Fluval 4.0 comparison with Twinstar S V, Week aqua

[Dennis Wong]

Same camera settings, with a tiny bit of ambient light.



Under week aqua a430


Couple of close-ups:
Fluval 4.0


Twinstar S V


Although Fluval 4.0 is spectrum tunable, it does not have enough red diodes to balance out its spectrum curves and tends to be red deficient.

Twinstar has spectrum curves similar to Netlea/Chihiros/Week aqua, much easier to tune to a range of attractive visual colors.
In short, while Twinstar has improved in the last couple of generations to match the chinese LEDs, while Fluval has not.

 

[Unexpected]

But Fluval is water proof! Honestly, that Twin Star looks much improved. Good on them for responding.

 

[FreshTides_Neal]

The one thing the Fluval lights have going for them is their marketing, at least in the States. Many are under the impression that they're the best lights money can buy, but when customers show me pictures of their tank I can always tell if it's a Fluval light. I still run the nano 3.0 model on one of my planted tanks at home; it works but definitely not the best.
Any experience with the E line? For my shop I use the Twinstar E series ver. V on our plant systems and I'm a huge fan of how they make not just the plants look, but the fish as well.
I went with the E line initially to save money and told myself I would upgrade to the S line in the future, but I don't think it will end up being necessary.

 

[Dennis Wong]

The one thing the Fluval lights have going for them is their marketing, at least in the States. Many are under the impression that they're the best lights money can buy, but when customers show me pictures of their tank I can always tell if it's a Fluval light. I still run the nano 3.0 model on one of my planted tanks at home; it works but definitely not the best.
Any experience with the E line? For my shop I use the Twinstar E series ver. V on our plant systems and I'm a huge fan of how they make not just the plants look, but the fish as well.
I went with the E line initially to save money and told myself I would upgrade to the S line in the future, but I don't think it will end up being necessary.

I have not yet unpack that set yet. Twinstar S V (at least the 60cm set) is very over-tuned (too powerful), similar to week aqua P series and Netlea AT5, they produce like 350-400 PAR at the substrate, which most aquarists will not use meaningfully (over a 2ft tank). This means that most folks will be paying for extra power that they do not use. Unless you have an odd tank, like 2ft length but say 3ft tall ??

Where as a Week aqua M600 (also 60cm fixture, shown below), is much cheaper, but if you run it at 100% power, it still gives close to 200 PAR on substrate.

For smaller tanks, these series make more sense.

 

[Gino]

Very interesting comparison @Dennis Wong!

Any experience with the E line? For my shop I use the Twinstar E series ver. V on our plant systems and I'm a huge fan of how they make not just the plants look, but the fish as well.
I went with the E line initially to save money and told myself I would upgrade to the S line in the future, but I don't think it will end up being necessary.

I believe (?) the E-line V is essentially the same concept as the S-line, just less powerful. So I guess if the E provides enough light for your use case, you're good. ^^

I myself tried the E (V) on two of my tanks, with the preset light configuration. On my shrimp tank I love the way it makes the colors pop! Both the greens and the reds come out very well now, with the reds (mainly in red shrimp and ramshorn snails) perhaps looking a bit unnaturally bright, but for small creatures in a "show tank" that's fine to me.

On my goldfish tank though it made my goldfish look SO red that it hurt my eyes, lol. So I got a different light there.

Overall it's a nice light. The one hope I have is that Twinstar keeps improving their app, as it's a bit awkward to work with sometimes.

 

[anewbie]

Kind of off topic but do you know if the netalea at5 will fit on a 40 breeder (rimmed) aquarium? 'google ai' search said it would not fit because the bracket is too narrow and designed for rimless tank but picture shows the bracket open on the inside so it is not clear to me why it would not fit.
--
I'm leaning towards netalea at5 over week pro because the week pro spectrum is closer to chiros wrgb ii (missing white light creating holes in the spectrum); while that might be fine for plants which ignore the yellow range it makes visibility artificially over-saturated and in some cases really gross.

 

[Dennis Wong]

Kind of off topic but do you know if the netalea at5 will fit on a 40 breeder (rimmed) aquarium? 'google ai' search said it would not fit because the bracket is too narrow and designed for rimless tank but picture shows the bracket open on the inside so it is not clear to me why it would not fit.
--
I'm leaning towards netalea at5 over week pro because the week pro spectrum is closer to chiros wrgb ii (missing white light creating holes in the spectrum); while that might be fine for plants which ignore the yellow range it makes visibility artificially over-saturated and in some cases really gross.

Hmm I don't own a rimmed tank, so I haven't been able to test this out.

Comparison vid for Fluval Plant 4.0 VS Twinstar S V:


View attachment Comparison Fluval Twinstar S V.mp4


View attachment Fluval VS Twinstar Vert.mp4

 

[anewbie]

Hmm I don't own a rimmed tank, so I haven't been able to test this out.

Comparison vid for Fluval Plant 4.0 VS Twinstar S V:


View attachment 19016


View attachment 19017

the twin star seems brighter and the plant 4.0 has too much blue in the balance? Is this a setting thing or both lights at 100% ?

 

[BranchScape]

Kind of off topic but do you know if the netalea at5 will fit on a 40 breeder (rimmed) aquarium? 'google ai' search said it would not fit because the bracket is too narrow and designed for rimless tank but picture shows the bracket open on the inside so it is not clear to me why it would not fit.
--
I'm leaning towards netalea at5 over week pro because the week pro spectrum is closer to chiros wrgb ii (missing white light creating holes in the spectrum); while that might be fine for plants which ignore the yellow range it makes visibility artificially over-saturated and in some cases really gross.

It can fit on a rimmed tank, the bracket is open on the inside and the light comes with tabs that lock it in place on a rimless. These are not installed out the box and optional.

 

[HardeeParty]

Dropping this here.

 

[anewbie]

Dropping this here.

View attachment 19215

I DO NOT UNDERSTAND. Is this a new kind of bright light ?