welcome back everybody hope you're
doing well a few months ago I did a buying guide for CO2 systems
today we're doing one for lights now before we get started with this video
I want to make one thing very very clear and the majority of the lights you're going to
see today were all gifted I've kind of acquired them over the past two years so they were
sponsored but this is not a sponsored video um I don't owe anything to these companies
they're not asking me to make this video I'm not getting paid to make this video so everything
that you're going to hear from me today is just my personal experience and my personal
opinion and there's nothing attached to it so I currently have about 10 tanks up and running
and every single one of them except for the big shallow behind me has a light from either Chihiros
or Twinstar so those are the two brands that we're going to talk about today because those two brands
have like a variety of different lights that kind of suit every type of budget so I'm going to split
this video up into four sections and with every section we'll go up in budget so we'll start with
the cheapest ones and then we'll work our way out towards the most expensive ones so let's get
straight into it with our budget series so if you're currently thinking of setting up a planted
tank but you don't really have a lot of funds, but still want a strong light I would recommend
the Twinstar b line so I currently have two of them one on there over there and one on the cube
so these lights are 30 Euros for the 30 centimeter version so it's literally cheapest light that
I own but these lights are very very strong now Twinstar sells this as a light for fish keepers so
it's mostly just designed to showcase the colors of your fish and your shrimp and whatever but
they actually do a very very good job at growing plants as well now to kind of show you how well
this lights grow plants I will overlay a clip from the previous layout in this tank in that
tank I didn't have CO2 injection I didn't have a filter and the plants in there were growing
crazy I even had a carpet with glossostigma in there as well which is quite a demanding plant
so definitely a good light.
Of course this is a budget light so it doesn't really look very
fancy I mean it just has this simple slide outs here and this is the 30 centimeters version
but this one can be extended up to 40 centimeters so I mean it doesn't really matter what size
aquarium you have this light will fit on there and it comes in 30 centimeters it comes in 60
centimeters 90 centimeters and 120 centimeters, but with these sliders you can adjust it to any
size basically now the only thing this light is missing in my opinion is a dimmer so right now
I'm using a lot of slow growing plants so the intensity is actually a bit too much and because
of that I need to use a lot of floating plants so I would really like that this light would
have a dimmer included in the Box you can dim it but you just need to buy a dimmer separately
so that was the Twister b line my second budget recommendation would be the Chihiros a series I
currently do not have one right here but this was actually the first LED light that I bought
when I was still fairly new to aquascaping so I think when I first started aquascaping I was
using CFL bulbs but then I really got into these high-tech setups so I wanted an LED light and
the first one that I bought was the Chihiros a series this one is slightly more expensive I think
it's 40 euros so like 10 euros more expensive than the Twinstar B-Line for the 30 centimeter version
of course but this one does have a manual dimmer included so I think it's like a small seven
or eight step dimmer and yeah I mean for 40 euros it is a very very powerful light and you can
pretty much grow any plants with that as well so if you are if you have limited funds I would say
either the Twinstar B line or Chihiros a series okay then we'll move on to the next category so
the next two recommendations are for people who want a little bit more luxury but they still don't
want to spend a lot of money on the aquarium light first one is the Twinstar c-line so this one
is just a step up from the B line a little bit more expensive I think the 30 centimeter version
of this one is 60 Euros so let's say double the price on the B line um it's a bit more fancy
I mean it looks almost exactly the same it's a little bit broader has more LEDs it's more
powerful and this one has a dimmer as well so on the side here we have a button it's a 15
step dimmer so we have 15 different intensities and this light also has a soft start so when you
switch it on it will like within a few seconds it will ramp up to the intensity and yeah I mean
that's it besides that it's still very basic light it does have RGB lights we have a variety of
white blue red and green LEDs and I've been using this one for let's say six months and I had some
pretty good results with it I mean it's not the most powerful light but it will grow most of your
plants okay then my second recommendation for this category is this light right here the Chihiros A2
series and I'm a big fan of this one it's a little bit more expensive 30 centimeter version of this
one is 70 euros so like 10 euros more expensive than the Twinstar c-line but in my opinion is
definitely worth it if I had to choose between a c-line or this one I'll go with this one basically
