First Planted Tank, 29g LED Lighting Help Needed

Also in agreence with the Finnex 24/7. I have that light and works well for my high 24" tank. Your 29 gallon is 18" high so I think that would be perfect. You would probably be getting between 40-50 par at that level on max setting. Look at Matt's review on here who did an awesome review on the Finnex 24/7 planted and believe his tank was also 18" tall. I am guessing I am getting between 30-40 par at 23" from light to top of substrate which is great for my low/medium plants and all are doing well. However though with the finnex 24/7 if running in 24/7 mode you only get about 5 hours of max light. I run mine on max setting for about 10 hours a day instead of 24/7 mode again because if the deabth of my tank. You would probably be perfect running it on 24/7 mode so set and forget as Matt's system seems to be thriving with it. I absolutely love the light and is the only one I am running on my 24" tall 60 gallon heavy planted tank. I will send the link over to Matt's review who has par readings and all. http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/10-lighting/871385-finnex-24-7-full-review.html

You can run it on a timer even on the 24/7 mode. The bad thing about 24/7 mode is the lights stay on very late at night and most do not like this. But if you put it on 24/7 mode, and turn it off say at 8:00pm as long as its on your correct time when you did the 24/7 mode it will start at the 6:00am setting. So you simply set your timer to turn on at 6:00am and no worries. Will run through the rest of the 24/7 mode as normal.

Bump: Also wanted to add the fluval being only 22" you would have dead spots in the corners of your tank where par would be very low. The finnex just get the 30" and would fit perfect. I got the 48" and fits perfect across my 48" long tank. The legs are adjustable to go in our out so you will get an exact fit. Also what is cool about it is if you do not want to run it on max setting or 24/7 mode you can program up to 4 different light settings adjusting to your like. for example you could make a setting to run at 80% instead of 100%. For me the best light I have ever owned. I have a par meter coming on the way and when I get I will write a review to give the exact measurements at different points in my tank.

nsillej said:

So it sounds like I should go with 30" Finnex.

The Planted+ 24/7 runs $85
The Planted+ 24/7 SE runs $115

Is it worth the $30 to get the SE?

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Depends if you like the longer "moonlight" of the orig. or shorter w/ the SE.
NOTE though that if one tries to use a timer w/ the SE it does not work like the orig.
Orig if set to 24/7 and shut off w/ a timer, when it goes back on assumes it is 6:00AM..

SE just freezes till reset.

This difference is a "big deal" for some..
Avoid the guessing and what if's.. Get a Sat plus pro...
https://www.amazon.com/Current-USA-Satellite-Plus-Light/dp/B00QVHJQD8

you can wade through this ..
http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/1...our-current-sat-tank-links-journals-more.html
Or this:


24" on 29.....
http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/1...k-led-pent-30-hi-lumen-timer-ready-6500k.html
http://www.drsfostersmith.com/produ...d=PLA_G_6194&gclid=CI--kMjnzNICFRK4wAodBgsJdg

24-36.. $170 plus though..
Light could be raised and still get you enough PAR at depth..at around 24" TOTAL from light to substrate.. 44-30PAR..

I would take a look at this too if price genuinely isn't a concern -
https://sbreeflights.com/sbox-fw-plant-lights/34-sbox-pro-32-timer-fresh-water-plant.html

I run the 16" basic light on a small aquarium at home and my plants look incredible. My L. aromatica is a very deep red-purple and my Ammania "bonsai" has a significant amount of red which contrasts very nicely with its green. I compare this to my office tank where I'm running two beamswork lights, a 10000 k and a 6500 k, and while my plants are thriving and growing very well, they lack the richness in color that the SBox provides. Tanks are ran identically, only difference is light.

Dimmable and dual channel. Highly recommend. I'm not sure it comes with a timer, but I run mine on a wall timer without issue.

Edit: You'd have to suspend the light I linked since it's just slightly too long. It comes with suspension cables, you'd just have to make/buy a stand.

nsillej said:

So it sounds like I should go with 30" Finnex.

The Planted+ 24/7 runs $85
The Planted+ 24/7 SE runs $115

Is it worth the $30 to get the SE?

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I would say yes. That's a really good price. The difference between the 24/7 and the 24/7 SE is four things. The SE the light does not stay on at the very late hours compared to the 24/7. They cut it back i believe to 5 hours of total darkness compared to 3. Also the SE the mount has a swivel so you can move it out of the way when doing tank maintenance instead of having to move the light. Also the RED LED's in the 24/7 SE are the better 660nm red spectrum compared to the 630nm red spectrum in the 24/7, even though its a very tiny difference. Also the remote sensor is better as before with the 24/7 anytime changing a setting the lights would flash letting you know the setting took where with the new SE the light on the IR sensor indicates a setting change therefore not shocking the fish possibly with the flashing of a light.

Bump: Next Wednesday I will have my PAR meter giving a very accurate reading at my 23" depth and will also take other readings as well at 20", 18", and so on. Remember though its not all about the PAR, but the usable light spectrum at the different levels. The reason we use par is because its much easier to measure but you want to know the more specific spectrum readings. For example even if one LED has more par than another the the usable light may not be as good therefore the one with a little less par may actually be much more beneficial. Again though its much easier to read PAR.

Well you are not wrong, but not "exactly" right either..

Quantum yield of photosynthesis is the moles of carbon fixed per mole of photons absorbed. From Taiz and Zeiger, 1991.

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Note green/yellow light is only moderately less effective than say red or blue light..
There are ancillary pigments at work..

http://biology.mcgill.ca/Phytotron/LightWkshp1994/1.1 Geiger/Geiger text.htm

The quantum (PPF) response when all photons are weighted equally between 400 and 700 nm; and the relative quantum efficiency curve as determined by the average plant response for photosynthesis (from McCree, 1972a). The quantum response overestimates the photosynthetic value of photons between 400 and about 550 nm, but underestimates the photosynthetic value of photons below 400 and above 700 nm.

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it's complicated..

http://www.controlledenvironments.org/Light1994Conf/1_5_Bugbee/Bugbee text.htm

CONCLUSIONS

Differences in radiation quality from the six most common electric lamps have little effect on photosynthetic rate. Radiation quality primarily alters growth because of changes in branching or internode elongation, which change radiation absorption. Growth and yield in wheat appear to be insensitive to radiation quality. Growth and yield in soybeans can be slightly increased under high pressure sodium lamps compared to metal halide lamps, in spite of greatly reduced chlorophyll concentrations under HPS lamps. Daily integrated photosynthetic photon flux (mol m-2 d-1) most directly determines leaf anatomy and growth. Photosynthetic photon flux levels of 800 μmol m-2 s-1 are adequate to simulate field daily-integrated PPF levels for both short and long day plants, but plant canopies can benefit from much higher PPF levels.

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so it is not which photons but how many over time..