# Two Finnex Planted Plus



## aquarium hippy (Feb 7, 2013)

Will two 36" Planted Plus fixtures put me into the high light range 18" above the substrate?


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## EricL (Jan 30, 2015)

I have a similar question. I have a standard 29 gallon (30" long; 18" high) with a glass top and a single Planted + along with pressurized CO2. I am wondering if I should get another Planted +. I'm trying to grow HC, among other things.


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## ftwchopper (Nov 12, 2011)

Im running a double bulb 24" t5 fixture with pressurized co2 on a 29 gallon tank with excellent plant growth but my electric bill is out of control.Which finnex fixture would give me the same amount of lighting as the t5? The 30" planted ? or the ray2 ?


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## mattinmd (Aug 16, 2014)

aquarium hippy said:


> Will two 36" Planted Plus fixtures put me into the high light range 18" above the substrate?


It should...

One Fugeray Original 36" is 47 PAR @ 18"
One Ray2 36" is 60 PAR @ 18"

One Planted+ should be somewhere between, although exactly where is debatable.. I'd venture to say it should be closer to the Ray2... we'll call it 55.

Two 36" planted fixtures, if perfectly overlapped would give you a peak PAR somewhere around 100-110. 

I'd suggest spreading the fixtures out. Spreading them 9" apart should give you two peaks somewhere around 80-90ish and better spread across the tank bottom.

Now the question is, is 80-90 PAR more light than you want to handle... Regardless, it will definitely be in the high-light range... 

Heck, even one is flirting somewhere along the border between medium and high, depending on your opinions of what the not-well-defined PAR of this lamp is, and what your opinion of "high light" is.


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## aquarium hippy (Feb 7, 2013)

I dose Ei and have pressurized co2 at as much as my wet pets can handle. I am just not getting the reds and oranges I was getting with my Quad t5ho set up and would like to get back to that level. So now my next question would be should I go for a second Planted Plus or a Ray 2 in order to achieve similar results? Thank you very much for your input it helps more than you know.


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## mattinmd (Aug 16, 2014)

Disclaimer: I'm not a high-light guy, but I can crunch some numbers for you.

Personally, I see the ray2 as offering slightly more PAR than the planted+, but not a whole lot more. Others may disagree with me, but if you go with my earlier suggestions, there's only 5 or so par difference between the 36" ray2 and planted+.

Assuming a pair spaced 9" apart and 18" up, my estimates are:
planted+ pair 80-90
Planted+ and Ray2 85-95
Ray2 pair 108 (60+48)


However, I find the red spectrum of the Planted+ rather pleasing appearance wise, and would lean in that direction. However, that's my visual bias speaking

As for comparing a setup to your t5hO quad, well that would depend on what kind of fixture you were using. T5HO PAR output varies quite a lot depending on how well the reflectors in the fixture focus the light into the tank.. 

A Catalina T6HO quad would put you up around 90 PAR at 18" deep. An ATI, around 100, and an aquaticlife around 120...

Doubling the output of a really lousy 2-bulb Coralife T5HO would put you at around 60...

http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/showthread.php?t=184368

So if your fixture had poor quality reflectors, it was probably only slightly more light a single Planted+..

If your reflectors were good, the 2 planted+ spaced would be very comparable, maybe slightly less (80-90 vs 90-100) 


If your reflectors were amazing, you'd be comparable to a pair of ray2's tightly spaced, but at that point you're up at 120 par, which is getting into the "high maintenance" zone...


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## aquarium hippy (Feb 7, 2013)

Thank you so much I too prefer the reds in the planted plus and think I may go that route you have given me a much better idea of what im looking at par wise. On the plus side the pp is cheaper than the r2.


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## vernsker14 (Mar 13, 2014)

EricL said:


> I have a similar question. I have a standard 29 gallon (30" long; 18" high) with a glass top and a single Planted + along with pressurized CO2. I am wondering if I should get another Planted +. I'm trying to grow HC, among other things.


I've grown carpeted HC in my 29 gallon with pressurized CO2 but i had a Planted+ and standard fugeray on the tank. if your planted+ is directly above the HC you should be okay.

Bump:


ftwchopper said:


> Im running a double bulb 24" t5 fixture with pressurized co2 on a 29 gallon tank with excellent plant growth but my electric bill is out of control.Which finnex fixture would give me the same amount of lighting as the t5? The 30" planted ? or the ray2 ?


The ray2 is closer to your current setup but I think the planted+ gives better color. The only downside to switching to a finnex is that the light becomes weak toward the edges of the tank. Having 2 planted+ would give you a better distribution of light compared to the ray2, and slightly more light than the ray 2.


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## ahem (Dec 27, 2014)

With a low tech excel 20 gal long using flourish excel, the finnex planted plus was an algae machine. I had to get it down to 2 (2) hour blocks to get the algae under control. But the 20 gal long is only 12" tall and with my 3" of substrate that is only 8-9 inches to the bottom much more shallow than your setup. Since you may get two, I would err on the side of not enough at first, try one, then get another if you feel you need more light. As far as I can tell the lights are extremely effective for their wattage at growing anything green, plants and algae.


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## aquarium hippy (Feb 7, 2013)

I have had one on the tank since mid December and everything is thriving just not getting the reds and oranges I would like to see until my plants reach about 10" in height suggesting to me that I need more par deeper to keep my plants more compact and get color lower in the tank. I do inject CO2 pressurized. I dont use a bubble counter I use my fish as a gauge. I keep the rate as high as possible without causing noticeable stress in any of my fish. I used to use a drop checker but it always stayed yellow and I hated the look of it in my tank. I Ei dose plus add a little extra Fe and I have black diamond substrate with gro-soil tabs in the substrate. I have a little algae from time to time but its not noticeable.


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## ahem (Dec 27, 2014)

aquarium hippy said:


> I have had one on the tank since mid December and everything is thriving just not getting the reds and oranges I would like to see until my plants reach about 10" in height


I get a some deep deep reds from this light in my Red Ludwigia, a dark burgundy red I didn't even realize they got, even with just 4 hrs a day. Of course my light is 3" from the tops of those plants and it is only about 12" from light to substrate. Also for me, I notice the reds concentrate at the top of the plant. The bottom leaves stay green.


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## EricL (Jan 30, 2015)

Thanks! I'm getting a second light delivered today, going to see how it looks on the tank. As far as red plants, like ludwigia, when do the leaves turn red? Will new leaves be red right away? Or do they "mature" into that color?


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## ahem (Dec 27, 2014)

EricL said:


> Thanks! I'm getting a second light delivered today, going to see how it looks on the tank. As far as red plants, like ludwigia, when do the leaves turn red? Will new leaves be red right away? Or do they "mature" into that color?


For me the tops turn red quickly, like within a day or two it seems. Make sure they have iron, I understand that is needed in red plants.


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## EricL (Jan 30, 2015)

Ok good to know. I am currently doing the full EI dosing, since I haven't figured how low I can go with different ferts yet on the new tank. There are also some red clay root tabs I made under the sand. Hopefully they'll be happy with that


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## aquarium hippy (Feb 7, 2013)

I pre ordered the planted plus 24/7 should get it late may


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## EricL (Jan 30, 2015)

Just to update, about a minute after putting the second 30" Planted+ on my 29gal the plants began to pearl again.


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