# Finnex Planted+ 24/7 CC



## Bambham (Dec 23, 2017)

I just ordered one of these to check it out. Has anyone had a chance to play around with this yet? Any reviews out there yet?

Just curious what all your thoughts are about this light?


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## Aparker2005 (Jun 4, 2014)

I have one. Won it on the Finnex contest. Its the 36" model. I think my wife got me another one for Christmas to complete my 125.

As for the first one, its a great light and great idea. Definitely a ton of options and you will have to tweak it after setting it to your custom mode.

I have max on now from 9 am to around 6 pm. It goes much darker much faster after that, solid blue moonlight to completely dark around 11/12.

I've seen my plants grow a little better already with this setting. Of course the regular se did fairly well for me too.

Its a great light and so far I'm happy. Kinda tricky to set the first time though.



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## Bambham (Dec 23, 2017)

Awesome! thanks for the update! I just bought a 48" one for a 75g, think one will be enough? I have a CO2 system coming as well with it.


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## [email protected] (Nov 11, 2017)

Aparker2005 said:


> I have one. Won it on the Finnex contest. Its the 36" model. I think my wife got me another one for Christmas to complete my 125.
> 
> As for the first one, its a great light and great idea. Definitely a ton of options and you will have to tweak it after setting it to your custom mode.
> 
> ...


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## Aparker2005 (Jun 4, 2014)

[email protected] said:


> Aparker2005 said:
> 
> 
> > I have one. Won it on the Finnex contest. Its the 36" model. I think my wife got me another one for Christmas to complete my 125.
> ...


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## [email protected] (Nov 11, 2017)

Thats how i feel i have co2 reactor on timer and felt that the ramp up to max was way to long.


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## tmann51 (Mar 10, 2013)

When I first got my 24/7 CC, I tried adjusting the intensity and spectrums to be most intense from 9:00 am to 3:00pm, I kept the bulk of the 24/7 period. I'm using the fixture on a Fluval 33 gallon tank about 21" from the bottom of the LED's to the substrate. I stopped doing anything to the intensity etc. and have opted to just use the 24/7 as it is and I'm starting to see algae, brown and green. Granted, all I've planted is crypts and they have responded to the light. I also planted some Pogostemon erectus in the rear that has started showing growth. I like the effect of sunrise and sunset but I'm also getting concerned about the algae. I dose Excel daily and I have the cO2 on timer from 10:00 am to 5:00 pm. The duration of the CO2 my be too long as I've heard that crypts don't use a lot of it and therefore I'm feeding the algae which seems to do really well in the LONG periods of low light levels. The last day or so, I've began looking at Aqua Illumination Prime HD Freshwater because of the substantially more control it would afford, but then it's twice as much cost. Anyone have any suggestions on these issues?
I've also had issues with the Finnex 24/7 SE and CC,( I have one of each), not coming on in the morning. Finnex Support said perhaps interference from a television remote and suggested moving the tank(s) to another room...sigh...maybe it would be a better solution to tape over the IR sensor once it has been set?


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## Bambham (Dec 23, 2017)

I received my light yesterday and I have to say, I'm pretty damn impressed. I am still new to the hobby and don't have a lot of experience with lights but I am a Zoology major and have taken classes in physics and chemistry and I understand light spectrums. I can not measure PAR or anything like that but compared to other LED lights that I have this is a lot brighter on max setting. The customization that you can do with the colors for the different times is great! Instructions are very easy and simple to understand. I have to say that this light has exceeded any expectations I had when I ordered it. Now, the only thing to determine is if 1.) It will grow plants and 2.) how long will it last???


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## kaldurak (May 2, 2010)

I just ordered a 24/7 CC from Amazon and get it Tuesday or Wednesday, very excited for my Spec V.


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## vvDO (Oct 18, 2010)

tmann51 said:


> When I first got my 24/7 CC, I tried adjusting the intensity and spectrums to be most intense from 9:00 am to 3:00pm, I kept the bulk of the 24/7 period. I'm using the fixture on a Fluval 33 gallon tank about 21" from the bottom of the LED's to the substrate. I stopped doing anything to the intensity etc. and have opted to just use the 24/7 as it is and I'm starting to see algae, brown and green. Granted, all I've planted is crypts and they have responded to the light. I also planted some Pogostemon erectus in the rear that has started showing growth. I like the effect of sunrise and sunset but I'm also getting concerned about the algae. I dose Excel daily and I have the cO2 on timer from 10:00 am to 5:00 pm. The duration of the CO2 my be too long as I've heard that crypts don't use a lot of it and therefore I'm feeding the algae which seems to do really well in the LONG periods of low light levels. The last day or so, I've began looking at Aqua Illumination Prime HD Freshwater because of the substantially more control it would afford, but then it's twice as much cost. Anyone have any suggestions on these issues?
> 
> I've also had issues with the Finnex 24/7 SE and CC,( I have one of each), not coming on in the morning. Finnex Support said perhaps interference from a television remote and suggested moving the tank(s) to another room...sigh...maybe it would be a better solution to tape over the IR sensor once it has been set?




