LED light and coral colors

[mling]

When you visit a LFS, the lighting they have on their frag display is optimized to best display the colors of the frags, particularly the Zoas. So I am a little tired of buying what I think is a really cool looking colored Zoa and then bring it home and find that it does not look anything like what I saw at the LFS with my lights (LED - blue and white). It only looks that way with only the blue LEDs on, i.e. moon light.

Before I spend the big bucks on a milti channel LED light with different colors, it is true that with such an LED light I can adjust the intensity of the colors to effectively change how Zoas and other corals appear in my tank ?

I am thinking of getting the Radion XR30w Pro G2 (http://ecotechmarine...on/radion-xr30w) to work with my Apex.
I am an Apex newbie but I know Apex has a "profile" for the Radion.

I would appreciate other suggestions for an Apex compatible LED with multi channels.

My DT is an oceanic 156G.

 

[Browndawg80]

I run the xr30w G3 pros over my tank and love them. All of my corals have excellent colors especially my zoas. Most of my zoas are in the bottom third of a 30" deep and they are growing nicely. I also control them through my apex via the WXM module which is super easy to use.

 

[Perth_reefer]

When you visit a LFS, the lighting they have on their frag display is optimized to best display the colors of the frags, particularly the Zoas. So I am a little tired of buying what I think is a really cool looking colored Zoa and then bring it home and find that it does not look anything like what I saw at the LFS with my lights (LED - blue and white). It only looks that way with only the blue LEDs on, i.e. moon light.

Before I spend the big bucks on a milti channel LED light with different colors, it is true that with such an LED light I can adjust the intensity of the colors to effectively change how Zoas and other corals appear in my tank ?

I am thinking of getting the Radion XR30w Pro G2 (http://ecotechmarine...on/radion-xr30w) to work with my Apex.
I am an Apex newbie but I know Apex has a "profile" for the Radion.

I would appreciate other suggestions for an Apex compatible LED with multi channels.

My DT is an oceanic 156G.

AI Hydra52s are also Apex ready and can be wirelessly controlled using an AWM. Just a little word of warning though that adjusting LEDs to what 'looks nice' can have a negative impact on coral growth. A lot of people who ditch LEDs to go back to MH complain about the lack of growth, this is most likely because you can adjust LEDs to colour spectrums that do not exist in nature and so while it may look nice to you, it may not be in the best interests of coral health.
I can't speak for the Radions but the Hydra52s have preset values on the Apex interface for different colour temperatures, so you can just click a button and have 10k or 14k or 20k depending on what you want. I run 10k in the morning (best for growth), 14k for the majority of the day and 20k late afternoon/early evening when I'm home from work (best for colour). But as far as LED lighting goes both the Hydra52 and Radion are mid range lighting units so you will definitely get good growth and colour from them if they are set up correctly.

 

[mcfa2403]

I second kenpau, I run a hydra 52 setup with kessil supplementation. I configure it so for 6 hours when I am typically not home the light runs up to something around a 10k look but when I'm home its around 20k. Hydra 52 and Radion G3 are eerily similar even though I believe they were both produced before AI and Ecotech merged. Either way the customer service is now identical. Both fixtures will grow, I want to say that Radions are ahead as far as interfacing with the Apex per reports and assumption based on Radions having been around longer (Gen 2 are closer to Gen 3 than hydra 1st gen are to 52s).

The Radions push a little more power but have a large external ballast to achieve this. Personally I prefer the color combo of the Radion especially with the added yellow, but the spectral graph of the two is close to identical. With either light you will need 3 fixtures to grow whatever you want and in the end the $200 price difference per fixture swayed me as the differences were too minuscule to justify.

Just went back and saw you wrote the Gen 2 radion, in this case I would definitely go with the hydra 52.

 

[FSUwxman]

AI Hydra 52 all the way.