Finnex Ray2 Aquarium LED Daylight, 16-Inch

This is a great led light. Slim profile allows it to be installed into a light hood. My biggest gripe with this light is, the led's do NOT span the full width of the light.

The led spread is only 10.5 inches of the 16 inches, ie, there is much space in which there are no LED's. There is 34% of unlighted area, of the 16". So, the next question you ask, is this normal with LED lights to have much of the light without LED elements? The 24" version of this light has pretty much full 24" coverage, ie, the LED's span the full 24". It truly bedazzles me why Finnex chose to leave 34% of the 16" light fixture unlighted.

Note, with LED lights, they do not have much light spread, thus, unless you suspend the light way above your tank, you will not get any more light spread than the led element width. Thus, if you plan to use this light to light a planted freshwater tank, do not expect to plant more than 11 inches wide of plants.

As such, we returned this light for the 24" version.

If you are new to planted freshwater tanks and are doing research on what is the best lights to get, you can look up theplantedtank.net which has great non-commercial information on planted tank lighting.

Fresh out of the box, and not even a week old, this is an amazing light. HUGE upgrade over my old T8 fixture. Visual spectrum is very good, and so far my plants seem to like it, though it's a bit early to tell on that one. Runs at a good temperature (slightly warm to touch, but nowhere near warm enough to need to worry about) and has excellent light spread. I do wish they had something a little better than plastic screws to secure the legs to the tank wall, said legs seem to be designed mostly for "rimless" aquariums, and while they fit on mine alright, it could be better. Other than that one small design flaw, this is a stunning light brand new, and I intend to update this review in a month or two.

Buy Finnex Ray2 Aquarium LED Daylight, 16-Inch Now

I was not happy to receive a 16" version with only 10.5" of LEDs. I exchanged it for a 24" and I'm very happy with the 24".

If you want the 16" width to clamp to the side of your tank, this may be good for you. If you actually want about 16" of LED lighting, look elsewhere.

General Finnex Ray2 Daylight info:

LED strip is about 1" wide per 8 LEDs. Product description shows the number of LEDs. This may be important to you because 16" version only has 10.5" of LEDs. The 30" version has the exact same LED strip as the 24" version.

Obtain the number of LEDs from the product description and divide by 8 to obtain width of LED strip.

Read Best Reviews of Finnex Ray2 Aquarium LED Daylight, 16-Inch Here

Great upgrade for my Fluval Spec V, if I could turn it on slowly with a dimmer it would ease the shock for my frogs, the fish and shrimp don't mind though.

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I have been using the 12 inch and 16 inch led lighting fixture and it has provide an excellence source of light for my aquarium plants like dwarf baby tears and dwarf hair grass. I would recommend this for all those who own freshwater plants.

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