You would typically want your CO2 to turn on about an hour before lights... since your max intensity is set from 9-3 I would recommend turning CO2 on at 8 and off by 2:30.


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## Rtroup (Jun 19, 2017)

Trying to understand just how customizable the lights are. Lets say i wanted to have a 15 minute sunrise to full bright then 7 hours of full bright then 15 minute sunset to full off. Is that kind of customization possible?


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## Fly2High (Dec 21, 2017)

Rtroup,
Sorry but no can do.

I have the Planted+ 24/7 CC in 20". What they did was create fixed adjustable time slots at 12AM, 3AM, 6AM, 9AM, 12PM, 3PM, 6PM and 9PM. You cannot adjust at any other time. What they do is a nice gradual transition over the 3 hour time space between each setting.

Now, it may sound limiting but because the transition is gradual, you can do some nice tuning, to me.

This is what I had done:

attempt 1: Thinking I needed more light and wanting the tank completely off as well, I decided to leave the original settings at 6am and 9am and then, using the color arrow keys and the 'save' button, I adjusted the 9AM, 12PM, 3PM and 6PM to be full brightness. At 9PM, I had it go to just 10% blue only and then off all the rest of the evening.

Attempt 2: Seeing algae grow, I modified the schedule so that at 6PM was now 70% of the original light(or thereabouts. I do not recall exact settings) with some reddish tones showing to give a sunset kinda look. Algae problem reduced. I think I also adjusted the 9AM a bit down as well.

With my light set to 70% at 6PM and 9AM, I was getting full light from from 12 - 3 but I was getting good light between 9am and noon and from 3PM to 6PM. In all, I was able to reduce my light by 85% between 3-6PM and 9AM -12PM. So this could be thought of, crudely and not really, like having full brightness on for 5.1hrs with it off for an additional hour.

The light does a great job smoothly transitioning between settings.

Frank


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## dave.santilli (Jul 31, 2017)

*Follow ups?*

What are everyone's thoughts after having the CC for a little bit now? Looking to get one for a 20 long


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## kaldurak (May 2, 2010)

I'm really digging mine on my Spec V. Having a small hair algae issue, but I think it's more of a co2 and ferts issue rather than lighting. I have my custom times set up fairly conservatively with a much longer lights off period than the stock settings. From 9pm to 6am there is no light. 50% brightness by 9am, max from noon to 3 and then ramping down to 50% by 6pm then down to off at 9pm


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## BCNFD (May 22, 2018)

I just upgraded my light from the SE to the CC yesterday and am playing with the customization but not sure how to get full dark. Any suggestions and guidance appreciated. 
Thank you.


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## SkyLight (Feb 5, 2018)

BCNFD said:


> I just upgraded my light from the SE to the CC yesterday and am playing with the customization but not sure how to get full dark. Any suggestions and guidance appreciated.
> Thank you.


Yeah, during customization, keep hitting the "Low" button (for each color, starting with white) till you get to dark. I hit each button maybe 5-6 times and it goes completely dark (as if it wasn't even switched on)


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## BCNFD (May 22, 2018)

Thank you, this is an intersting challenge.


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## rstampa (Jan 29, 2017)

My light stopped working after 6 months. Light only stays on. Now of the other functions work. Remote lights up but does absolutely nothing. Will never my a Finnex light again. Still looking for a better light but I'm a little afraid to but out that kind of money again.


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## BCNFD (May 22, 2018)

Still playing with programming and having issues. I'm wondering if the color setting that you program for say 9 PM does that start at 9 or finish at 9 is it part way through the 3 hour segment? 

Thanks for any insight.


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## Weidbrewer (Feb 14, 2018)

I'm still thinking hard about this light. I have the cash now to get one and am getting cold feet. There seem to be a lot of reviews that say either that they get a huge algae bloom, or the light dies in a few months. The problem is, it seems that many reviews are actually a mix of SE and CC reviews - so I don't know if the issues are actually on the SE and have been fixed in the CC. (Example - a few reviews talked about it dying in just under a year, but it hasn't been out that long. Others straight-up say they're reviewing the SE in an amazon listing for the CC.)


