Finnex Ray2 Aquarium LED Daylight, 30-Inch

And there was light.Talk about dividing the light from the darkness! This Finnex LED fixture certainly will do that.This is my second Finnex light fixture. The first one is a 16 inch Fugeray+ that is currently being used on my 5 gallon planted tank. I was pleased with that unit, so I went ahead and decided to look at the 24", Ray 2 model and considered it with another brand.I bought this to replace an Orbit fixture. The Orbit is a high quality unit made by Current USA. It is very bright, but generates a lot of heat and is not very energy efficient. The Orbit uses high output, bent-tube fluorescent bulbs. The entire 24" fixture is cooled by an electric fan contained within the unit. Very nice system. However, I felt that it was time to replace it with something that runs cooler and that is more energy efficient. I looked at two fixtures: Finnex Ray2 Daylight and the Current Satellite for Freshwater tanks.The Satellite is also an attractive fixture. And it comes with a remote control that you can use to control the system. With the remote, you can dim the output, and you can change the output light's colors. This is a great feature to have, and makes the system very versatile. For example, you can adjust the color of the light to enhance the appearance of your fish.This Finnex fixture is the high-output version, designed to provide as much light as possible for the given tank size of 24 inches. The LEDS are 7000K, and there are many more of them than you will find in a Fugeray+. For most normal situations, the Finnex Fugeray (Planted +) would be sufficient. For example, if you do not pump CO2 in your tank, then the Fugeray would be the ideal light fixture for you. However, if you inject CO2 and you want to grow Dwarf Baby Tears, then you need this light. You need the Ray2 DS. This is the brightest fixture being made by Finnex. My plan is to grow Baby Tears and Needle Leaf Rotala. Plants that require high levels of light.Why did I choose the Finnex over the Current Satellite? Because of the higher light output of the Finnex. The Finnex comes with all 7000K LEDs. It was designed specifically to help the hobbyists grow plants that demand high light, in a tank that receives supplemental CO2.If your plants do not require high light levels, then perhaps the Current Satellite would be a better choice for you. The price is roughly equivalent. And, it is fun to be able to use that remote control across the room and play with your lights. With the Satellite, you have more control over your lights. It is not as bright as the Finnex, but it is more entertaining. Even if you have plants that require a lot of light, as long as you do not inject CO2, you should be fine with the Satellite. The Finnex is a better choice if high output is your main priority. Aesthetically, the Finnex is a better looking fixture. Both lights are terrific and will add to your tank's appearance. The tank mounts, or legs, on the Finnex looks much better than that sliding bent wire contraption on the Current. I very much prefer the ones on the Finnex. It has quality plastic screws (to avoid corrosion) to clamp on the edge of the tank, for those who have rimless aquariums. The Finnex company put a lot of engineering in the design of the mounts. Whereas the Current put their money on the remote control and multiple color capability. You cannot go wrong with either one for most normal situations. It just depends on what you plan to put in the tank. Both companies have good tech support. John at Finnex actually helped answer my questions when I bought my 16" Plant+.Because of my choice of plants, the Finnex was the better choice. The light quality and the intensity will allow you to grow the most demanding plants (light-wise, that is) on a typical 24" tank. I have not tried these fixtures on a deeper tank, but you can go to YouTube and check out the reviews of people putting them on large tanks. I do not have any large 75+ gallon tanks at the moment to do any test on. You cannot go wrong with this 24" fixture. I cannot imagine a situation in which you will be under-gunned (underlighted) when using this on 20-30 gallon tank. And it's better to have a little too much, than too little. There are ways to cut down the light reaching the bottom of the tank. Just the plastic hinge on a glass canopy can block quite a bit of light. So, if you have to, pick a little bit more light than you think you need.UPDATE (4/21/2014) The light is actually a bit much even for a 30" tank. The fixture is only 24" but it put outs a lot of light. The abundance of light is such that it does encourage algae to grow. The plants are growing very well. But so is the algae. Nitrate never measures above 5ppm, so the algae is not out of control. The tops of the rocks are covered with algae. And this happens even when the top of the water is completely covered by Salvinia and Frogbit. Salvinia covers the water, several layers deep, but the penetration of the light is still significant. It will grow even the most demanding, light-hungry plants. But watch out for algae. Great light, but may be a bit much. I will try cutting back on the amount of time that it is running and experiment.

The lights is excellent and very bright. I haven't had it on long enough to see how my plants do but it's a golden cool tone (granted - it may be brighter than that but right now I'm using a medication that makes the water slightly yellow). I'll see if it lets me post a picture later on once I finish the treatments.I just realized I need to go home and look at the legs on the light. Apparently, they are adjustable and should be removable. I'm unsure about this as it didn't look that way when I was at home. Once I know, I'll update this.*Update! I finally played with the legs. There a slight pushing of the leg to the side to unclip the extra plastic piece. The only part of these legs that I don't like is that there is no way to actually tighten and fasten them to the actual light. You just press them snug but in reality it's no big deal. I generally only push my light back and forth at times and they really don't move hardly at all. It just helps hold the lamp over the tank. The little buttons are worthless once you take off the leg and do nothing so I just removed them as they are only usable if you are using both legs.The light is nice and bright and is great! I'll update in a few weeks once I get my plants going and will tell how they did.Update: My Wisteria and my other plants seem to be growing great! It was REALLY bright.My Discus were a little unnerved by it so I had to think of a way to hang it. I ended up buying some pvc tubing and built myself a stand to hang it from. I found thin aluminum rods from Hobby Lobby and bent them into a v shape and shoved them into the holes for the legs and folded it up to create a hanger of sorts; to hang it I used some chain and some carbiners. Here's a link that will show you how to create the hanging kit (just the rods). It's made from aluminum rods that are 3/32 in size and the stuff is super easy to bend into the shape you need and you just slip it into the light. If the link won't appear - just type Beachbum 2012 Finnex Ray II hanging kit and you'll most likely find the link on the Planted Tank website which showed me how to hang this light.http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/showthread.php?t=197311

I have a deep high tech planted aquarium and this light was going to be a 2nd light complimenting a higher end Build My LED (BML) Dutch XP 6500k unit.The good:Well priced, looks great/very modern, very low profile, solid mounts, plants were pearling quickly so it can defenitely grow plants, well built/feels strong.Things to consider: (I don't want to say "the bad) because they might be pluses for some)Flushed out colors: The BML unit features mix of red, blue, white LED's and makes the colors POP in my tank. The FINNEX Ray2 Daylight features a large # of only white LED's. The result is a very bland, washed out appearance. Colors don't pop...everything is very flush. I left it on a few days and several people commented on how much different my tank looked (in a bad way) than before.Short Power Cord: The cord barely reaches the ground let alone the outlet. All of my other internal power accessories (light, power head) can reach the outlets, so they aren't unreasonably far.Fixed mounting position: The BML light mounts allow you to "swivel" the light directing the light bar forward or back to focus the light. I/E I can put the light more towards the front of the tank and swivel the light upwards a few degrees pushing the light from the font to back. The Finnex is a fixed position light so it only shoots light straight down. This is fine in 90% of applications but would be a nice cheap feature.Conclusion - I like the Finnex product but this specific light wasn't for me. I'm going to return and order the Finnex Planted+ which doesn't produce the higher PAR but I don't need it thanks to my BML. The Plant+ has the mixed color array that I hope pops the color better and for $78 (Finnex) vrs $230 (BML) will do what I need to finish my tanks lighting.

Great light make sure you get the day light one and I have on my 180 1 strip will do it but I'd say 2 would be better 1Stip per foot my tank is 2 feet wide