How well would this light work? Finnex Fugeray Planted+

JoeR

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So I'm in the process of setting up a new 12" cube aquascape, and for lighting I decided to go with the 12" Finnex fugeray planted+. It is SUPER bright, and it supposedly provides medium-high light for aquarium plants at a 12" depth... so I was thinking, would the 36" or 48" version work for Tropical bonsai?

It's LED [aka energy efficient], lasts 50,000 hours, and I personally think it looks really nice. Not too expensive either.

Here's a link:
http://www.aquacave.com/finnex-fuge...e=1&fep=4949&gclid=CKaDq7OuttECFYQ7gQodlaUB-w

Any thoughts?
 

GrimLore

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Any thoughts?

I am pretty certain you would have better results will full spectrum fluorescent or cfl bulbs... Much it written and discussed in this thread and I don't see LED technology to be favored for several reasons. My beef with it is they are always very vague with important specifications whereas even simple cfl's give accurate supporting info...

Grimmy
 
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I am also on the hunt for commercially viable LED setup for my tropicals

I know the technology is there for LEDs, but I haven't seen any cost effective manufacturers taking advantage of the technology. Some of these reef guys are fitting LED microchips to cpu cooling fans and getting tons of PAR/lumens out of them. Having a fan to cool the components I think is critical even for the traditional diode forms. I was thinking of trying one of these to save the effort of setting up my own chasis and soldering all the components together:

https://www.amazon.com/Aquarium-Pla...8-2-spons&keywords=led+aquarium+light+W&psc=1
 
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I actually bought this one.. it was only a little more and had more reviews.. I'll let you know how it goes. I admit they don't have all the stats, but if the wattage is close to advertised, then the efficiency of LEDs should provide when it comes to lumens and PAR. We'll see how the dimming works although I'll likely keep it maxed out for 14H a day.

https://www.amazon.com/Galaxyhydro-...0INM0J1M/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_product_sims?ie=UTF8
 

JoeR

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I actually bought this one.. it was only a little more and had more reviews.. I'll let you know how it goes. I admit they don't have all the stats, but if the wattage is close to advertised, then the efficiency of LEDs should provide when it comes to lumens and PAR. We'll see how the dimming works although I'll likely keep it maxed out for 14H a day.

https://www.amazon.com/Galaxyhydro-...0INM0J1M/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_product_sims?ie=UTF8
Thanks, please do! The only thing I don't generally like about the reef lights is how blue they look, a more natural color is much better IMO.
 

berobinson82

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So I'm in the process of setting up a new 12" cube aquascape, and for lighting I decided to go with the 12" Finnex fugeray planted+. It is SUPER bright, and it supposedly provides medium-high light for aquarium plants at a 12" depth... so I was thinking, would the 36" or 48" version work for Tropical bonsai?

It's LED [aka energy efficient], lasts 50,000 hours, and I personally think it looks really nice. Not too expensive either.

Here's a link:
http://www.aquacave.com/finnex-fuge...e=1&fep=4949&gclid=CKaDq7OuttECFYQ7gQodlaUB-w

Any thoughts?


I thought I was on the wrong forum for a second there. Setting up a little office 5g this weekend actually.

Big fan of the finnex lights. Sorry, no answers about your plants.

Cheers,

B
 

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Thanks, please do! The only thing I don't generally like about the reef lights is how blue they look, a more natural color is much better IMO.

The one I ordered has a separate dimmer for the blue and other lights so you could just turn down the blue lights, but generally speaking, blue has a higher PAR then other colors.
 

JoeR

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I thought I was on the wrong forum for a second there. Setting up a little office 5g this weekend actually.

Big fan of the finnex lights. Sorry, no answers about your plants.

Cheers,

B
Nice! What kind of stone is that, and where did you get it? I bought ohko (dragon) stone from buceplant for my newest tank, absolutely beautiful stone but way too expensive. And I'm impressed with finnex so far too
 

GrimLore

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admit they don't have all the stats, but if the wattage is close to advertised, then the efficiency of LEDs should provide when it comes to lumens and PAR.

I would be interested to know what the actual PAR value is if you have a tester with the unit running 100 percent and the reading taken at 20 inches below the light... I realize it says 25 percent more PAR value but what is needed for photosynthesis is 400 to 700 nanometers for plants in general.

Grimmy
 

JoeR

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I would be interested to know what the actual PAR value is if you have a tester with the unit running 100 percent and the reading taken at 20 inches below the light... I realize it says 25 percent more PAR value but what is needed for photosynthesis is 400 to 700 nanometers for plants in general.

Grimmy
Why 20 inches below the light?
 

GrimLore

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Why 20 inches below the light?

Curious, as with the sun I would expect higher readings closer to the source. In reality potted plants won't be right at the light top to bottom unless surrounded by the light(s).

Grimmy
 
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I don't have a par meter to find out for sure. I wasn't really buying into their marketing, but assuming the that the LED efficiency in general (as well as having the targeted wavelengths with the solid color LED's) would offer more PAR than a similar watted white light of a different technology. If I were designing it myself, I would have mostly red and blue lights to target the peak PAR ranges and a few whites just to fill in the gaps.
 
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The light seems to work fine for the most part. The white band dimmer is not good, but the blue is and I'll just max em out anyways. The plants are responding, but I think this soon is mostly the heat.

Grinlore,

What do you use to measure PAR or lumens? At some point I ordered a pocket spectrometer kit, but never put the thing together.
 

berobinson82

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Nice! What kind of stone is that, and where did you get it? I bought ohko (dragon) stone from buceplant for my newest tank, absolutely beautiful stone but way too expensive. And I'm impressed with finnex so far too
Seriyu, Amazon was kind. I love the dragon stone but this color is more similar to the iwagumi style that I was going for. Keep your sleeves wet!
 

GrimLore

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I am a little skeptical that the first would measure PAR because the desired frequency distribution is so complicated:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:par_action_spectrum.gif

In my example using only red and blue leds, you could pretty well target the peaks of the photosynthetically active distribution, but the same lights may or may not register on the "sunlight" meter.

I do think that any reading would be better than "it looks pretty bright to me," which is my current methodology.
 
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