Couple of questions for the radium users here, and any on who switched from led
Back story: I have been an led user since Jan 13, t5 before that,. Just switched the tank from hydra 52s to 2 250watt radiums, cayman sun pendants, Hamilton m80 ballasts. The frag tank has a 14k DE hamilton. I left led to give halide a try, and I'm on a quest to get things better. after 2 years of trying to dial in percentages, I managed to grow decent sized sps, but color has always been sub par.
Questions as follows
1. Compared to my hydra 52s, these radiums seem very dim. I thought it was the other way around, everyone always said leds apear dim so "be careful"
2. This might answer the above, will the bulb get brighter as it breaks in?
3. I had uv, violet, and royal blue leds so I had a decent amount of coral pop, and things looked decent. Under the radiums, almost all my stuff is completely brown and dull. Were my leds giving me illusions of color I never had?
4. Related to #3, will the radium eventually start flourecing my sps assuming my parameters are legit, or will I possibly need to supplement. I honestly was under the impression, no supplement would be necessary with the 20k radium since I have seen numerous tanks with nothing but halide.
I understand these are strange questions, just trying to see what I should expect since I actually have the lights running now. Thanks
I can try to answer these from my experience as I went from Radiums to led to radiums.
1. Thats odd. Everyone I have known that has gone from led to halide has said the oppositte. I experienced that it was dim and "hollow" looking with LEDs and with halides it is way brighter. Like a lot brighter. I had 5x 55 3w led panels so I had a lot of LEDs. The halides look alot more like the sun is lighting it.
2. It seemed to a little bit over the first couple weeks, but not a ton.
3 & 4. I think so. I supplement my Radiums with royal blue leds. But your right its a different kind of light. I think as your corals get used to it you will see colors that you didnt see before. But it will take some time. Thats why a lot of people supplement. You get the best of both worlds. But halide is more natural looking. So it wont be that crazy super blue color you can get with LEDs. I used to run halides on icecap ballasts so they were underdriven and it was much bluer. Now I am running them at the HQI setting it is much whiter and brighter. You should get the same thing with the M80 ballast. Ive never run halides alone. I used to supplement with blue+ and true actinic T5 bulbs and now led, so I would suggest you supplement with something. Its nice for the extended viewing period with sunrise and sunset effect too. But I guess all in all im more of a fan of the natural colors, not the outer space funky colors. I guess Id just say get some supplementation, and give it some time.
Hope that helps.