Finnex StingRay on a 55 gallon Tank?

[Jferrante]

I have a Sword (I think it's a

Ozelot sword because it has that reddish/brown pattern on it)
Banana Plant (which is growing very fast)
A.Reineckii
2 italian Vals
Anubias nana

and this one plant I bought randomly that nobody knew what it was called
(it's a stiff grass with dark green blades and it pretty tall but currently all twisted. Probably because of it just floating in a tank when I bought it even though it had some pretty sturdy looking white roots. )

These are all in a 55 gallon tank that is between my kitchen, living room and sunroom so there is a lot of indirect light during the day especially with open curtains. At around 1pm a beam of direct light crosses through the tank for about a half hour (unless it's cloudy.)

I initially wanted the Planted + and obviously see a lot of people recommend that for 55 gallons but it's either $65 for the stingray or around $140 for the planted +...

Also the stingray is less likely to cause algae as well. So I'm not sure what to do. Should I spend more than twice as much to guarantee the plants health or will the stingray be perfectly fine for these low

-moderate​

light plants??
My gravel is also mostly white.
​

 

[Brookster123]

Get a current sat plus! You're welcome..

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G900A using Aquarium Advice mobile app

 

[ericwithac]

Get a current sat plus! You're welcome..

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G900A using Aquarium Advice mobile app

Think the current is better than the planted+ ?

 

[Jferrante]

What's the Par like on The 36-48in? brighter than stingray?
I do like the customization it has though that's pretty cool.

 

[Brookster123]

Think the current is better than the planted+ ?

For low light yes

What's the Par like on The 36-48in? brighter than stingray?
I do like the customization it has though that's pretty cool.

I'd suggest the 48-xx version. Par will be low but it will grow low light plants. The stingray may have a little more par but I like the overall spectrum and appearance of the sat plus better for this type application. I've run any and all leds I speak of.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G900A using Aquarium Advice mobile app

 

[ericwithac]

For low light yes







I'd suggest the 48-xx version. Par will be low but it will grow low light plants. The stingray may have a little more par but I like the overall spectrum and appearance of the sat plus better for this type application. I've run any and all leds I speak of.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G900A using Aquarium Advice mobile app

Current or Planted +...Current or Planted +...that is the question!

 

[Dallascowboys16]

Current or Planted +...Current or Planted +...that is the question!

Planted plus wins in light output but current for functionality and still ok light output.

 

[ericwithac]

Planted plus wins in light output but current for functionality and still ok light output.

Itd be nice to have the led controller on the planted+, that would be the best of both worlds!

 

[Dallascowboys16]

Itd be nice to have the led controller on the planted+, that would be the best of both worlds!

finnex actually has that in the works in the way of the finnex 24/7, the finnex planted + elite, and the finnex planted + 2. They are ikley to come out in the next 4-6 months. BML is honestly the golden standard in Planted aquarium LEDs but the price is often enough to deter people from purchasing it. After 2 years of having my eye on one I finally pulled the trigger on one last month and love it.

 

[Jferrante]

I dropped way too much setting up this one tank already and only have 8 Rummys so far so I don't really want to drop $400 on a light. I think BML is really good though and It is very cool that they custom build it for you, I respect that a lot.
But currently I think i'll either go with the Stingray for simplicity and low cost or the Current Plus for all those controls and probably higher PAR.

One video showed the StingRay is one strip and in a 55 gallon with Tannins and sand substrate it rated at 10 par which is lower than recommended light for low-light plants.
The Current Plus is two strips but a different kind of LED
Since I don't have a par meter and my Banana plant has doubled in size in less than a week I'm assuming my par during the day from the sun is pretty decent for what it is.
Also what about the AgroMax 4ft light? anybody know anything about that?
http://www.htgsupply.com/Product-AgroMax-LED-Strip-Light---Tri-Band

 

[Jferrante]

I bought the 48-60" Satellite LED + and it's really nice. But also after talking to the owner of the shop he said that it's actually has a better ability to grow plants than people take credit for. It's not really for high light plants of course but for Low-medium light plants it tends to do fairly well even in a 120 gallon tank that's 24 inches deep (except you need two for that tank but mainly for the spread). Especially when you also have some natural daylight in the room.

For my 55 gallon the tank itself is measured at 20" tall but with 3 inches of gravel and the fact that typically I only have around 52 gallons in it it comes out to around 15-16 inches to the substrate which puts the par at around 30-33 micromoles which is at the high end of low light plants and at the low end of medium light plants. Most could agree that you should also have the minimum to avoid algae. I think it maybe more effective than the StingRay since even Finnex says it's not meant for planted tanks while Current says the actual Par readings on their website and that it has adequate lighting for most plants.

For those that feel it's not bright enough for their dark rooms I think the LED + Pro is often overlooked. And for that I think Current should probably make their standard model, +, and Pro models a little more noticeable by like calling one supernova and another dwarf star (as an example) just to make it more obvious that there is three different lights each being twice as bright and $100 more as the last one. But that's another story lol
The only thing I wish it did is that when you change between the presets say night time to full on day light that it did like at least a 5 second fade to it because the drastic switch causes my Rummys to go a little berserk for a few seconds. But it's only needed when the change in lighting is extreme otherwise tweaking colors or switching between daylight settings is hardly much. The lightening is kind of cool though because they do respond to it probably pretty close to as they would in the wild. If I turn on the light they usually come out of hiding and act like it's daytime and when the moonlight setting is on they will swim around a bit and then gradually go to hiding so I figure they feel it's actually night. One thing I love is how you can basically set it to look just like an Black light and things that are usually lit up by a black light are actually lit up like one which tells me that is capable of the same visible ultraviolet light as well as the full spectrum light. And since you can tweak the colors it means you can essentially achieve almost any desired spectrum of light. When I was researching LEDs wikipedia even mentions that modern LEDs are capable of Full-spectrum, Ultraviolet, and infrared lighting. I'm not sure if it is done all in one bulb officially but I suspect it is with these and many other high-end LEDs.

Anyway thank you Brookster123 for the suggestion ! it's definitely the best LED on the market for the price and it's even cheaper than the Planted + and definitely more fun.