light. 60" 3W LED reef centric are available theough.
http://www.aquatraders.com/LED-Aquarium-Lighting-EVO-Marine-Reef-p/56548.htm

As to light falloff .. Inverse square rule based on beam spread (and dilution) over distance. Coupled w/ absorption and scattering..


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## flutterbug (Jan 8, 2012)

I had a very bad experience with Aqua Traders. My Odyssea LEDs burnt out 20 minutes after first using them. Half my fixture stopped working a year ago. One of the fans hasn't worked in at least a year. When I tried to contact them through e-mail they replied they only will take calls. When you call the phone just rings and no one ever answers. 

Can anyone answer my question about whether 2 30" fixtures will give less par than a 48"? Thanks

Bump: Math has never been my strong point. So that squared stuff is like greek to me.


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## mattinmd (Aug 16, 2014)

flutterbug said:


> With that said I am stuck between Finnex Ray 2 and Planted + The par on Planted + is supposed to be the same as or slightly higher than FugeRay.


This is a *HIGHLY* controversial topic... 

In my experience the behavior of my tank indicates the PAR levels of the Planted+ are significantly higher than the Fugeray, but not as high as the Ray2 configuration gets. 

I had severe algae issues on a 36b with 8 "on" hours/day, even with double-dose excel. This corrected itself when I installed a dimmer and turned it down a tad. YMMV but that suggests to me the 30" planted+ gets over 35 PAR with a light-substrate distance of 20". The 30" Fugeray only gets 30 at 18", and would be somewhere around 25 or so at 20".



flutterbug said:


> I think it is weird that under the fixtures par will change due to the length. I know the further away the plants the less light but I can't get why this is if you measure directly under the light.


It shouldn't be weird if you do the geometry, and keep in mind these measurements are being taken directly under the middle of the fixture.. 

The LEDs on the fixture have a 120 degree emission angle (more on this later).

At a height of 22", a 120 degree LED will spread light 38" to either side of itself. Thus the fixture would need to be over 76" long before the LEDs on the end of the fixture stop overlapping at the middle and raising the center PAR.

Now, admittedly these numbers are only accurate for an all-air setup.. Light entering water gets bent by the change in refractive index, narrowing the angle somewhat. You can do a lot more complicated math to work out how far it travels through air, how much it bends when it hits the water, and what the new spread is for some given water level. The general principles are much the same, and the bend is not severe enough to negate the difference between a 30" and 24" fixture.


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## flutterbug (Jan 8, 2012)

mattinmd said:


> This is a *HIGHLY* controversial topic...
> 
> In my experience the behavior of my tank indicates the PAR levels of the Planted+ are significantly higher than the Fugeray, but not as high as the Ray2 configuration gets.
> 
> ...


Thanks for your experience with the planted+, If I am getting it straight the reason the par is lower on the 30" fixture than the 48" fixture is due to there being more total leds on the 48" correct? So if I have two 30" to span my tank there will be more LEDs total than on a single 48" unit so how the heck would I get less par from the 30" fixtures? This is what I can't get. I feel like two 30" should give me more, am I wrong?


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## mattinmd (Aug 16, 2014)

flutterbug said:


> Thanks for your experience with the planted+, If I am getting it straight the reason the par is lower on the 30" fixture than the 48" fixture is due to there being more total leds on the 48" correct?


Well, more to the point, there are more LEDs that are shining light on a spot in the middle of the tank.



flutterbug said:


> So if I have two 30" to span my tank there will be more LEDs total than on a single 48" unit so how the heck would I get less par from the 30" fixtures? This is what I can't get. I feel like two 30" should give me more, am I wrong?


You are correct, the two 30" fixtures should give you more total PAR than 1 48" assuming you place the two 30" fixtures end-to-end, allowing them plenty of overlap in the middle of the tank. 

However This assumes you are NOT talking about the 30" ray2... The 30" ray2 is really a 24" fixture with extra housing on the end to make it fit 30" tanks. Note that the 30" ray2's have 144 LEDs, and two of them will have the same number of LEDs as a 48" ray2 (288).


