# Satellite LED Plus. Does it grow your planted tank?



## Dobie Swift (Sep 21, 2013)

In a word, yes. Browse through this forum thread for posts, pictures and videos of members of this forum successfully growing plants with the Satellite + LEDs...

http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/showthread.php?t=420457


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## dirtydonato (Nov 4, 2013)

Thank you. i appreciate you pointing me in the right direction. 

can i get anymore hands on knowledge from you on this light and my specific setup?  

i really wanna have a nice carpet of small leaved plants, for this setup would you go for the Satellite plus or ray 2?


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## Dobie Swift (Sep 21, 2013)

I'm not even close to being qualified to answer that. I am working on my first planted tank. What I can verify is that I have a 36" Satellite LED + on a 40 breeder and I am seeing visible spreading of dwarf hairgrass in my tank. My DHG has been in the substrate for 15 days and I have runners going everywhere and new shoots starting to emerge.

The PAR values of the Finnex line is certainly stronger, which would equate to better growing. However, I am a "tinker nerd" and the possibilities of automation and other cool things pushed me towards to Satellite.

The newly announced Current USA planted light looks to be a strong contender in the planted tank market:

http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/showthread.php?t=470401


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## Terminalance (Oct 31, 2013)

I own the ray 2 and as stated above, has better PAR values, HOWEVER, in a 10g tank that is approximately 12" high with around 3-4" of substrate, leaving you with around 12" above the substrate (factoring the included docking mounts), you will have something around 36PAR according to their website. This puts you barely into the medium light range. Now I believe this is adequate enough to simply grow Hemianthus Callitrichoides, or Baby Tears, this plant is usually considered a high light plant and with it being a carpeting plant you may want a stronger light to get a flourishing carpet of HC. As with most plants, they typically grow taller and less dense in lower light. In high light, it stays short and very dense such as evident in the Amano and Findley aquascapes.


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## acitydweller (Dec 28, 2011)

A nice test of light would be to try growing glosso in the tank. 

My 10 gallon with a Ray II will produce round low growing glosso leaves. When switching to the Satellite LED+, the leaves grew thinner and stems grew taller with all other parameters remaining the same.

I have recently replaced a Finnex Fugeray with the Satellite LED+ to see if full spectrum lighting will produce the desired results over a 12 gallon long with a very short distance to the substrate. So far the MC3 carpet is yellowing and the lush Myrio (both fast growers) are turning a bit pale. Its only been two weeks but the mosses seem to continue growing regardless of light. These plants originally came from a low tech 20g high so seeing them degrade under the LED+ in the 12g is not a good sign in my setup. I may have to put the Fugeray back over the tank at the end of this week.


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## Terminalance (Oct 31, 2013)

A personal opinion of mine is that the Sat+, while being a decent LED with regards to plant growth, is more of a decorative light with all the features such as the storm.....seriously, it may look "cool" or what have you, but it will scare the hell out of your fish and obviously isn't meant for plant growth. For about the same price, the Ray is a better option if plant growth is your primary concern. My 2 cents anyways.


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## dirtydonato (Nov 4, 2013)

i greatly appreciate your in depth responses.

Terminalance: thats the conclusion i basically came up with. and yes plants are my primary concern and the novelty of the "storm effect" i think would ware off rather quickly...if your over the age of 18 lol


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## Terminalance (Oct 31, 2013)

> i greatly appreciate your in depth responses.
> 
> Terminalance: thats the conclusion i basically came up with. and yes plants are my primary concern and the novelty of the "storm effect" i think would ware off rather quickly...if your over the age of 18 lol


Hell, I'll be the first to admit that there are some pretty cool features on the Sat+! However, statistically speaking it falls behind the Ray 2 on paper as far as PAR values are concerned.


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## dirtydonato (Nov 4, 2013)

dude. im really stuck on what to do. so the LED plus prob wont grow my carpet like i want....but the ray2 just lacks some of the features but will grow my plants no doubt since its pretty close to the substrate.

im so lost lol. and i want to make a good decision buying this light. im probably purchasing sometime tomorrow.


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## vraev (Apr 13, 2012)

I was stuck in the same dilemma...the sat+ has great features to emulate some nice storms, clouds etc. Especially in my terrarium with mistking system...it could really be very cool. But, at the end of the day...u need to ask urself...what is your purpose? Do u want to grow plants well? then go for the ray 2 + a red LED source such as a sat+ or a planted+ or a monster ray. I am already thinking if I can spare some cash in the coming months, maybe grab a sat+ for the sake of effects... and then with some nice timer programming, you can have the sat+ do its thing and turn off the ray 2 to give the desired effects.

But keep in mind, there are people here who have terrific tanks with two sat+...u just need a tank that is less than 12" tall. And u can then grow some nice HC or glosso very well. Any deeper and u may run into issues.


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## Terminalance (Oct 31, 2013)

> But, at the end of the day...u need to ask urself...what is your purpose? Do u want to grow plants well? then go for the ray 2 + a red LED source such as a sat+ or a planted+ or a monster ray.


The monster-ray isnt designed to grow plants, it is more of a full spectrum LED to make the colors of your tank stick out more.


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## dirtydonato (Nov 4, 2013)

Ya but I'm not looking at buying two lights at the moment, so you don't think the satellite will grow the HC in my 10gal very well? Thanks guys I appreciate it.


