Finnex 24/7 V2 24" Planted Plus Automated LED Light Fixture

I picked this up from Aquacave mid-May 2021 for my mom's new 30 gallon tank. It arrived about a week later, we set it up, programmed it with a custom 24 hour cycle and we couldn't be happier! She has a Fluval Plant Nano in a smaller 10 gallon tank that's smartphone compatible and although it's a gorgeous light with lots of features it's just too much for a 64 year old woman who's not tech savvy. Plus an equivalent Fluval Plant light for this much larger 30 gallon tank would have been somewhere around $180!! So what's the difference between an $80 light and a $180 light? Luckily...not a whole lot.<br><br>LIGHT QUALITY:<br>--------------------------------------------<br>The color of the Finnex Plant+ is simply beautiful! Honestly you'd be hard pressed to see the difference between the light of this light vs a much more expensive Fluval light. One thing we wanted to avoid was when using cheaper lights "pure white" always had a weird blue tint to it, but the Finnex light's pure white is PURE WHITE. There's absolutely no complaints about the color accuracy of the LEDs. This is hands-down a beautiful light.<br><br>PROGRAMMING:<br>--------------------------------------------<br>I gotta be honest, this is the least good thing about this light. Yes, you can create a custom 24/hour cycle but it's not exactly an intuitive experience. I'm very tech savvy but I tried 3 separate times to get it working and you really just need to carefully read the 1-page setup sheet that's included in the box. Even when I thought I did it correctly with the two receptor lights on the side showing that it was set and cycling my program it just stayed on one light and never continued to play through my 24/hour program. I eventually got it working and it's running the way I want it to after I followed the sheet again from the beginning.<br><br>When changing the colors there is a split second hard cut between your choices (for example if you add more red, the light turns off and then on again showing like 10% more red). This can get a little frustration if you really want to fine tune the perfect color or are just sensitive to flashing lights. However, once programmed the lights do smoothly transition from one color to another perfectly with no hard cuts between two different colored LEDs.<br><br>FINAL THOUGHTS:<br>--------------------------------------------<br>Overall this is an excellent light. While lacking in fancy features like smartphone connectivity and the actual programming of the thing could be better, once you get it running it runs like clockwork. I don't want to knock it points for the programming because it's literally a thing you do once and never again, but you have to expect something that costs $100 less than the best thing out there has to have at least one shortcoming. If you're looking for a solid mid-range light that has 90% of the features of a top-of-the-line plant light then the Finnex Plant+ is the one to get.<br><br>I'll be getting another one for my sister-in-law's 25 gallon tank especially since I know how to correctly program it this time.