47G SPS...Revamp

Thanks for your evaluation of a pure LED setup.

I'm actually doing the opposite of you. I'm going from a 400w MH to a DIY LED/T5 fixture. Without supplementing the radiums, which were hard fit with my Lumenbright large pendants, I couldn't get the color or pop I needed. I was overdriving my bulbs and noticed a colorshift at what I assume is the 6 month mark on these bulbs that was quite unpleasant to my eye. Growth and color wise they were great, my corals under the 400w looked good when placed under LED. If I could find a geisseman like yourself, I'd probably snatch it up too and retro some reefbrite xhos on them.
 
mhucasey said:
Yeah, sorry, no. From his thread:

I've got a custom profile that I've ran on my frag tank for about a year. It works great and now I'm going to use it as a base on the main tank.

The trick is to run all 3 blue channels for about 8 hours with no other channels present. Then for the two hours I know I will be observing the tank I would change the lighting to whatever I prefer aesthetically.

My PAR is at 220-250 range and I find that my acros love it.

and

Yes, those 8 hours of blues include all 3 blues that are in Radion. All three channels are at 100 per cent, but overall intensity is at about 75.

He paid $749 X 6 = $4494 so he can use half the diodes in the Radions and keep his reef in dawn/dusk lighting all but two hours per day(This is double the amount of time he worked out using the frag tank). I'm struggling to understand why. I keep a reef tank to look at the corals and in all their colors and for as many hours as I can. I don't invent reasons to put money in Ecotech's pocket. Ultimately if he is happy then that is what is important, I guess.
Click to expand...

It is a sleek looking fixture though..
 
That was a fast transition Sahin:thumbsup:

I am glad you did not loose any corals to bleaching or any hotspots though

I know Valentines day was a few weeks ago, But by the looks of the light purchasing You must've made her a real happy gal :love2:

I kid, Don't work to hard !
 
Is one or two months enough time to evaluate any light?

Isn't possible that the changes you notice in colours, were caused just from transition from one light source to another?
 
Youd have to be close to beating me with the shortest time with a light :) Good move though, the giesemann is super nice...yep ive had one DiscusHeckel lol, all this talk of new lights has me itching to try something new now haha
 
rodneyri said:
Youd have to be close to beating me with the shortest time with a light :) Good move though, the giesemann is super nice...yep ive had one DiscusHeckel lol, all this talk of new lights has me itching to try something new now haha
Click to expand...

I am struggling right now to suggest anything as you must have tried almost everything out there. :D
 
sahin said:
My own tank is boring...hence I've been posting on all my buddies threads... :D

Just been busy...and its about to get worse as I will be doing 55+ hours at work.

My tank is doing fine. Corals are growing well and colours are overall, fairly good. I did buy a Gisemann Spectra 400w halide fixture with a view to running Radium 20K, 2xT5's, and 2 strips of LED.

I posted on another thread, so I will post here: In terms of overall SPS; the radions do come close to my T5/LED hybrid units. For a mixed reef, I think LED's are just fine.

In terms of light coverage, you need lots of units to get same coverage as T5.

My tank is practically 95% SPS and 90% of that is acropora. Hence I have noticed subtle changes in some of my acros that I'm not happy about.
What I wasnt happy about was for example, my Red Planet: its no way as red as before. It didnt brown out...rather it looks like a purplely red planet. Maybe its a spectrum thing I dont know. The frag I gave to my buddy turned the same kind of colour in his tank. Its like a kind of purple red rather than the more red tone I had under T5's.

The other coral with significant change is my "rainbow" granulosa...it had a green base, changing to a sky blue towards the tips with a purple tip face. Its turned largely green. Lost the sky blue colour completely. I'd adjust the spectrum and measured the PAR levels but couldnt get the sky blue colour back.

Another acro with pink corallite edges and red polyps lost the red polyps and the pink corallites.

