Considering Radions... from a guy who hates LED's

[serbusfish]

OP you mentioned owning AI lights in the past, have you looked into the newest AI Hydra 26/52 HD's? My LFS ran some of the regular Hydra 26's on their display tank for a long time and recently switched to Radions, and I honestly preferred the look of the AI's. The Radion's still look amazing, but the Hydra's had tonnes of colour pop without looking too blue, and they are quite a bit cheaper.

 

[Vapour1ze]

OP you mentioned owning AI lights in the past, have you looked into the newest AI Hydra 26/52 HD's? My LFS ran some of the regular Hydra 26's on their display tank for a long time and recently switched to Radions, and I honestly preferred the look of the AI's. The Radion's still look amazing, but the Hydra's had tonnes of colour pop without looking too blue, and they are quite a bit cheaper.

I believe he was wanting Radions so he could use with WXM for Vortechs and Radions... We live close to one another so I was going to show him how I am doing that presently. The Hydra's are controllable but are they controllable via APEX?

I had my Radions and Vortechs on Reeflink, but there was nothing but trouble and problems and constant disconnects... Since switching to the WXM I'm in love.

 

[username in use]

Eee. An old buddy sent me it a while back. Let me do some digging. :hammer::hammer:

If you find it you should start a thread with it in the title so more people can get a hold of it.

 

[Sk8r]

I have a gen 3 Radion that's doing (thus far) well for euphyllias. Mount is as required for warranty, coral depth is about 9" down, power 55% on Radiance program.

 

[biecacka]

OP, you will want 6-8 for your 300 tank most likely. I think one area we struggle in is the number of units we actually need to cover our tanks.

Corey

 

[jlnielsen13]

Def getting me thinking,

I know the old phrase if it ain't broke don't fix it but in this case my light is "broke" although for $100 or so if I can figure out the issue I can fix it.

I just hate the summer time getting messages from my apex that my two tanks (connected in the basement fish room) are overheated. I keep raising the temp of when to send me a message but honestly spend most of the summer with a temperature of 84-88 degrees in my system. Obviously a lot higher than I would like. In fact, I don't need to run heaters in my system at all year round, the 3 light fixtures heat it up enough even with 100ish gallons/500 total gallons in a cool basement year round.

Maybe this is a good time for me to make the switch! If I can cut down on the heat by 3-4 degrees it is worth the investment to me. I just worry about getting "burned" by LED's again.

I do love the look which is why I wrote the thread on here years ago "LED's: great for people, terrible for corals" . I just wish the t5's weren't so hot, and the bulb cost is getting to me as well!

I have been surprised so far that there have been a number of people on here that are unhappy with radions, I kinda thought these things had worked out the kinks and were plug and play better than what I have right now... maybe not??

Thanks,

Jim

 

[DavidinGA]

Def getting me thinking,

I know the old phrase if it ain't broke don't fix it but in this case my light is "broke" although for $100 or so if I can figure out the issue I can fix it.

I just hate the summer time getting messages from my apex that my two tanks (connected in the basement fish room) are overheated. I keep raising the temp of when to send me a message but honestly spend most of the summer with a temperature of 84-88 degrees in my system. Obviously a lot higher than I would like. In fact, I don't need to run heaters in my system at all year round, the 3 light fixtures heat it up enough even with 100ish gallons/500 total gallons in a cool basement year round.

Maybe this is a good time for me to make the switch! If I can cut down on the heat by 3-4 degrees it is worth the investment to me. I just worry about getting "burned" by LED's again.

I do love the look which is why I wrote the thread on here years ago "LED's: great for people, terrible for corals" . I just wish the t5's weren't so hot, and the bulb cost is getting to me as well!

I have been surprised so far that there have been a number of people on here that are unhappy with radions, I kinda thought these things had worked out the kinks and were plug and play better than what I have right now... maybe not??

Thanks,

Jim

Why not consider 250w Mh instead? Use some lumenbright mini's way up off the water line and you might actually run cooler than the T5 setup. Not to mention the tried and true growth with mh....

 

[JamesFWB]

I switched from a Kessil 350 to a radion, and it took some time to adjust but my only bit of advice would be,

When you think you have them low enough, turn them down more.

They are strong, I run mine at 35% 8 inches over the water on a 20 inch deep tank.

also, the whites are VERY strong.

 

[biecacka]

I think the big thing with radions and most LEDs at let us customize them, we don't visually see the spectrum so we turn it up more or change it to our liking and that's not always best. The thing w the kessil's is you can't change the spectrum much, just the intensity. I wonder if that is part of the reason more ppl seem to have "success" with them.
Also think that 6-8 radions will cost you 4200$+ so that's a ton of bulbs....plus look into GE cost of the electric in your area. The savings might not be as great as you think.

Corey

 

[jlnielsen13]

On a 140, 5 foot tank, how many do you think I would need?? I had 4 AI over it and everyone told me it was way to much. Maybe only 2 would be enough?

THanks,

Jim

 

[MelloW33]

On a 140, 5 foot tank, how many do you think I would need?? I had 4 AI over it and everyone told me it was way to much. Maybe only 2 would be enough?



