Anyone running Radion Pros here?

[IUfan]

Anyone here running radion pros and having longterm success? If so, would love to hear from you?

I turned down my intensity on my whites and thought that was the reason for bleaching SPS looked promising but now one coral is starting to bleach/brown, I'm stuck and not sure what to do with my lighting schedule.

So would love to hear from someone that's had a year of healthy growing corals, and compare schedules.

Thanks

 

[erndog1001]

I have 2-Gen1's & 2-Gen2 Pros Been running them for about 1 1/2 yrs now. I have quite a lot of SPS and various species. I've also experienced a couple of losses due to RTN. But I wouldn't blame it on the lights. IMO People who damage their coral with LEDs do so bc they are not patient enough during acclimation.You have to bring up the intensity VERY slowly. Even slower IMHO than Ecotechs guide lines.
So All that being said If you did acclimate properly I'd be looking elsewhere for the causes of your problems.

 

[IUfan]

I just feel like I've lost my way with the programming a bit, I had great healthy SPS at the beginning of this year, I made a couple changes to the schedule and didn't save the program, now I'm just lost, don't know if I'm throwing too much light intensity or not enough.

 

[IUfan]

Anyone running Radion Pros here?

When I say I made a couple of changes to the schedule I mean I changed the light intensity settings around, not so much the time.

Just looking for someone who's using Radions and has good healthy SPS. I don't want to keep going on this trial and error process that I'm on, and keep losing corals.

 

[doctorwhoreefer]

With higher light intensities you must feed more often. The corals need the extra energy to keep up. The more I see stn/rtn issues the more I think people are keeping their tanks too sterile.

 

[cdmurphy]

I've been running 4 Gen 3 Pro's over my SPS tank since January 2014. I use the radiant mode and running them at 65% for 12 hours a day. The biggest enemy with the Radions, and other LED lights, is their adjustability. You need to find that sweet spot and leave it be. My corals look great and I get good growth.

 

[IUfan]

I agree, there's so much adjustment which is nice, but there's a lot of potential to choose the wrong settings. I just want something that works now.

Cdmurphy I'm going to try those settings and see how it goes for my tank.

Doctorwho, yeah I never really feed my corals, just figured there was plenty of food going in with the fish food. I have some reef chilli so will try that.

 

[cdmurphy]

What intensity and setting are you running your lights at now? How high do you have them from the water surface? I have mine about 15 inches off the water surface and they give good coverage.

 

[IUfan]

I have a 180 so 6'x2', I have 2 radion pros left and centre with a radion gen 1 on the right side but no SPS is under that side.

I have them at 11" off the surface.

Let me check later what the current settings are.

 

[rovster]

Not long term user here but will give my initial observations. I have 3 gen2 pros over my 100 gallon. I had a bunch of tiny frags that were growing OK and coloring up very nicely. I was slowly increasing intensity and was around 65% with the lights around 13" above water (tank is 19" deep with SPS in the middle and bottom. I did have a horrible crash but up until that point things were progressing well.

Overall I feel that growth is good not great, and coloring was very good and too soon to call great.

Just an example, these pics are 5 weeks apart. Not sure if that's good or not. First pic is the day after I got the frag from an online order, so take that into consideration...



I run basically a custom program with blue and deep blue on both ends, then ramp up 20K-18K-14K-12K then back down. All of them on 100% and I think the 12K is at 80% which gives a smoother curve if not it spikes at the 12K. Its a 12hr cycle. I think the key is stetting it and dont't mess with it other than maybe adjusting the intensity. By no means am I an expert, but they do work. I don't believe they are better than halides or even T5, but for my needs they are OK for now. My only complaint is that my acros on the perimeter have issues in the shaded areas but that would be the case for any light except maybe T5. All the corals directly under the lights seem to be the happiest, leading me to believe that wall to wall coverage is best.

 

[mwladdicted]

I've had one running on my 28g for almost a year now and it has treated me very well. The only thing I have under it is sps and Zoas. The growth and color of my sps are great. My only complaints are the shadowing my sps get. However considering the sleekness, power consumption, controllability, and general overall success with my sps Id say the pros out weigh the cons, for my small tank at least. My light tops out at 55% and its 12 inches above my 20" Tall tank. I've never had an issue with Rtn or stn. Hope this helps

Note: Also, I agree with everything in the second paragraph of what the previous poster said.

 

[Brother D]

When I say I made a couple of changes to the schedule I mean I changed the light intensity settings around, not so much the time.

Just looking for someone who's using Radions and has good healthy SPS. I don't want to keep going on this trial and error process that I'm on, and keep losing corals.

I don't have Radions but we are in the same boat it seems. I'm running Orpheks. I tried to visually duplicate mh that I saw over an amazing sps tank. Bad idea!

 

[cdmurphy]

Here's a recent photo of my tank. I upgraded from a 90 gallon tank to a 240 Gallon back in December 2013 and corals went in January 2014. Since then I have been running the 4 radion Pro's. The bigger pieces came out of my 90 and I've been stocking the tank ever since. It still has a lot of growing out to do but so far I'm really happy with the Radions. The 90 had a 6 x 54 watt ATI powermodule over it and I can honestly say I have not lost a piece of coral that I transitioned from T5 to LED.

 

[cdmurphy]

Rovster, I'm no expert, actually far from it, but if I had that much growth and color in just 5 weeks I'd be pretty happy. I need to take progressive photo's to see if I get that much growth. I ran T5's prior to the Radions and don't feel I get the growth from the radions as I did from the T5's but I certainly think the colors of my SPS are much better, well all my corals look better under the Radions actually.

 

[IUfan]

Anyone running Radion Pros here?

Here's my schedule, anything look crazy out of whack to you?

Had this about a month, previous 6 months I had same but whites were equal to royal blue

10:56AM

1:53PM

4:30PM

Happy New Year Everyone!!!!

 

[IUfan]

I'm with CDMurphy, Rovster those colors look great! And decent growth too! Might try that schedule.

 

[Aww7979]

Your schedule looks good. I run a ton of light and get good color and great growth, I'm running a much longer period at max intensity. I cook a few zoas and once in a while I find a frag that dosent quite like it.

 

[Tankrogue]

Running 7 Radions on 300 DD and SpS colors look great tank only about 2 min this old in this picture

 

[kevensquint]

I am an Ex Radion user, I agree they are able to bleach very easily. But from what I see these days, they are better high off the water. My LFS has 3 display tanks Radion lit. All are 24" above, the corals are colorful and happy.

 

[cdmurphy]

IUfan, your schedule looks good to me, only thing i would do is lower the intensity to 60-65% then eventually over time increase it if you think your sps need more light. I run my lights about 15-18 inches off the water at 65%. I run the radiant mode and the only thing I've adjusted is the on/off time to run 12 hours a day. I tried other modes but liked the radiant mode the best. It peaks at about 15k I think. I am thinking about getting another 4 Radion's to give me better coverage though. Don't really think 4 is enough to cover my tank