For a mixed reef or a reefkeeper who is going new into the hobby and or newly with SPS isnt probably going to notice these subtle differences...and they will rightly say, yeah sure LEDs/Radions are fine for acros...and they are...but IMO they dont pull that extra bit of colour and some acros dont look as nice. They could be coloured nicely, but for me acros that had more than two or more colours have morphed into single or double colours.

Now I am being very critical here, but keeping a tank full of acros I can notice the changes.

The other thing I didnt like was how dim the Radions look...I couldnt get used to the dimmer look...they look dim, but the PAR is there. If I turned them up to how bright my corals looked under my T5's, the PAR levels went up crazy...

...Which tells me the light is VERY directional and pointing largely down. There isnt as much scatter as there is with T5's or MH in a reflector.

What confirmed my above observation was the top facing tissue have nice colour, but the sides and anything in shadow has turned pale. With my T5's I didnt have this issue.

I think had I went with a couple of Radions and T5 as supplemental, I wouldnt be changing anything right now....

But since I decided to change up again, I came across a used Giesemann 400w in very good condition and decided to snap it up. I didnt even haggle with the price, I just offered the asking price-which wasnt cheap considering how cheap most halide setups go for these days...but being able to run 400w Radium and T5 and possibly LED's if I carry out a mod...I couldnt resist. :D

Andrew/Biggles predicted that I'd move to Radiums at some point...you were right mate. :beer:
Click to expand...

Good luck with the light change. I have not reached the same conclusion on LED. I still am happy with how things are going. They can be a giant pain in the butt to get correct. I am seriously having to reevaluate my operating parameter now that I got 2 units for coverage.
 
mhucasey said:
......I keep a reef tank to look at the corals and in all their colors and for as many hours as I can.....
Click to expand...

No kidding. That is why I run a long photo period with long ramps. I do not have that super blue look except for the first and last half hour of my tank day.
 
Sahin we don't think your tank is boring so if you get free time you should spoil us with a small update. Ah well, I can't wait to see the Giesemann up and running. Glad your tank is doing well, don't work too hard. :beer:
 
tank is looking great Sahin,

man another light?
You started with T5 many years ago.
Then upgrade your 6 bulbs to ---> a 5 bulbs with DIY LED
then you went with ATI/LED hybrid 2 years ago
then you upgraded to 3 Radions 3-4 months ago
and now you are thinking to change to MH/T5/LED?
 
Last edited:
mhucasey said:
Yeah, sorry, no. From his thread:

I've got a custom profile that I've ran on my frag tank for about a year. It works great and now I'm going to use it as a base on the main tank.

The trick is to run all 3 blue channels for about 8 hours with no other channels present. Then for the two hours I know I will be observing the tank I would change the lighting to whatever I prefer aesthetically.

My PAR is at 220-250 range and I find that my acros love it.

and

Yes, those 8 hours of blues include all 3 blues that are in Radion. All three channels are at 100 per cent, but overall intensity is at about 75.

He paid $749 X 6 = $4494 so he can use half the diodes in the Radions and keep his reef in dawn/dusk lighting all but two hours per day(This is double the amount of time he worked out using the frag tank). I'm struggling to understand why. I keep a reef tank to look at the corals and in all their colors and for as many hours as I can. I don't invent reasons to put money in Ecotech's pocket. Ultimately if he is happy then that is what is important, I guess.
Click to expand...

You are correct and in his build thread he posted this:

dtum said:
No worries, my schedule is 8 hours of all blues, then I run some whites for about an hour (usually the time when I am at home and can admire the tank for what it is), then it switches back to blues for about half and hour and goes into a night mode.

Another trick is - I do not run whites at a 100% (or any other channels), after numerous hours of tweaking, here's my magic formula to get an aesthetically good light from Radion Pro G3.

UV - 100%
Royal Blue - 8%
Blue - 100%
White - 41%
Green - 14%
Red - 8%

Try it on your tank, it is pretty awesome.
Click to expand...

I have a substantially smaller system than many of you, and three small children as well, so my discretionary income is at a much much lower level than it used be BC, (Before Children). I'm heavily invested in Radions (for me) with three Gen 1's, two of which were upgraded to Gen 3's, (not the Pro's) last summer....