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## Kubla (Jan 5, 2014)

rstampa said:


> My light stopped working after 6 months. Light only stays on. Now of the other functions work. Remote lights up but does absolutely nothing. Will never my a Finnex light again. Still looking for a better light but I'm a little afraid to but out that kind of money again.



I was wondering why you didn't warranty it and then see that the warranty period for Finnex lights is only 6 months! I've been interested in these lights but I don't know how I could ever be confident in the quality when the manufacturer isn't.


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## KayakJimW (Aug 12, 2016)

BCNFD said:


> Still playing with programming and having issues. I'm wondering if the color setting that you program for say 9 PM does that start at 9 or finish at 9 is it part way through the 3 hour segment?
> 
> Thanks for any insight.



What you set for a time (say 9PM) will ramp up or down to be that intensity at 9PM.


For example, I have 12noon set to completely dark and 3PM set to full brightness. After 12noon there's a very dim light that increases until full blast at 3PM.


Mine goes:

12PM- dark
3PM- full bright
6PM- full bright
9PM- roughly half intensity, but more red and less blue & green for a warm sunset look
12AM- dark
3AM- dark
6AM- dark
9AM- dark

So at Noon, it starts it's day and slowly increases to full at 3PM, stays full till 6PM, then from 6 to 9 it decreases to about half, then dark by midnight. My CO2 runs 1PM to 8PM


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## Weidbrewer (Feb 14, 2018)

Kubla said:


> I was wondering why you didn't warranty it and then see that the warranty period for Finnex lights is only 6 months! I've been interested in these lights but I don't know how I could ever be confident in the quality when the manufacturer isn't.


I had a very similar thought. After my post above, I discovered that Fluval has a 3.0 release that has much of the same features, comparable price and a 3 years warranty. I think I'll probably go that route. I have the 2.0 and wanted to try something different this time, but it is now a known quantity to me, and has a (much) better warranty.


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## varanidguy (Sep 8, 2017)

I have the CC on my 40 breeder. I love this light. It initially replaced a Beamswork DA FSPEC and it brought out much better colors than the DA FSPEC. Me theory is because it has a much bettter/more usable spectrum than the Beamswork light. The Beamswork was good for explosive/rapid growth, but plants that could turn red or pink would stay green with it. I now run both lights, as I've found that an 18" deep tank really warrants the extra light for coverage. My CC is set to be full intensity by noon and ramp down by 9 PM, this gives about 7 hours of full intensity light (I know it starts the ramp at 6, but it's so gradual that it's not noticeably dimmer until about 7). The Beamswork DA FSPEC is set to run for two hours a day, starting at noon and ending at 2 PM. No major algae issues yet, so next week I'm probably going to increase that to 3 hours. If no algae pops up then, I'll increase it to 4 hours and leave it, or bring it back down if it starts causing algae.

However...the future plan is, when funds permit, another 36" CC for a high noon burst of light. Two of them should really bring out the reds, pinks, and other subtle colors if only one of them made that big of a difference. The 10,000k white LED's on the Beamswork kind of wash things out. Their PAR is supposed to be comparable, if not a little higher on the Beamswork.

It's about 16" from the face of the LED's to the substrate, which should be giving about 60-ish PAR, minus 10%-ish for the glass lid.


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## varanidguy (Sep 8, 2017)

Weidbrewer said:


> I had a very similar thought. After my post above, I discovered that Fluval has a 3.0 release that has much of the same features, comparable price and a 3 years warranty. I think I'll probably go that route. I have the 2.0 and wanted to try something different this time, but it is now a known quantity to me, and has a (much) better warranty.


Does the Fluval 3.0 have 660nm red LED's? I swear it must make a difference.


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## Fly2High (Dec 21, 2017)

I have both the Finnex 24/7 CC (20") and the Fluval Planted 3.0(24"). 