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## dirtydonato (Nov 4, 2013)

And since my 10gal is only 20" long.... The finnex ray 2 will overhang on either side by 2 inches....will this look horrible? And I don't want the light focused on the table just into the water... So I dunno.


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## acitydweller (Dec 28, 2011)

vraev said:


> I was stuck in the same dilemma...the sat+ has great features to emulate some nice storms, clouds etc. Especially in my terrarium with mistking system...it could really be very cool. But, at the end of the day...u need to ask urself...what is your purpose? Do u want to grow plants well? then go for the ray 2 + a red LED source such as a sat+ or a planted+ or a monster ray. I am already thinking if I can spare some cash in the coming months, maybe grab a sat+ for the sake of effects... and then with some nice timer programming, you can have the sat+ do its thing and turn off the ray 2 to give the desired effects.
> 
> But keep in mind, there are people here who have terrific tanks with two sat+...u just need a tank that is less than 12" tall. And u can then grow some nice HC or glosso very well. Any deeper and u may run into issues.


Yep, that's the reason why many folks run two Satellite LED+. If i were going to run two lamps, it would be a Ray II + MonsterRay. I've managed to really coax the warmth out of the plants.












Terminalance said:


> The monster-ray isnt designed to grow plants, it is more of a full spectrum LED to make the colors of your tank stick out more.


Technically, the MonsterRay was marketed to bring the vibrant colors out of fish, which it does amazingly well but fullspectrum lighting is something that our T5HO hobbyists have long seen tremendous benefit given that it mimics what our sun provides.










Anyone who can grow Red Root Floaters like this with a Satellite LED+ should post photos to share 

Just to give you an idea on the type of light produced by the MonsterRay, here is a photo back when the tanks were setup. The tank above is a 4 bulb T5HO Teklight with only two bulbs while the tank below is running a sole MonsterRay light.


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## dirtydonato (Nov 4, 2013)

Nobody wants to discuss the overhang of 2 inch on either side the finnex with have on my 20" tank.... I feel like this is not going to make me happy when I get it since light will be pouring out not being aimed right in the water....

Anybody have some pics of a overhanging finnex?


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## dirtydonato (Nov 4, 2013)

Can anyone tell me about the 2 inch overhang I'm going to experiance if I purchase the 24" for my 20" tank

Is this going to look horrible and is the light going to be shooting on the sides of the table?


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## Terminalance (Oct 31, 2013)

I have the 30 inch Ray 2 and it is constructed in such a way that the diodes stop about 3" on each side from the end of the fixture...so in actuality there is the same amount of LEDs on my 30" fixture as there would be on a 24" fixture. That said, I believe the 30" is the only fixture that isn't a full piece. The great thing about LEDs is that they emit little or no heat, so im sure you could find DIY solutions such as maybe a black eurethane cover over the overhanging 2 inches?


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## vraev (Apr 13, 2012)

acitydweller said:


> Yep, that's the reason why many folks run two Satellite LED+. If i were going to run two lamps, it would be a Ray II + MonsterRay. I've managed to really coax the warmth out of the plants.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


The reason I ended up going with the planted+ rather than a monster ray was due to spectrum. If u look at the spectrum of the ray2, u will see there is no output between the 600-700nm. Basically all the far red is missing. Without any spectral data for the monster ray, I was unsure if these wavelengths will be filled. Since the planted + has the 660nm optimal red wavelengths, I decided it would be a good choice. Also since there are more white LED to fill in gaps and some blue LED which can be also used to fill the light spectrum. This will mean I am going to use 2 x ray 2 + 1 planted + to light a 24" x 18" x 12" exoterra. If this doesn't bring out the colours, I don't know what will. If you need red in plants...I think you have to cross the threshold in the plant and meet its red requirements and then some. That way excess red is reflected off to prevent burn in the plants and we will see red colour.


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## Terminalance (Oct 31, 2013)

I read in another forum of a guy DIYing a pink vinyl cover over one row of his ray 2. Added alot more color in the red spectrum and the tank looked great. I'll admit that the washed out white look from the ray 2 alone is depressing.


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## Christophe (Oct 23, 2013)

I've got the Current LED+ on my 40g breeder. I chose it because I'm doing low-to-medium light, no CO2 injection, and its controllability is really good. I set up my own Arduino micro controller to automate it -- Since then, Current came out with their own add-on controllers, a little cheaper and less DIY than mine, but mine's more versatile, does anything with this light that I might want to do.

Yes, the effects are gimmicks you don't need, they don't help grow plants.
Yes, the PAR is well down in the moderate lighting range, even for a 10g. 

I still think you can do it.

To grow HC effectively in lower light, you'll need to make sure that you've got everything else perfect -- good nutrient balance, good fine substrate, maybe dry-start it before filling the tank, otherwise it might not work.


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## dirtydonato (Nov 4, 2013)

I bought a 18 inch ray 2!!!!!!!!


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## Cokeman (Nov 3, 2013)

I am trying to decide between the Current Satellite LED+ and the Finnex FugeRay Planted+. I want to do the same things, low to mid light plants and something to carpet the bottom. I'm new enough to this that I don't know what plants exactly. I am also more interested in more plant options than features, but do think some of the features of the Satellite are cool. Is the Finnex FugeRay Planted+ the better way to go? I am putting it on a regular 10 gal tank.


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