I'm not wild about the idea of running half the light for the majority of the time.

Sahin, could you please post what your Radion schedule was when you were running all three over your tank?

Thanks.
 
What is the name of this?

874f6f94a082585577a3f3d771248365.jpg
 
So, in order to get at least a years life out of the Radium 400w bulb, I've just ordered a Lumatek E-ballast to run the bulb closer to spec (which is roughly 360watts or so). The Lumatek ballast does have a Superlumen switch to up the power if I need it though. The Giesemann Spectra came with a magnetic type ballast that runs around 425watts. However it does make a tiny bit of hum and gets pretty warm so I thought I might as well pickup one of those Lamatek ballasts. I checked with Darth Acro
and his evilship informs me he goes upto a year before replacing his Radium bulb.

As for colours of the corals...colours on some pieces seem better the past week. Nothing major, but just looks a little better. Despite that, I am going to take off the Radions and put the Radium over the tank once I get a bit of time.

In terms of having had the Radions over my tank for only 2 months; yes that is correct. However, I gave tester frags to my buddy many moons ago...and the results are the same. They look the same in his tank. Therefore I know come another 4-6 months the change or improvement isnt going to be significant. I went back to my buddies place a week or so back and had a very long look at all his acros, including the ones he's got from me.

Also, the way light is delivered is not going to be fixed in another 6 months...unless the Radions evolve by themselves... :lol: That was one of my biggest issues with the Radions.

I'll admit this; T5/LED is the best overall combo. I just want to try halides again...I looked back at some old pics of my halide tank from about 15 years ago and the acro colours were good: obtained easily with a simple system...my knowledge and experience with SPS was pretty awful back then. Besides, halides might not be available in the next few years...why not enjoy the Radium over my tank for a while until something as good as Radium comes along in another technology. :D

SputnikNYC said:
What is the name of this?

874f6f94a082585577a3f3d771248365.jpg
Click to expand...

Thats an unknown I picked up from the LFS.
 
sahin said:
So, in order to get at least a years life out of the Radium 400w bulb, I've just ordered a Lumatek E-ballast to run the bulb closer to spec (which is roughly 360watts or so). The Lumatek ballast does have a Superlumen switch to up the power if I need it though. The Giesemann Spectra came with a magnetic type ballast that runs around 425watts. However it does make a tiny bit of hum and gets pretty warm so I thought I might as well pickup one of those Lamatek ballasts. I checked with Darth Acro
and his evilship informs me he goes upto a year before replacing his Radium bulb.

As for colours of the corals...colours on some pieces seem better the past week. Nothing major, but just looks a little better. Despite that, I am going to take off the Radions and put the Radium over the tank once I get a bit of time.

In terms of having had the Radions over my tank for only 2 months; yes that is correct. However, I gave tester frags to my buddy many moons ago...and the results are the same. They look the same in his tank. Therefore I know come another 4-6 months the change or improvement isnt going to be significant. I went back to my buddies place a week or so back and had a very long look at all his acros, including the ones he's got from me.

Also, the way light is delivered is not going to be fixed in another 6 months...unless the Radions evolve by themselves... :lol: That was one of my biggest issues with the Radions.

I'll admit this; T5/LED is the best overall combo. I just want to try halides again...I looked back at some old pics of my halide tank from about 15 years ago and the acro colours were good: obtained easily with a simple system...my knowledge and experience with SPS was pretty awful back then. Besides, halides might not be available in the next few years...why not enjoy the Radium over my tank for a while until something as good as Radium comes along in another technology. :D



Thats an unknown I picked up from the LFS.
Click to expand...

The logic is sound as far as I am concerned. You shouldn't have to suffer with lighting that isn't doing what you want, and it shouldn't take six months for a coral to look good if the lighting is solid.
 
I would say... Go for it, as long as it make you happy and enjoy the process. We may all benefit from sahin' findings.
sahin has great observation skills to see something I can't see, and.... sahin been a while did not reply my link... So sad....:sad2::sad2:
 
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