# Current Sat Plus Pro review



## Gplus (Apr 2, 2012)

I've never posted a review before but there are a few features this light "boasts" that left me wondering...why? I've been using the +pro light for a few weeks now. Let me start off by saying I like the light. Its bright it has a timer and it works as its advertised. Once I started digging into its features I started wondering if Current put any thought into what kind of tank would see the light used to its fullest.​ 
Part of what sold me was that the light has the ability to run a 24hour lighting cycle. Sounds great right? I don't think so. I started by setting the on/off time and my daylight color. Great control over each color 1-100 brightness scale. The problems arose when I set the "moonlights". I turned every color off except blue which I set to 1 of 100, its lowest level. I let the light run its course and when I got home from work I noticed how bright the blue light was. I tried the white at its lowest level and it was even brighter! I now run no moonlights and that decision ties into my next gripe.

Fish are sensitive to lighting changes. It can take up to 30 minutes for some fish to properly adjust. Hence why your fish bounce off the glass when you decide to show your drunk buddies your fish tank and turn the light on at 11pm. The first time I hit the "lightning storm" dynamic mode I literally said out loud "this cant be good for my fish". Plants are no different aside from the fact that the dynamic modes wont bother them.. They do though absorb any light within a certain spectrum. Also, I've learned both need a complete darkness period. That brings up two questions. Why didn't current program the light with an option to choose *how long* your moonlights run and why the heck did they fill it with useless features that only seem to scare the *[email protected]*t* out of the fish?

A good light is a good light and this one is just that. The fact that each lighting color is adjustable is great. Even some of the dynamic modes are great, the "cloud cover" for example is very cool. It has a few extra lighting memory settings which is a plus. Once you start playing with the "moonlights" that run all night and the flashy effects you start to feel a kind of misdirection. You start to wonder if some of the features are detrimental to a planted tank.....

If you've gotten to this point, thank you! All in all I recommend this light if all your looking for is a light with a built in timer, but don't expect to be wowed by the extra "bling" long term. I'd love to hear any thoughts, questions, or complaints about the long post.:wink:

Thanks again,
Gplus


----------



## rick dale (Feb 26, 2014)

*Light*

Hello Gplus. I have the sat plus pro , 48/60 inch on my 60 gallon planted tank. I tend to rescape a lot . this light gives me the convenience to set the timing and the light entinsity , to suit the mood I'm in at the time. Be it high , medium , or low tech. I do have a pressurized co2 setup on this tank , with a cerges reactor and a pH monitor. So I am setup for high tech if that's what I want. At the present time , I am in kind of a medium tech mood. Want the plants to slow down just a little bit. And I'm kinda liking it. This light lets me do that. I do run my moonlights on number 1 output , as I seem to be up in the middle of the night quite often. And I like the looks of the tank that way. It doesn't seem to be bothering the fish or the plants.as far as the special affects , cloud cover , lightning , etc. I don't use any of them , but they are there if I decide to. 

All in all , I like this light better than any other light I have owned. And I have owned a few , and still do. The light has worked flawlessly so far. I do have it sitting on the top of my open top tank. I guess we will see if the light can handle the moisture in the long run.


----------



## roadmaster (Nov 5, 2009)

I run satellite plus LED (not pro model) which has same features I believe, just less PAR.
Fishes went wild with the lightning strikes(didn't like it), but seem to like the cloud cover and or moonlight phases.
Wish I would have sprung for the pro model and may yet if the plus model last's even half the advertised hours the LED's can produce for.


----------



## loach guy (Jun 2, 2014)

My son has the Plus Pro. I didn't like the 1% white on for moonlights either. Instead his is set at something like 2% blue and 5% red. It makes the plants look like they are on fire. Very cool effect. My only gripe goes along with yours. You should be able to turn the moonlights off. To solve this we added a timer. Not a big deal, but it's the one issue that I see with this light. Other than that, I think it's a fantastic light especially if you have little ones new to the hobby.


----------



## Christophe (Oct 23, 2013)

I have a Satellite LED+ (not Pro) also. I ran it on a 40 breeder for a year or so. I also always felt that most of the effects were pretty useless. If you can get the light to grow plants well while running one of the 'rolling cloud' programs, fine. The lightning stuff always seemed like a horrible idea.

I did an Arduino-based controller to cycle it up & down. For moonlight, I did blue 2 steps above off, green at the lowest. It was a nice effect for a half hour before lights out. I'd tend to agree that both plants & fish probably do better with the lights fully off for most of the night.


