Current USA LED Plus Review.

[jarrod0987]

I bought one of these for my 20 gal Long Planted tank. It is a Walstad tank so Low to medium light is fine.

It will take 6 months to make sure the plants do not decline under this light which is designed for use with plants in an aquarium. However I am very impressed with the color. It really makes the Neon's stripe bright and the Dwarf Gourami looks very cool. The blue parts of his body almost glow and the red spots show up well.

 

[Autumnsky]

I have 2 a 36" and 48" - still need to learn all the programming options.

Thanks for the thoughts. I am getting decent growth.

 

[jarrod0987]

Most of the programming just changes the color which is no good if you have plants. You need the full spectrum setting. The other buttons do the fake rainstorm, clouds, nighttime etc. Unfortunately they is no day night timer feature sin the plus model I have. Only the pro model. I have to use a regular electric wall socket timer. The fixture does remember it's settings when you power it off.

 

[PassengerTN]

Satellite Plus? I picked one up yesterday from my local Craigslist. Paid $50 for the 48-60" model with the Current ramp timer. Spent all night playing with it. Cool light for sure. Mine is over a 55g, not going to try plants with it, but its nice to have full control of colors and intensity. The timer works great, I can set it to ramp on (15 minutes to desired setting) and 15 minute ramp down to lights off. Only complaint with the timer, is you can't simply just turn the light back on once the timer has kicked it off, but we all know why that's the way it is.

Jesse

 

[Autumnsky]

That is a good deal for it with the timer. I will check and make sure which setting I am using. My first one, the 36" was used and it DID NOT adequately supply light for a 48" 72G tank, but I used it with my stock CFL and it was alright, but I just wanted to play with it anyhow and gave it to my DD with a 36" tank.

Then got the 48-60" reconditioned one (the light bar is 48"- legs go 6" further on each side- same on the 36"-48") for the 72G / 48" tank and I am still using the 1 bulb stock light. ~10-12 hours per day. (detail provided for new readers so they would know about the leg extensions)

So I will check which setting I have been using and see. I haven't felt like it was going light to be enough for kicking out the stock bulb. But in fairness I have a bunch of plants floating. Making it hard to get the light down to the bottom efficiently. Moving them out a little at a time now. Mine is a time issue, I don't have enough to play around with it for fun atm.

 

[PassengerTN]

The brightest setting is the pale yellow colored preset, as it's all color at max intensity. Current rates the light at 21 micromoles PAR at 24" depth, and 36 at a 12" depth. This is on the pale yellow setting I mentioned. Their results were measured directly under the light with a filled tank


Sent from my iPhone using Aquarium Advice

 

[Autumnsky]

Awesome help, thanks I didn't have a manual with the first one/was a trade buy, and the second I put the info book down and haven't got back to it. If I don't read the whole thing I feel lost.

 

[jarrod0987]

Satellite Plus? I picked one up yesterday from my local Craigslist. Paid $50 for the 48-60" model with the Current ramp timer. Spent all night playing with it. Cool light for sure. Mine is over a 55g, not going to try plants with it, but its nice to have full control of colors and intensity. The timer works great, I can set it to ramp on (15 minutes to desired setting) and 15 minute ramp down to lights off. Only complaint with the timer, is you can't simply just turn the light back on once the timer has kicked it off, but we all know why that's the way it is.

Jesse

Yes, that is what I meant. Satellite Plus. Sorry about that.

 

[jarrod0987]

That is a good deal for it with the timer. I will check and make sure which setting I am using. My first one, the 36" was used and it DID NOT adequately supply light for a 48" 72G tank, but I used it with my stock CFL and it was alright, but I just wanted to play with it anyhow and gave it to my DD with a 36" tank.

Then got the 48-60" reconditioned one (the light bar is 48"- legs go 6" further on each side- same on the 36"-48") for the 72G / 48" tank and I am still using the 1 bulb stock light. ~10-12 hours per day. (detail provided for new readers so they would know about the leg extensions)

So I will check which setting I have been using and see. I haven't felt like it was going light to be enough for kicking out the stock bulb. But in fairness I have a bunch of plants floating. Making it hard to get the light down to the bottom efficiently. Moving them out a little at a time now. Mine is a time issue, I don't have enough to play around with it for fun atm.

LED Lights out out more PAR then T5's. You can't see them with your eye as much so they seem dimmer but the plants get more par under LED. We had trouble with Radeon's burning our corals when they first came out. We had to turn them down to 50% and keep them up off the tank higher in the air. Looking at the brightness is not a good way to know how much par you have. Unfortunately, par meters don;t work well with LED's either