Finnex
Pros: 8 color timeslots to set. You have 12am, 3am, 6am, 9am, 12pm, 3pm, 6pm and 9pm slots to set whatever color at each of these timeslots you desire.
beautifully smooth transitions. 
Grows Java fern, Anubias and Hygrophylia augustafolia like crazy.
runs cool to the touch

Con: less bright than Planted.
Takes a little while to figure out how to adjust intensity .
limited to predefined time slots to adjust colorations. Time slots cannot be moved (cannot have 15min or 30 min transitions. Only have 3 hour )

Planted 3.0
adv: very bright
waterproof
can set transition time slots to any time start and stop to get any duration desired

Cons:
No green color adjustment
Color transitions, especially at lower percentages, are very steppy. Not as smooth as Finnex
Runs hotter than Finnex
Needs more than 2 color settings (Day, Night). Cannot have it go to 1% blue, for example, at night and then turn off for 8 hours then transition to a warm low light color before going to full brightness. Can do this with the Finnex
Only have 2 time slots for transition
Power loss loses time. Need to pair bluetooth to reset time and turn back on auto mode.


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## varanidguy (Sep 8, 2017)

Fly2High said:


> I have both the Finnex 24/7 CC (20") and the Fluval Planted 3.0(24").
> 
> Finnex
> Pros: 8 color timeslots to set. You have 12am, 3am, 6am, 9am, 12pm, 3pm, 6pm and 9pm slots to set whatever color at each of these timeslots you desire.
> ...




How does the Planted 3.0 do with red and pink plants?


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## ashesarise (Sep 13, 2018)

I bought this light 2 weeks ago and I'm frustrated beyond belief with it. The customization settings are just... I don't even know.

I'm aiming for a window of something like 9-12 hours of full brightness with no other frills as I feel having lower light sessions give algae an unnecessary edge. No matter how much I customize it, I just can't seem to hit that window. The dimming and "rising" seem to start and end at such unpredictable and arbitrary times. I currently have my setup at 3pm max 6pm max 9pm max and midnight max. I would assume this would give me around 9 hours because 3pm-12am is 9 hours. I woke up at around 2:15am last night and the light was STILL ON!??! 

I've been tinkering with it for 2 weeks now and I'm just getting immensely frustrated as the brighting and dimming feel so inconsistent and they were boneheaded enough not to include how long that takes or ANY information on how that works. I think it is crazy that after 2 weeks of messing with it I still can't hit my fairly loose. I feel like no matter what I do, I get either way too much or too little light. 

Can anyone help me with this?


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## varanidguy (Sep 8, 2017)

ashesarise said:


> I bought this light 2 weeks ago and I'm frustrated beyond belief with it. The customization settings are just... I don't even know.
> 
> 
> 
> ...




Did you make sure to set the light for the correct time of day after making your adjustments? Mine is very consistent and predictable.

Another option you have is to simply run it on max mode and plug it into a timer. Seems like what you want isn’t 24/7 mode but more of a standard light.


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## KayakJimW (Aug 12, 2016)

yeah the 3hr intervals took me a minute to get used to... a 3pm max means that from Noon to 3pm the light ramps up to hit max (or whatever the 3pm setting is) at 3pm. Same with the intensity decrease starting at Midnight. At 12AM its at max, then dwindles to nothing by 3AM

Try max til 9PM, dark at midnight. That will give you full intensity from 3 to 9 with a dawn and a dusk


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## ashesarise (Sep 13, 2018)

varanidguy said:


> Another option you have is to simply run it on max mode and plug it into a timer.



Yeah the 24/7 thing seems like a gimmick to me. This light just happened to be the only "high light" I could find for my 20 gallon long that wasn't prohibitively expensive. I never really expected the integrated timer to be so convoluted. I only needed the dimming to be like 10 seconds so it wouldn't scare the fish. I didn't expect the ramp up and dimming to significantly add to the photo period. 

Can I really run it on max mode with a timer? How would I do that? The light doesn't have an "on" switch so I couldn't just leave it on like a traditional light with a timer. If the timer gave it power, wouldn't it still be off because no one would be around to turn it on with a remote and set it to MAX?

Alternatively, I'm still in the window to return it for a full refund. Is there a better light I could buy? I had a nicrew before this one, but that would felt a bit underpowered.

Bump:


KayakJimW said:


> yeah the 3hr intervals took me a minute to get used to... a 3pm max means that from Noon to 3pm the light ramps up to hit max (or whatever the 3pm setting is) at 3pm. Same with the intensity decrease starting at Midnight. At 12AM its at max, then dwindles to nothing by 3AM
> 
> Try max til 9PM, dark at midnight. That will give you full intensity from 3 to 9 with a dawn and a dusk


I guess I'm worried that only 6 hours of full intensity won't cut it for my plants because I have a few fairly demanding ones. I feel like I really need a minimum of. Idk though. This is hard.


