# LED Reef Light vs Ray2 for High tech 40B gallon.



## Snowball364th (Apr 11, 2017)

So after reading the forums for a couple of hours, I've almost decided which light fixture would be best for my 40 gallon breeder. In this tank I plan on growing stem plants, lots of stem plants, colors can range from dark red to light green.

Here are my choices along with some personal experiance.

Reef led light dimmable.
https://www.amazon.com/Galaxyhydro-...8&qid=1491880187&sr=1-1&keywords=galaxy+hydro

[Advantages]
I currently own one of these, its originally meant for reef, however it seems more than capable of serving a high tech planted aquarium as well. It uses 3watt x 55 LEDs that are split between [Whites+Reds]/[Blues] for a total of 165 watts and is dimmable individually.
You can dim the blue lights a bit and turn the [Whites + Reds] up to the brightest setting to get around a very intense 4000k-10000k colored light.
The light is only 100$ total, an excellent deal.

[Disadvantages]
This thing sure uses a lot of power. Majority of the time I am using around 100 watts, bad part is that this thing is practically a spot light, it only covers around half the tank. To get full coverage I would need 2 of these, so I would be using 200 watts over a 40 gallon breeder.
I also have no idea what the par rating for this light is, I'm sure its not lacking considering how concentrated the light is.

https://www.amazon.com/Finnex-Ray2-Aquarium-Daylight-30-Inch/dp/B008K37X7C/ref=sr_1_1?s=pet-supplies&ie=UTF8&qid=1491880791&sr=1-1&keywords=ray2&th=1

[Advantages]
After reading several pages of forums, i can confirm this thing is bright.
It uses very low wattage, only 39 watts! 
It seems to be universally agreed on that putting two of these on a 40gallon breeder will put it in the high tech range of par. Only 78 watts over a 40 gallon is great for saving electricity.
Finnex quality gurantee, very reliable customer service.
Seems very durable. 5 Year

[Disadvantages]
Man is this thing expensive, I would need to spend a total of $300 to actually fully lit my tank.
Everything I've read about it so far is anecdotal. The par chart seems to get around 60 par at the bottom of my tank. I don't know much about calculating par, but I'm sure getting two of them doesn't mean I just double the par.

Calculating everything, I would probably save more money in the long run via electricity bill with a Ray2. However this involves me putting down a 300$ investment vs just getting another GalaxyHydro Reef light for 100$.

[Minor Details about the lights]
I have no idea which option I should settle onto. I'm leaning towards just getting another Reef Light but I also read somewhere that LED's are less efficient when used at maximum wattage, this means that my reef light won't last nearly as long as the Ray2 considering its much more likely to burn out in the future.

Does anyone have any experience with either of these lights? Have you owned either or both of these? Whats your long-term experience with them? Are Chinese LED reeflights reliable(majority of them are Chinese LEDS)?

Whats your opinion on what I should get? Jesus the more I write about these lights the more confused I actually get. 
:bump::bump::bump:


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## micheljq (Mar 25, 2013)

Snowball364th said:


> [Advantages]
> After reading several pages of forums, i can confirm this thing is bright.
> It uses very low wattage, only 39 watts!
> It seems to be universally agreed on that putting two of these on a 40gallon breeder will put it in the high tech range of par. Only 78 watts over a 40 gallon is great for saving electricity.
> ...


Hello, are you saying Finnex has 5 years warranty? Finnex gives 6 months warranty.

I am not a particular fan of Finnex. But i own a Ray 2 DS since may 2014 and cannot complain, no trouble with it, all leds still working. I would go for the Finnex rather than the other monster, more efficiency.

Michel.


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## hoppycalif (Apr 7, 2005)

The limit on how much light you can use on a planted aquarium is algae. The more light you have the harder it is to avoid serious algae problems. This can be avoided if you decide to not use fish/shrimp in the tank, because then you can use as much CO2 as it takes to let the plants grow as fast as the light drives them to. But, if you want fish/shrimp in the tank, you have to limit how much CO2 you use or you kill them.

There aren't many plants that require more than 60-70 PAR light (at the substrate level). More light can make the red plants very red, but if that isn't your goal there isn't really any good reason to exceed that much light.

The colors in a planted aquarium show best if your light has enough red in its spectrum, and no big shortage in any of the spectrum. Lights used on reef tanks tend to provide lots of blue, but little red, which makes a planted tank look pretty dull, even if it is very bright. The Finnex Ray2 light does not include much red in its spectrum, so it isn't that much better than a reef tank light. But, the Finnex Planted Plus does include enough red to make the colors show very well.

A 40B tank is only about 16 inches high, so a Planted Plus light gives you about 65 PAR at the center of the tank, at 14 inches, allowing for 2 inches of substrate, and about 40 PAR at 9 inches from the center. If you use two of them, spaced at least 6 inches apart, you will have more than enough light to grow anything, with very good colors. If you use the Planted Plus 24/7 lights you can dim them down to whatever brightness you want.


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## Snowball364th (Apr 11, 2017)

hoppycalif said:


> The limit on how much light you can use on a planted aquarium is algae. The more light you have the harder it is to avoid serious algae problems. This can be avoided if you decide to not use fish/shrimp in the tank, because then you can use as much CO2 as it takes to let the plants grow as fast as the light drives them to. But, if you want fish/shrimp in the tank, you have to limit how much CO2 you use or you kill them.
> 
> There aren't many plants that require more than 60-70 PAR light (at the substrate level). More light can make the red plants very red, but if that isn't your goal there isn't really any good reason to exceed that much light.
> 
> ...


Thanks the reply, after researching I also found that Planted 24/7 give similar par of Ray2. 
Hehe, sorry for some reason after owning a reef light, I simply assumed that it was no way possible for a light under 100 watts to produce the same amount of par as a 165 watt LED reef light.

Your right, the planted plus does seem like a much better option for me at this point, as ray2 seems to be brighter only for our vision as it seems to do the same job as the Planted 24/7.


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## hoppycalif (Apr 7, 2005)

My Planted Plus light produces about the same amount of light as the Finnex FugeRay light, much less than a Ray2 light. The Planted Plus 24/7 is essentially the same, but with the ability to control the light and simulate dawn to sunset. If that feature is something you would like to have, use the Planted Plus 24/7. The electric power used by the light does not tell you much about how bright the light is.


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