I picked up a Aqua Illumination blade freshwater 30 to test on my 29. Here is a picture comparing it to the plant 3.0:
and plant 3.0
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I've set the blade to 70% all channels (white, red, blue) and the plant is using the plant profile at red 89 blue 26 blue-white 72 white 86 yellow 79;
the fluval 3.0 30 inch is rated 30 watt and the blade at 60 watt. If you look at the substrate you can see the blade is much more neutral even after camera auto white balance and this is true in person.
I've not measure actual watt usage or par and i guess one day i should probably measure both. My initial dislike of the blade include the mount (it rests on the tank and i would like it a little higher); the app which is more painful than fluval (i find wrgb app pretty decent these days; but i dislike their non pro wrgb-2 balanace the pro is not cost effective); i dislike the lack of water protection of the blade (it is ip66 vs fluval ip67) and i dislike that the 'control' on the light is on the bottom instead of the top; also the led is fairly bright all thing consider (which is noticable at night when the light is off). They are going to add more mounting options but the idea of paying for a piece of plastic to raise it off the tank makes me barf. If the watt is representative of the par then this light is a lot stronger than the fluval at a modest price point.
and plant 3.0
--
I've set the blade to 70% all channels (white, red, blue) and the plant is using the plant profile at red 89 blue 26 blue-white 72 white 86 yellow 79;
the fluval 3.0 30 inch is rated 30 watt and the blade at 60 watt. If you look at the substrate you can see the blade is much more neutral even after camera auto white balance and this is true in person.
I've not measure actual watt usage or par and i guess one day i should probably measure both. My initial dislike of the blade include the mount (it rests on the tank and i would like it a little higher); the app which is more painful than fluval (i find wrgb app pretty decent these days; but i dislike their non pro wrgb-2 balanace the pro is not cost effective); i dislike the lack of water protection of the blade (it is ip66 vs fluval ip67) and i dislike that the 'control' on the light is on the bottom instead of the top; also the led is fairly bright all thing consider (which is noticable at night when the light is off). They are going to add more mounting options but the idea of paying for a piece of plastic to raise it off the tank makes me barf. If the watt is representative of the par then this light is a lot stronger than the fluval at a modest price point.