# Finnex Planted +, Planted + 24/7 or Satellite +



## fotomatt1 (Nov 28, 2015)

So I'm building my daughter a fresh water planted tank, and the project has taken on a life of its own as most things do. She's two and ask for fishies, so I'm waist deep in building her a kick butt tank that she'll have for years. 

I'm pretty much decided on everything except for lighting. I was originally going to get the Planted + 24/7, but was warned about algae, so I started looking at the regular Planted + with a timer, and then someone recommended the Current USA Satellite +. 

Any opinions or recommendations? It's going on a 29g high tank that's 30" long. 

Thanks in advance!


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## Kobey (Nov 20, 2015)

Tank size?

If it's a 10g type thing or really anything with a 12" height ... well it's the height that's the determining factor


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## fotomatt1 (Nov 28, 2015)

Kobey said:


> Tank size?
> 
> If it's a 10g type thing or really anything with a 12" height ... well it's the height that's the determining factor


It's a 29 gallon high tank that's 18" tall.


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## Daisy Mae (Jun 21, 2015)

The current led plus will be able to grow low-light plants like Anubias and Java Fern, Java moss, wisteria, Bacopa, dwarf sag, etc successfully without growing being too intense that it will cause algae. 

Satellite Freshwater LED+ | Current-USA
The 24-36" model gives you 28 PAR at 18", solid number for low light plants without being too intense. 

I think the planted plus might still be be too bright. Here's a couple of threads with home-done PAR readings. One found low light and another one is more high light, take it with a grain of salt. 
http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/145-finnex/495121-my-finnex-planted-par-values.html
http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/145-finnex/698633-finnex-planted-plus-par-data.html


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## fotomatt1 (Nov 28, 2015)

Daisy Mae said:


> The current led plus will be able to grow low-light plants like Anubias and Java Fern, Java moss, wisteria, Bacopa, dwarf sag, etc successfully without growing being too intense that it will cause algae.
> 
> Satellite Freshwater LED+ | Current-USA
> The 24-36" model gives you 28 PAR at 18", solid number for low light plants without being too intense.
> ...


My only problem with the Current USA Satellite + is the fact that it's only 24" wide and my tank is 30" wide....so the ends will be darker.


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## Daisy Mae (Jun 21, 2015)

Yup, that's the difficult part about the 30" tank length, a little bit more options when it comes to the 24" and 36" tanks. 

Well, the planted plus at 36" is 21 watts
The current led plus is 18 watts for the 24" size

Brightness might be close enough? 

Some people dim the planted plus by putting strips of black electrical tape over a few of the diodes should it become an issue. You could also get risers for the lights, one of the guys here on the forum sells them. Or hang the lights.


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## fotomatt1 (Nov 28, 2015)

Daisy Mae said:


> Yup, that's the difficult part about the 30" tank length, a little bit more options when it comes to the 24" and 36" tanks.
> 
> 
> 
> ...



So between the regular planted plus and the 24/7 which one would you get? Do you have a link to the guy that makes the risers?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## Daisy Mae (Jun 21, 2015)

fotomatt1 said:


> So between the regular planted plus and the 24/7 which one would you get? Do you have a link to the guy that makes the risers?
> 
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


Here's the link to the risers
http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/153-sale-trade/931961-fuzes-finnex-risers-back.html

I have no experience with either light. 
The planted plus has the neat sunset-sunrise feature but it might be too bright for your tank, unless you elevate it. There's a good review on this light in this section, done by @mattinmd IIRC. You can do a thread search unless you've seen the thread already. 

Someone else chime in on this one!


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## mattinmd (Aug 16, 2014)

In general, I agree.. A 29 gallon tank is 18" high, and 30" long. I've got a 36 bow that is 20.5" high and 30" long and I've used both the Planted+ and the Planted 24/7 on it.

I'm currently using the 24/7 in 24/7 mode, and the planted+ I have a dimmer on it set to 40% and I'm running that for 7 hours a day to even out the light in the front side of the tank. I have a dense forest of plants, and floaters, so this light level isn't causing me any algae issues. When my tank was less dense and less established, I found that the planted+ alone on for 7 hours a day in a 3.5-on 2 off 3.5 on siesta cycle caused me a BBA outbreak.

The Sat+ would be 28 par on its maximum setting, which would be fine for your tank, but you wouldn't really be able to customize the light much.

The planted+ would probably be a bit too bright unless you're densely planted, you'd need to do a dimmer hack on it, which is a soldering iron type project (although I hear newer fixtures are connectorized).

The 24/7 might be usable by you in 24/7 mode, and if not you could always set it for a custom light level and use it with a normal lamp timer like the Sat+. You loose the cool factor, but at that point you basically have a brighter Sat+ that you can tweak the light levels down on. Many feel bad about making this trade off, but that's the kind of choices you need to be aware of with the 24/7.. you can have cool self-timed sunrise sunsets, or a customizable light, but not both at the same time. As long as you're not betting 100% on using the 24/7 mode, you'll be fine.



My 24/7 review can be found here:

http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/10-lighting/871385-finnex-24-7-full-review.html

And my dimmer-mod project on the regular planted+ is at:

http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/20-diy/796442-planted-dimmer-warranty-voiding-picture-heavy.html


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