----------



## Linwood (Jun 19, 2014)

I have the LED+ also, and run my own controller, but my experience with the effects are different from you. I have four LED+ on a large tank in our living room. Turn on the storm effects in the evening and it's quite a light show. The show is for the people, obviously, not the fish or plants. And the four fixtures start the show very slightly off from each other, so there's this stutter to the flashes that make it look a lot more realistic.

And my fish just ignore all the flashing lights. I've seen no indication of them having issues with any light modes. Only time they react is if you power up the lights after being off for a few hours, then they act like I do when woken from too sound of sleep.

The light show effects are fluff. But interesting fluff.


----------



## Gplus (Apr 2, 2012)

Thanks for the comments! Last night after a bit of reading I learned that I can run the light on a timer to control the moonlights like a few of you noted. I know the LED+ model isn't as bright as the PRO. Maybe the moonlight at its lowest level is more reasonable.

Bump:


rick dale said:


> Hello Gplus. I have the sat plus pro , 48/60 inch on my 60 gallon planted tank. I tend to rescape a lot . this light gives me the convenience to set the timing and the light entinsity , to suit the mood I'm in at the time. Be it high , medium , or low tech. I do have a pressurized co2 setup on this tank , with a cerges reactor and a pH monitor. So I am setup for high tech if that's what I want. At the present time , I am in kind of a medium tech mood. Want the plants to slow down just a little bit. And I'm kinda liking it. This light lets me do that. I do run my moonlights on number 1 output , as I seem to be up in the middle of the night quite often. And I like the looks of the tank that way. It doesn't seem to be bothering the fish or the plants.as far as the special affects , cloud cover , lightning , etc. I don't use any of them , but they are there if I decide to.
> 
> All in all , I like this light better than any other light I have owned. And I have owned a few , and still do. The light has worked flawlessly so far. I do have it sitting on the top of my open top tank. I guess we will see if the light can handle the moisture in the long run.


I also really enjoy the fact that each color output is totally adjustable. I have an older 20lb co2 setup that needs updating. Until I get it set up I have the ability to dial back the fixture so I don't get an algae outbreak! It may be to early for me but in some ways I might be willing to say its the best light I've ever owned. Some of the features it includes make me wonder how much less I could have paid the light without them lol. Thanks for the reply!


----------



## Linwood (Jun 19, 2014)

Gplus said:


> I know the LED+ model isn't as bright as the PRO. Maybe the moonlight at its lowest level is more reasonable.


Even 100% all-blue is not terribly bright, so I have a lot of adjustability. By using a computer control, you can even ramp it slowly, having it drop from bright blue to off over a long period of time. Or any color fades you want. I think my next LED's, if not Current, will just be plain LED's and do my own controls. 

Though I need to keep reminding myself that really what we "need" is on and off. What we want is everything else. :confused1:

One reason I got the LED+ instead of the E series (the predecessor from their sister company of the pro) is that the newer, brighter lights have very bright individual LED's, and often much fewer of them. This leads to very bright spots at the top of the water, alternating with dimmer areas. Down in the tank it's all the same, but if you can see the top of the tank easily (e.g. it is standing higher than people's eyes) these very bright, fewer LED's, are a bit glaring. I liked having a ton of smaller, dimmer LED's in the LED+ spread over a much wider area. With 4 of the 48" fixtures on my 22G a really substantial area of the tank is just fixtures, and the resulting light is very even, even if you are looking a bit up toward the top.


----------



## Gplus (Apr 2, 2012)

Linwood said:


> Even 100% all-blue is not terribly bright, so I have a lot of adjustability. By using a computer control, you can even ramp it slowly, having it drop from bright blue to off over a long period of time. Or any color fades you want. I think my next LED's, if not Current, will just be plain LED's and do my own controls.
> 
> Though I need to keep reminding myself that really what we "need" is on and off. What we want is everything else. :confused1:
> 
> One reason I got the LED+ instead of the E series (the predecessor from their sister company of the pro) is that the newer, brighter lights have very bright individual LED's, and often much fewer of them. This leads to very bright spots at the top of the water, alternating with dimmer areas. Down in the tank it's all the same, but if you can see the top of the tank easily (e.g. it is standing higher than people's eyes) these very bright, fewer LED's, are a bit glaring. I liked having a ton of smaller, dimmer LED's in the LED+ spread over a much wider area. With 4 of the 48" fixtures on my 22G a really substantial area of the tank is just fixtures, and the resulting light is very even, even if you are looking a bit up toward the top.



I combined two 29g tanks into one 55g so I'm using the 48"-60" model. I did notice when scaping the tank the glare made it hard to see the bottom of the tank when looking at certain angles. I do like the shimmer they give off if your watching the tank from the couch! 