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## varanidguy (Sep 8, 2017)

ashesarise said:


> Yeah the 24/7 thing seems like a gimmick to me. This light just happened to be the only "high light" I could find for my 20 gallon long that wasn't prohibitively expensive. I never really expected the integrated timer to be so convoluted. I only needed the dimming to be like 10 seconds so it wouldn't scare the fish. I didn't expect the ramp up and dimming to significantly add to the photo period.
> 
> Can I really run it on max mode with a timer? How would I do that? The light doesn't have an "on" switch so I couldn't just leave it on like a traditional light with a timer. If the timer gave it power, wouldn't it still be off because no one would be around to turn it on with a remote and set it to MAX?
> 
> ...




Try it out. Get it out of 24/7 mode and just manually turn everything to max. Unplug it and plug it back in. It should just come right back on to max.


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## vvDO (Oct 18, 2010)

ashesarise said:


> Yeah the 24/7 thing seems like a gimmick to me. This light just happened to be the only "high light" I could find for my 20 gallon long that wasn't prohibitively expensive. I never really expected the integrated timer to be so convoluted. I only needed the dimming to be like 10 seconds so it wouldn't scare the fish. I didn't expect the ramp up and dimming to significantly add to the photo period.
> 
> Can I really run it on max mode with a timer? How would I do that? The light doesn't have an "on" switch so I couldn't just leave it on like a traditional light with a timer. If the timer gave it power, wouldn't it still be off because no one would be around to turn it on with a remote and set it to MAX?
> 
> ...




You can use a regular timer, it should come back on to whatever setting you have set it at. Just make sure you take it off it’s own timer mode and you can use it just like any other light with a timer.

6 hours of max light should be enough light for a day, I use traditional timers on all my lights and keep my lights on anywhere from 6-8h depending on the setup, I feel that 3 hours ramp up plus 6 hours full then 3 hours ramp down is too much time with lights on. If I’d rather have the lights on in total no more than 8 hours a day. Usually by the 7th hour of lights on, plants are already starting to close up.



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## ashesarise (Sep 13, 2018)

vvDO said:


> You can use a regular timer, it should come back on to whatever setting you have set it at. Just make sure you take it off it’s own timer mode and you can use it just like any other light with a timer.
> 
> 6 hours of max light should be enough light for a day, I use traditional timers on all my lights and keep my lights on anywhere from 6-8h depending on the setup, I feel that 3 hours ramp up plus 6 hours full then 3 hours ramp down is too much time with lights on. If I’d rather have the lights on in total no more than 8 hours a day. Usually by the 7th hour of lights on, plants are already starting to close up.
> 
> ...


Lots of conflicting info and schools of thought in this hobby for sure. I was under the impression that planted tanks should get 10-12 hours of high light a day whereas nonplanted/lowtech tanks should only get 6-8. Really hard to decide who to believe when trying to get into something and everyone is telling you to do wildly different things.


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## varanidguy (Sep 8, 2017)

ashesarise said:


> Lots of conflicting info and schools of thought in this hobby for sure. I was under the impression that planted tanks should get 10-12 hours of high light a day whereas nonplanted/lowtech tanks should only get 6-8. Really hard to decide who to believe when trying to get into something and everyone is telling you to do wildly different things.


That mostly depends on the tank but many, if not even most, tanks do well with 6 hours of full intensity light.


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## Captaindemo (Jun 29, 2018)

I just bought the 24/7 cc light from Finnex and am very unhappy with it ! This thing is a joke in my opinion. First off this thing isn't all that bright and I even have it on a 20 long which isn't a deep tank by any stretch. I ended up putting this on along with the Chihiros rgb60 and compared them. The chihiros is much brighter than the finnex by a mile on max setting and its even smaller than the 30" finnex. Did some research on the youtube and everyone was happy and pleased, also looked much brighter than mine did as well. Could there be a problem possibly ? Everything seems to work like it should. Out of all the fixtures I own now this is the worst. I currently own 2 of the ecotech xr15fw, 1 of the Ai Prime fw , Chihiros rgb60 , Beamswork DHL6500 , And last but not least this Finnex 24/7 cc.


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## 64D-1701 (Apr 7, 2018)

It's not quite as bright on max as some other fixtures, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. I used to have one CC and one Marineland Aquatic Plant LED on my 55 gallon. The Marineland was definitely brighter, but I also had some algae problems. I dumped the Marineland and got a second CC, and everything is working perfectly now. Finding the right setting for the CC can be a pain, but it just takes some experimentation. Try setting it for max for one period, 50% for the next, and off for all others. That will give you a 9-hour photo period that starts and ends very dim with ramped up/down brightness in between. I've had good results.


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