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## flutterbug (Jan 8, 2012)

Thanks! I did overlook that about the Ray 2. Forgot it had the same amount as the 24". So it would only benefit me with the Planted + but they would be end to end not overlapping in the middle. There is a brace in the middle of the tank I would set them on. I can't hang my lights since I have cathedral ceiling. Well I could with a bar set up but I prefer the look of the light on the tank.


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## jeffkrol (Jun 5, 2013)

flutterbug said:


> Thanks! I did overlook that about the Ray 2. Forgot it had the same amount as the 24". So it would only benefit me with the Planted + but they would be end to end not overlapping in the middle. There is a brace in the middle of the tank I would set them on. I can't hang my lights since I have cathedral ceiling. Well I could with a bar set up but I prefer the look of the light on the tank.


you have to be careful about "a gap in light" between where the 2 meet.....besides the center brace.. 

If the LEds aren't close to the edge you get a dark spot right between the 2


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## Tvadna (Jan 17, 2013)

I am pretty sure that Finnex (and most LED lights) place an equal (or close to) spread of LEDs along the length of fixture. This means that the PAR should be the same on fixtures regardless of length. Example: par of a 20" = par of a 48" of the same light. 
Here is a link to the current satellite freshwater plus LED fixtures. The PAR values are the same for this fixture, regardless of length.
http://current-usa.com/aquarium-led-lights/satellite-led-fixtures/satellite-freshwater-led-plus/

I have not been very happy with Finnex not providing PAR data for their Planted+ fixture when they have provided it for their other fixtures on this site (linked above). 

I've done some research in the past and I wrote down some PAR data on what I could find for the Planted+. I didn't bookmark the page I found it on so I can't send you the link. I think it was for a 36" unit but if what I said above is true... the length shouldn't matter.

Directly Under
6" 125
12" 95
18" 68

6" from center
6" NA
12" 32
18" 22


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## flutterbug (Jan 8, 2012)

I found this PAR info on the same tank as mine. http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/showthread.php?t=531514
Middle of tank:
Marineland Aquatic: 46 PAR
Panted+: 20 PAR
Ray2: 35 PAR
I asked how it turned out.
I hope he will get back to me.

The 20 par is what had me thinking the Ray2 would be better for me.


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## mattinmd (Aug 16, 2014)

jeffkrol said:


> you have to be careful about "a gap in light" between where the 2 meet.....besides the center brace..
> 
> If the LEds aren't close to the edge you get a dark spot right between the 2


With 120 degree LEDs on either side you really should only get a "slightly dimmer" spot, not a dark spot Jeff... we're only talking about 2" without LEDs directly over it here.. so, maybe a 10% reduction? 

I base the 10% on the fact that at 18" the 30" fugeray is only 10% less for being 3" off center.. (27 par instead of 30)... a 2" gap really means only 1" off-center for each fixture.. so it is going to be a whole lot less than 10%...


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## flutterbug (Jan 8, 2012)

I think I should wait for one of the new ones that is supposed to be out by the end of next month. http://www.theaquaticplantsociety.org/finnex-the-new-breed-is-coming/
I am not sure if my plants will make it, I have 2 - 24" T12 fixtures with a total of 4 24" bulbs over them temporarily.


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## jeffkrol (Jun 5, 2013)

mattinmd said:


> With 120 degree LEDs on either side you really should only get a "slightly dimmer" spot, not a dark spot Jeff... we're only talking about 2" without LEDs directly over it here.. so, maybe a 10% reduction?
> 
> I base the 10% on the fact that at 18" the 30" fugeray is only 10% less for being 3" off center.. (27 par instead of 30)... a 2" gap really means only 1" off-center for each fixture.. so it is going to be a whole lot less than 10%...


 Probably fairly close. 
I do know the 90 degree beamsworks end to end look horrible (a bit strong).. 
didn't know the actual gap in inches diode to diode (varies by fixture). It was more of a warning. Of course deeper in the tank, less of a problem..


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## shotcaller88 (Nov 11, 2009)

flutterbug said:


> I think I should wait for one of the new ones that is supposed to be out by the end of next month. http://www.theaquaticplantsociety.org/finnex-the-new-breed-is-coming/
> I am not sure if my plants will make it, I have 2 - 24" T12 fixtures with a total of 4 24" bulbs over them temporarily.


