Which is the most popular Light source for planted tank?

Post your quires regarding lighting needs in planted aquariums.

Most popular and efficient lighting source for planted aquariums?

Poll ended at Tue Aug 12, 2014 12:27 pm

Incandescent Light Bulb
0
No votes
T12 Fluorescent Tubes
0
No votes
T8 Fluorescent Tubes
0
No votes
T5 Fluorescent Tubes
10
29%
CFL
1
3%
PLL
8
23%
Metal Halide
3
9%
LED
13
37%
 
Total votes: 35

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SCORPIO
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Which is the most popular Light source for planted tank?

Unread post by SCORPIO »

Most of the planted tank keepers always research to find most popular and efficient lighting source. We have to change lights after some months/years. Let us try to find best light source for planted tanks.

Other options can be post here.
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Re: Which is the most popular Light source for planted tank?

Unread post by vasishta.sushant »

My research ended up with Finnex Ray2 LED. The best I could find.

(posted with my mobile device)
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Re: Which is the most popular Light source for planted tank?

Unread post by SCORPIO »

vasishta.sushant wrote:My research ended up with Finnex Ray2 LED. The best I could find.

(posted with my mobile device)
Is it a brand of LEDs or advance technology? I want to know more. I am going to own another LED Lighting for a 3 footer tank.
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Re: Which is the most popular Light source for planted tank?

Unread post by pinaki_pal »

PLL will be my choice of light because of following reasons.....

1. Availability
2. Cheap (at least in compare with LED)
3. Less hassle & easy to put
4. Comes with 6500 K color temp which i have been using and my experience is quite good
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Re: Which is the most popular Light source for planted tank?

Unread post by vasishta.sushant »

SCORPIO wrote:
vasishta.sushant wrote:My research ended up with Finnex Ray2 LED. The best I could find.

(posted with my mobile device)
Is it a brand of LEDs or advance technology? I want to know more. I am going to own another LED Lighting for a 3 footer tank.
Finnex is one of the top aquatic LED light manufacturers. It also happens to be one of the couple of sponsors of "the planted tank" forum. Not available in India but can be purchased from Amazon US.

You can find YouTube videos and read Amazon reviews about them. They are a different league altogether.

The RAY2 that I mentioned is one of the higher end models from finnex, carrying high PAR (photosynthetically available radiation). Works excellent for the planted tanks.
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Re: Which is the most popular Light source for planted tank?

Unread post by Romi »

vasishta.sushant wrote:
SCORPIO wrote:
vasishta.sushant wrote:My research ended up with Finnex Ray2 LED. The best I could find.

(posted with my mobile device)
Is it a brand of LEDs or advance technology? I want to know more. I am going to own another LED Lighting for a 3 footer tank.
Finnex is one of the top aquatic LED light manufacturers. It also happens to be one of the couple of sponsors of "the planted tank" forum. Not available in India but can be purchased from Amazon US.

You can find YouTube videos and read Amazon reviews about them. They are a different league altogether.

The RAY2 that I mentioned is one of the higher end models from finnex, carrying high PAR (photosynthetically available radiation). Works excellent for the planted tanks.
And what was the price? I am sure the hobbyists would also use price as a criterion to decide the suitability of the lights for their tanks.
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Re: Which is the most popular Light source for planted tank?

Unread post by vasishta.sushant »

Romi wrote:
vasishta.sushant wrote:
SCORPIO wrote:
vasishta.sushant wrote:My research ended up with Finnex Ray2 LED. The best I could find.

(posted with my mobile device)
Is it a brand of LEDs or advance technology? I want to know more. I am going to own another LED Lighting for a 3 footer tank.
Finnex is one of the top aquatic LED light manufacturers. It also happens to be one of the couple of sponsors of "the planted tank" forum. Not available in India but can be purchased from Amazon US.

You can find YouTube videos and read Amazon reviews about them. They are a different league altogether.

The RAY2 that I mentioned is one of the higher end models from finnex, carrying high PAR (photo-synthetically available radiation). Works excellent for the planted tanks.
And what was the price? I am sure the hobbyists would also use price as a criterion to decide the suitability of the lights for their tanks.
I paid close to 9 grand for one 30" fixture. I bought two of them (using one on my current tank and have kept another for my future tank). Might seem to be little higher priced but then I'll save on the running costs as well (just 20W for a PAR of close to 75 for my tank which is just excellent). Also the overall build is fantastic and exhibits very peculiar industrial design. Oozes quality I say.

BTW thought I'll add this thread to have more info about the Finnex series PAR data. http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/showt ... p?t=189944. If you are interested in reading some reviews, try http://www.amazon.com/Finnex-Ray2-Aquar ... ewpoints=1

Or have a look at one random review I pulled from youtube.

youtu.be/pDbuaKjsMOU

EDIT: youtube tag doesn't seem to be working/parsing. Here is the direct link to the youtube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pDbuaKjsMOU
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Re: Which is the most popular Light source for planted tank?

Unread post by Kaushik »

Rajivjee I'm looking forward to know your experiences about the LED fixture you are currently using? Is it satisfactory or comparatively less to your T5. BTW whats the cost of 36 watts T12 in New Delhi. Is it available easily ?
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Re: Which is the most popular Light source for planted tank?

Unread post by SCORPIO »

Result of LED is good with green plants but I am not satisfied with the performance of Red plants. They do better with T5 high light. Using LEDs is pocket friendly when you running multiple tanks.
T12 lights are still available in Delhi. The approx. price of T12s is around Rs. 40.
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Re: Which is the most popular Light source for planted tank?

Unread post by zico_aqua »

Finnex are a brand apart all that i can say..i'm not st all satisfied with the diy led that i did for my cube tank so asked my would be brother in law to get me two finnex fixtures in december when he comes back to India :-) had a small talk with few renowned hobbyist from US and Canada and they gave me a thumbs up. Cheaper than most led's in the aqua trade but way better than most out there
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