180 gallon reef tank lighting dilema. Kessil vs Radion

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bked120

New member
I have had my 180 gallon reef tank up and running for 8 months now. It's a full zeovit sps dominant system. My current lighting set-up is (4) Kessil a360we's with (2) 80w LET T-5 retrofit. I am using ATI coral plus bulbs. The tank looks amazing buy my coral growth is extremely slow. They encrust amazingly but no much horizontal and vertical growth.

I did a ton of research on the new Radion Gen4 pro's and from what I've read everyone has great growth with the Coral Lab AB setting. So I went ahead a got (3) fixtures. I don't like the look of them. I miss the shimmer from my Kessils. The shimmer from the Radions looks fake in comparison. I had a gen2 radion a few years back and I remember why I don't like them. Ecosmart Live is not friendly with me. I have to re-boot after every set-up change.

So, my dilemma is I have love the look of my original set-up but not happy with the growth over 8 months. Do I add 2 more t-5 bulbs? Or, do I do a hybrid of kessil and radions to get the shimmer that I like? Or, do I consider the Kessil AP-700's with T-5's to get more spread and intensity. I'm so confused. Any help will be greatly appreciated. Thanks.
 
I run a set of AI hydra 52's on my tank and while I love my lights, I have seen the kessils in action and the shimmer they provide is absolutely gorgeous. If I were to do it again, I'd probably fork out the extra for the kessils.

As for your issues regarding growth, either your original kessils or the radions should be capable of growing strong healthy corals. If you prefer the look of the kessil system then I'd stick with them and maybe look at other reasons why you may not be getting the growth you want.

There are lots of things you can tweak to see if you get better results. Calcium, nutrients flow, intensity, spectrum. You could consider getting a par meter of some kind and taking a closer look at the settings on your kessil systems to get more out of your existing lights.
Perhaps all you need to do is add another unit for better coverage? Maybe the extra t5 pair will make the difference?

There are lots of option you can explore without ditching the kessil lights.

Of course the decision is ultimately yours. For me though, if YOU enjoy looking at the tank more when its lit by kessils, then its an easy decision. If the corals are healthy and happy, then i'd be willing to sacrifice some growth speed. At the end of the day, the whole purpose of the tank is for you to enjoy watching it. Do whatever facilitates that best.
 
Thanks Dean. You are absolutely right that at the end of the day I have to enjoy the look of my tank. I'm not in the business of growing and selling corals so speeding up the growth process doesn't help me out in any way. My corals are healthy and that is all that matters even if they are growing slower than I expected. I guess I will bite the bullet and sell the (3) Radion Gen4 pros I just bought. I'm going to stick it out with my Kessils and add another t-5 retrofit. I'm glad I was able to see the Radions in action next to my kessils on the same tank.
 
I have a similar setup. 180, 3 Kessil A360W-Es, I added a few LED strips and a Reefbrite blue strip.

Love the look, corals are colorful and healthy (mostly SPS) but growth has been a bit slow. I am not looking to frag and sell everything, so I don't worry about it much. But I do wonder if Gen 4 Radions would work better:

20161111_141535_zpso13vuh38.jpg


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fi5IuZxD9oM
 
Tank looks great Terry! I followed your build thread. I believe you had retrofitted and old halide/t-5 fixture and replaced the halides with the a360's. Have you since replaced the t-5's with led strips? or do you still have the t-5's? Would you mind sharing with me the layout of your light canopy?
 
bked120 said:
Tank looks great Terry! I followed your build thread. I believe you had retrofitted and old halide/t-5 fixture and replaced the halides with the a360's. Have you since replaced the t-5's with led strips? or do you still have the t-5's? Would you mind sharing with me the layout of your light canopy?
Click to expand...

That is all correct. Here is the Build Thread:

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2538817

I still have the T5s, I added blue LED strips from EBay, and a Reefbrite strip for a bit more blue pop:

You can see the LEDs here:

20170107_083704_zpscac1htaf.jpg
 
Thanks Terry! How do you like the Reefbrite? The one and only thing I don't like about the Kessils is you can't dim them down to an actinic blue. I too am looking for a little bit more pop out of my lighting.
 
Rapid SPS growth is a good thing when the tank is new and mostly frags; not such a good thing once you get to large colonies.
 
bked120 said:
Thanks Terry! How do you like the Reefbrite? The one and only thing I don't like about the Kessils is you can't dim them down to an actinic blue. I too am looking for a little bit more pop out of my lighting.
Click to expand...

I agree. I just wish they dimmed down to zero, and popped a bit more. The Reefbrite helps with this. I love the blue pop in the morning and at night.
 
bked120 said:
Thanks Terry! How do you like the Reefbrite? The one and only thing I don't like about the Kessils is you can't dim them down to an actinic blue. I too am looking for a little bit more pop out of my lighting.
Click to expand...

The pop is absolutely mental with Kessils. Having the cyan and other blues and violets in there makes colors fluoresce in my tank that I never saw before. My pop threshold must be lower than yours :strooper:
 
smatter said:
The pop is absolutely mental with Kessils. Having the cyan and other blues and violets in there makes colors fluoresce in my tank that I never saw before. My pop threshold must be lower than yours :strooper:
Click to expand...

Lol! I should have said I'm looking for more of a moonlight actinic pop. My corals look great under the Kessils during the day.
 
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