I was trying to decide between planted+ or ray2 for my 60g (24"h) and came across this thread. The new finnex series seems crazy cool. Where did you hear they should be out next month? I didn't see anything on the release date.


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## mattinmd (Aug 16, 2014)

The 24/7 is rumored for April.. Amazon is taking pre-orders with a shipping date in May...

The rest of the lineup (planted+ II and Planted+ elite) are still TBD...


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## ahem (Dec 27, 2014)

The Finnex Planted Plus grew me some awesome algae in my 20 gal long. It was too bright for my setup (about 8-10" above the substrate). I turned it back to just 4 hours a day of that light but added a bunch of lower wattage supplemental lights fill the rest of the day. Your tank is deep so I would guess the Finnex should be good.


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## shotcaller88 (Nov 11, 2009)

mattinmd said:


> The 24/7 is rumored for April.. Amazon is taking pre-orders with a shipping date in May...
> 
> The rest of the lineup (planted+ II and Planted+ elite) are still TBD...


Thank you for the info! I went ahead and ordered a Planted+ today. Eventhough my 60g tank is 24" high, I think that should be enough light. Right now in my 10 gallon, I have anubias nana, java fern, dwarf hairgrass, dwarf sagittaria & hornwort. I don't plan on getting plants that will require very high amounts of light.
Should I start looking into CO2 now or should I see how everything goes?


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## Dead2fall (Jun 4, 2014)

I had one 36" planted plus on my 46 bow front which is about the same depth and a whole crop of dhg died on me. I mean brown and gone dead. I don't think it had enough light. I added a second fixture and switched to monte carlo which is doing well. I'm seeing some dhg that I must have missed making a comeback since adding the second fixture for what it's worth.


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## mrbigshot (Sep 14, 2014)

At 24" you will be low-medium light. Probably will need 2 to cover the tank properly.


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## shotcaller88 (Nov 11, 2009)

*Ms*



mrbigshot said:


> At 24" you will be low-medium light. Probably will need 2 to cover the tank properly.


Wow, that's rough! I guess I should have gone with the Ray2??


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## mrbigshot (Sep 14, 2014)

most plants will adapt to lower light, they just wont grow as fast


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## Seahawk (Sep 1, 2014)

I am also struggling to decide between the Ray2 and the Planted+. I have a 55 gal tank (48" wide, about 17 inches from rim to substrate). I plan on a carpet of mainly Echinodorus quadricostatus (I love the wild look it gives). I may add some P. helferi as well. I understand that these plants have different lighting requirements. I will be using pressurized CO2.

I have a Ray2, but it's so bright that I'm concerned that I'll have algae problems in this tank. However, it's such a deep tank that I'm concerned that the panted+ won't penetrate far enough. Would 2 planted+ lights be better than one Ray2? I can start with one planted+ and add another if it isn't enough light. I just want to get it right. Recommendations?


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## mattinmd (Aug 16, 2014)

I have a planted+ on a 36b, about 18" from rim to substrate, 19" from bottom of lamp to substrate...

It penetrates just fine.. I had to modify the fixture and add dimmer to keep algae under control for low-tech use, even with a glass top cutting down the light a bit.

CO2 injection folks will probably find it is not enough light.


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## Cyphos (Jan 27, 2007)

I had the same issue when deciding which light to get for my 40 breeder.
18" inches high. I decided to get the planted+ initially.

light was pretty,but limited spread
plants did pop
Lights ran about 6-7 Hours
Growth was good.


Decided on the RayII for another 40 BR
and see if the medium tech tank could handle it.
The color is a little whiter not bad at all.
now The AQUARIUM pops
I think im going to get another RayII for a 55.


IMO go with the RayII, its alot brighter for a deep tank 24"

You can always decrease the lighting with some type of simple blocker
Velcro, plastic film, etc...
or decrease the photoperiod.


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## freak (Oct 15, 2013)

I had two 36" planted Plus on my 125g and just added another two to get me solidly into the medium light range.


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