THanks,



Jim

3 would be better. 2 are not enough on my 48x30x24 tank

 

[jlnielsen13]

Looking at all the lights I have "stockpiled" I am thinking about swaping out the 8 bulb ATI for a 4 bulb ATI unit I have over the frag tank and then adding two MARS AQUA LED units in front of it. I will have enough room in my canopy. I should have considerably less heat (maybe 50%) . Do you think I would get the shimmer effect from those LED's with a t5?

Thanks JIM

 

[Vapour1ze]

Looking at all the lights I have "stockpiled" I am thinking about swaping out the 8 bulb ATI for a 4 bulb ATI unit I have over the frag tank and then adding two MARS AQUA LED units in front of it. I will have enough room in my canopy. I should have considerably less heat (maybe 50%) . Do you think I would get the shimmer effect from those LED's with a t5?

Thanks JIM

My Marsaqua shimmer was minimal... Compared to the radions I would say the marsaqua put out about a 1/10th as much shimmer as my radions do. Just FYI.

 

[dkeller_nc]

I've been reading along, and I have an alternate thought for you: fix your heat issue, regardless of what lights you choose to go with.

Radions, Kessils, AI's, Orphek Atlantiks, etc... are all very, very expensive lighting options, and if you expect and want success, they're the only ones you're likely to be happy with. The inexpensive knock-offs seriously lack spectrum - fine for a fish-only or softie tank. Not so great for an SPS or anemone tank.

To that end, you'll be spending thousands on these lights, and there's an excellent possibility that the heat in your hood will cause some major issues with the fixtures. All of them generate heat, and if your system is running 84-88 deg in a cool basement, that strongly suggests that you've little to no air circulation in your hood. Most of these high-end fixtures have a thermal cut-out to try to protect the circuitry, but I doubt you'll want to pay $2400 for Radions for your 140g and have them going on/off constantly throughout the day because they're getting too hot.

 

[jlnielsen13]

I've been reading along, and I have an alternate thought for you: fix your heat issue, regardless of what lights you choose to go with.

Radions, Kessils, AI's, Orphek Atlantiks, etc... are all very, very expensive lighting options, and if you expect and want success, they're the only ones you're likely to be happy with. The inexpensive knock-offs seriously lack spectrum - fine for a fish-only or softie tank. Not so great for an SPS or anemone tank.

To that end, you'll be spending thousands on these lights, and there's an excellent possibility that the heat in your hood will cause some major issues with the fixtures. All of them generate heat, and if your system is running 84-88 deg in a cool basement, that strongly suggests that you've little to no air circulation in your hood. Most of these high-end fixtures have a thermal cut-out to try to protect the circuitry, but I doubt you'll want to pay $2400 for Radions for your 140g and have them going on/off constantly throughout the day because they're getting too hot.

Thanks for the reply,

I have screen backs on both and because they are high up, I drilled large holes with a hole saw on the top of each. I guess my only option is a chiller? The only issue is that is more power consumption, more parts to break down, etc etc. I really thought having both tanks run in lines and then spend some time in a 125 in the cool basement would have a positive effect on temperature but it has made no difference...

I wanted to stay away from a chiller but that might be my only option?

JIM

 

[DavidinGA]

The inexpensive knock-offs seriously lack spectrum - fine for a fish-only or softie tank. Not so great for an SPS or anemone tank.

"seriously lack spectrum"...quote a source to back this claim up.

So you think only really expensive led units have more complete spectrum diodes in them....???

 

[anbosu]

Thanks for the reply,

I have screen backs on both and because they are high up, I drilled large holes with a hole saw on the top of each. I guess my only option is a chiller? The only issue is that is more power consumption, more parts to break down, etc etc. I really thought having both tanks run in lines and then spend some time in a 125 in the cool basement would have a positive effect on temperature but it has made no difference...

I wanted to stay away from a chiller but that might be my only option?

JIM

I would look into some exhaust fans for your canopies. You can pick them up pretty cheap, typically. Since I use an LED/T5 combo I don't have an issue with heat, but I've set them up in the past and I would definitely look into blowing the hot air out of the canopy before investing in a chiller.

 

[autodave]

I have been running a Radion Pro (G1) for 3yrs now, one of the best decisions I have made.

 

[dkeller_nc]

I would look into some exhaust fans for your canopies. You can pick them up pretty cheap, typically. Since I use an LED/T5 combo I don't have an issue with heat, but I've set them up in the past and I would definitely look into blowing the hot air out of the canopy before investing in a chiller.

Yeah, this. Active exhaust venting is generally the most effective way to remove heat as long as the room temperature is reasonable. It also helps with evaporation, as (approximately speaking), evaporating 1 gallon of water per day from reef tank is the equivalent of removing 200 watts of heat accumulation.

 

[jlnielsen13]

Yeah, this. Active exhaust venting is generally the most effective way to remove heat as long as the room temperature is reasonable. It also helps with evaporation, as (approximately speaking), evaporating 1 gallon of water per day from reef tank is the equivalent of removing 200 watts of heat accumulation.

Yeah,

I have 2 fans in each canopy, radioshak large computer type fans... Maybe I need something better.

In the summer we have the thermostat set at 78 degrees as the coolest we want it due to energy concerns and our dislike of air conditioning which I know is a big part of the issue!!

Thanks,
JIM