just because this light comes with an app and the Chihiros app in my opinion just works very very
well like you can set the intensity you can set the schedule and it just works you know another
thing I like about this light is that you can adjust the position so kind of yeah you can just
move it around to whatever you like so if you for example have more stems in the background you can
kind of tilt it that way just works very very well and yeah I mean besides that it's just just
a good light it's nicely built I like those um acrylic stands I just like the design of it
as well okay moving up so we're now in the third category so this one is for people who want to
be able to grow pretty much any type of plant you know so we're now we're getting to the fancy stuff
my first recommendation is the Chihiros wrgb2 slim and this light is 100 Euros for the 30 centimeter
version so we're definitely getting more expensive but I think you get a lot for that money so I
just showed you the A2 Series where we could already control the intensity and make a nice
schedule within the app with this light we can also adjust the colors within the app so it's a
RGB light it has RGB LEDs and within the app we can change the Reds change the greens change the
blues to whatever we like basically I like that very very much and another thing I like is the
adjustable arms again so this is the 30 centimeter light but we can extend it all the way up to 45
centimeters so I'm currently using this one on the CPD River that aquarium is 40 centimeters it's
a bit hard to get a light for 40 centimeter thanks because it's a very specific size but because
of this one because of the adjustability this light fits there perfectly then in the same
price range we have the Twin Star e-line so we've already talked about the B-Line the C Line
This is the E so just another step up and you can definitely see that in the design this one is just
looking much better much more Sleek everything's smooth and soft and they actually come in two
versions so here I again have the adjustable version with the slide outs but this one is also
available with acrylic legs that are just fixed actually that's looking very very clean I like
that but it just doesn't fit on this Aquarium um in terms of price this one is 105 Euros for
the 30 centimeter version so it's actually five euros more expensive than the slim yeah
with Twinstar you don't get an app and I mean I personally really like having an app
for my aquarium lights but if you're the kind of person who just wants a good light that has
a good spectrum then this is the one for you I mean it's a bit hard to see right now because
I've actually just trimmed the stems but I mean the color rendition of this light is just
amazing and everything is just looking super colorful Vivid and just natural you know there's
no overly saturated colors so yeah I'm a big big fan of the e-line as well and that brings
us to the last category so with these next two suggestions you'll be able to grow the most
demanding plants get the best colors get the best plant growth yeah these next two lights really are
the best of the best in my opinion I think if you want the best bang for your buck Chihiros
light I would recommend the Chihiros wrgb2 so I just showed you the slim in the previous
category then this right here is the pro but there's actually a regular wrb2 as well and
I'm a big fan of that version I think that one is the best bang for your buck but it depends
a little bit on the size of your aquarium so it's not a one size fits all so I would say if your
aquarium is between 30 to 45 centimeters I would suggest to just stick with the slim the slim is
powerful enough for that size if you have a tank between 45 and like 90 centimeters I would say
go with the regular wrgb2 and if your tank is 90 centimeters and above I would say go with the pro
because I mean if you stick your wrgb2 pro on a 30 centimeter aquarium you're just gonna have way
too much power and you'll never use the light on on its full potential you know so then it's just a
bit of a waste of money but I'm a big fan of these lights it is quite a big of a price up I mean the
slim was 100 euros for 30 centimeters the regular wrgb2 is 170 Euros for 30 centimeters and the pro
is 200 Euros for 30 centimeters so definitely more expensive and then my last recommendation for
this video is the Twinstar S Series so this is the flagship model from Twinstar it's the most
expensive one I think 30 centimeter version with this of this one is 140 Euros so it's actually
not too bad especially compared to the Chihiros but this light guys I mean I've only been using it
since July this is the first tank that I'm using it on but the plant growth here is basically some
of the best I've ever had I'm not exaggerating I mean especially the Rotala H'ra the red stem
plant I've never had it be this red it's crazy um yeah what can I say guys if you are looking
for a light that has the perfect color rendition that's just does what it needs to do grow
plants grow plants in the best way then this is I think the ultimate light that's it
guys just a quick simple buying guide those are my personal favorites now I hope that
this is useful for anyone who is looking to set up a new planted tank and need some
light recommendations that's it guys thanks for watching don't forget to smash that
like button see you next time foreign