I would love to be able to run the light on my own controller! I took an electronics class back in high school but I think something like that is a bit over my head! I wouldn't know where to start! More power to ya for being able to do it!


----------



## Linwood (Jun 19, 2014)

Gplus said:


> I would love to be able to run the light on my own controller! I took an electronics class back in high school but I think something like that is a bit over my head! I wouldn't know where to start! More power to ya for being able to do it!


It's really not. There are various sets of instruction on the web (and a few here), some with arduino and some raspberry pi. The former is more "pure" as in it is just a controller, closer to the hardware in some ways, the latter is good for people who have some experience in Linux as you can run a (almost) full function linux on the card, web server and network working out of the box. 

Most require some light amount of soldering, but several have parts lists and photos so you don't have to figure anything out (well, unless you make a mistake like mounting the LED backwards). The biggest problem I had was getting the device mounted in the best place to activate the IR receiver on the light, while keeping it unobtrusive, and while still allowing it to work with the remote control.


----------



## Gplus (Apr 2, 2012)

Linwood said:


> It's really not. There are various sets of instruction on the web (and a few here), some with arduino and some raspberry pi. The former is more "pure" as in it is just a controller, closer to the hardware in some ways, the latter is good for people who have some experience in Linux as you can run a (almost) full function linux on the card, web server and network working out of the box.
> 
> Most require some light amount of soldering, but several have parts lists and photos so you don't have to figure anything out (well, unless you make a mistake like mounting the LED backwards). The biggest problem I had was getting the device mounted in the best place to activate the IR receiver on the light, while keeping it unobtrusive, and while still allowing it to work with the remote control.


Very cool! I can solder and follow wiring diagrams. From high school I went to automotive school so electrical wiring has always kind of been in the mix. I'll look into setting up a controller but for now I'm going to try plugging the light into a wall outlet timer to control the moonlights! That's all it will do which is somewhat disappointing. I'd love to be able to program in my own ramp up times and colors. Thanks for the insight!


----------



## dudedru (Jul 26, 2015)

here's my deal...just got the Pro and the clock doesn't even work...set the time, hit enter and minutes (however much you want) it still shows the same time as I originally entered..as for colour control...I tried that and I notices nothing at all...everything was the same...super bright...did I get the one part that was garbage...no one else seems to have had this problem...


----------



## FatherLandDescendant (Jul 24, 2014)

I have 2 of these fixtures (a 24" and a 36") and like them very much. As for the moonlighting being to bright set on blue 1, I don't understand. Maybe it's just me but it seems just about right, I can barely make out the fish in my tank, not enough to wreck my night vision in the dark house, won't cause me to come fully awake if I pass the tank on the way to the bathroom at night, but just enough to keep me from stubbing a toe on the couch.

I didn't buy these lights because of the cool features, I bought them to grow plants, to have the option to increase intensity and go CO2 (which I did on 1 tank), the other features are more show off when guest are asking about the tank, though I do admit I from time to time do play with the one in the bedroom when I'm propped up in bed goofing on the net, like tonight:tongue:



dudedru said:


> here's my deal...just got the Pro and the clock doesn't even work...set the time, hit enter and minutes (however much you want) it still shows the same time as I originally entered..as for colour control...I tried that and I notices nothing at all...everything was the same...super bright...did I get the one part that was garbage...no one else seems to have had this problem...


To adjust the color control you have to press and hold the daylight mode until the display reads L3 make your adjustments, when you have it where you want it press and hold the daylight button until the light flashes and the display reads S3.

As for the clock, if your pressing the set clock button the display should flash, set the time (hrs & min) hit enter and it should stop flashing, your clock should be set.


----------



## Powerclown (Aug 17, 2014)

A lot of pros and cons about sat+ and sat + pro, got my own experience with timer settings and everything else, guess what guys I use my archaea slim led as my main light,still looks great. I think my next light will be the Aquasky 601.cheers


----------



## Soxfandowd (Aug 1, 2014)

I have the Pro+. I have played with the features well, because they were there. But as far as day to day operation goes I really love this light. The only feature I wish it did have is the ability to have two photo periods in the same 24 hours. I would love for it to be on for 4 hours off for 8, on for 4 hours off for 8. sigh....


----------



## HBdirtbag (Jun 15, 2015)

So I've got a 48"-60" in my possession. But I don't have the tank running so I haven't messed with it much. 

If I put this on a manual timer will it remember settings (time, etc)? 

And yes. I really wish I could do two photo periods with it. 


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


----------



## FatherLandDescendant (Jul 24, 2014)

HBdirtbag said:


> If I put this on a manual timer will it remember settings (time, etc)?


Yes


----------

