Finally making the switch to LED - Maxspect Razor

[mikeoif08]

I've been pondering to switch to LED on my main display tank at home for awhile now. Initially when I downsized to a 40B from a 125 when I moved I thought LED lighting would be affordable now. Come to find out with AI or Ecotech fixtures I would most likely need 2 fixtures since just 1 would cause some shadowing. So I just decided to hold off and keep my quad T5HO thinking one day to DIY a hybrid fixture of T5/LED.

Yesterday while surfing ebay, I saw Premium Aquatics was having a sale on the Maxpect Razor R420r 27" 160w 16k for $459.00 from $509.00 (Still going on and its also on there website). I was like that's a great deal and one fixture would actually cover my tank! Then I saw a LFS store demo Ecotech Radion G2 Pro that was $499 with only a year of use!! Which was also very tempting.

It took me about 8 hours to finally make a decision on what I wanted. I decided that the Maxspect Razor was a better bang for the buck since it's mostly XT-E leds and comes with 2 mounting options already in the box. Another thought was when I finally go back to a 6 foot tank I will only need to purchase 1 more razor fixture for great coverage. The ecotech I'd need like 2 additional plus mounting equipment. Now yes I don't have advanced features like cloud cover, thunderstorms, moonlight phases, or 7 channels of control. Which is fine, since I wont be pulling an all nighter to watch moon phases. Also Paypal offered 6 months no payments no interest which compelled me to pull the trigger now.

I'll post a pic once I receive it. :rollface:

 

[mikeoif08]

Well finally got the Razor going. In the picture I attached the corals aren't fully out yet, I'm trying to go slowly in acclimating them. I used my Seneye PAR reader to test what my T5HOs were putting out and wanted to start the LEDs around that output. It only takes 35% of the razor to match my quad T5HO's.

So far I like them. I may swap the lenses out for the 120 degree lenses. Just because the corners of the tank are a little dim. I could also raise the fixture as well, but I'll wait until I have the intensity where I want it before I do anything else.

I included a picture of my new hybrid Canary Snail too!! Thought that was pretty cool my laziness paid off by not promptly removing dead turbo snails. Every time I walk past my tank he's in it chilling just waiting for some food to float by. :spin1:

 

[Travenous]

Hey Mike, I have a Razor fixture as well and have been using it for the past year and half or so. I, like you, had issues with the spread over the tank using the tank mounting kit. I researched the 120 optics and apparently they cut your LED intensity by about 25%! Needless to say, that didn't make them very popular with many folks. I ended up raising mine to get the better spread and can say so far I've been very pleased with that approach. Good luck dialing things in.

 

[mikeoif08]

Thank you for the tip Travenous. I realized that it would cut PAR, but didn't realize the 120s would cut it down my 25%. I've thought about trying to just replace the end LED clusters and keeping the center 90 degrees. My biggest concern is my cat jumping on the the lights and crashing them into the tank lol. Which is the reason I didn't start out with hanging them. I have c hooks on the tank mounts plus the velcro it included. It seems very sturdy this way. I may give the hanging kit a try this weekend.

 

[TremontReefer]

Hey guys, I got a Razor about a month ago because my Kessil caused to many shadows. Tank is mostly sps. Can you share your settings? I'm trying to dial it in.

 

[mikeoif08]

Hey guys, I got a Razor about a month ago because my Kessil caused to many shadows. Tank is mostly sps. Can you share your settings? I'm trying to dial it in.

Here's the setting I have for the 16k Razor so far:

TP1: 0900 0% / 1%
TP2: 1030 20% / 20%
TP3: 1230 40% / 35%
TP4: 1930 40% / 35%
TP5: 2100 20% / 20%
TP6: 2230 0% / 1%

I'm going to raise it by 5% a week, and I have channel A slightly higher the channel B because at the same % it was a little too blue for me.