Lighting

@Jay - now THAT I understood :) lol - Keep posting updates, your corals are amazing.
@Defuse - I am wondering if I am getting ENOUGH light - I lost my Derasa clam about a month ago and I am wondering if lighting was a factor? It did very well for several months, I placed in an are that got alot of light. My tank is deep and everything I read said to place the Derasa on the sand bed so it could attach to the bottom of the tank..
This is the MOST Frustrating and Enjoyable hobby ever! :) ok, well off to find coffee and get this work day started.. Work is seriously interfering with my reefing education. :) You all have a great day!!!
 
I use the 10k version of kessils on frag system and xm20k on main tank. My biggest question with the leds are controling all these different light settings, I mean I have no idea what the color spectrum for optimum coral color and growth, thats for a light scientist not a paint scientist to figure out. Never understood all that green, red, blue stuff anyway just looks to me like a extra way to mess up your corals. All the light changeing such as taking a coral from a super bright bright sytem to all of a sudden actinic dim system while trying to set it to your likeing could be shocking to the coral. I do like the energy and heat savings aspect just dont think its quite as good as halides yet. I will just deal with the summers of filling top off bucket till they figure it all out. My $.02 Love watching all the talk about it though!
 
The key to LEDs is control. I've tried too many knock offs and landed with the AI Sols. I am very happy with them. I do think Halides are better but I won't buy any. The AIs are good enough for my mixed reef. I kind of like the cool bluefish color they provide. Don't buy LEDs that you cannot dim with a digital controller. The ability to control the intensity over time gives the LEDs an edge.
 
This is the question that caused me more thought with my new build than anything
Led's, T5's or back to MH.
I agree the look of the dual 20k 400 watt MH made my present tank look amazing while I was using them.
But one day about 5 months ago I was at my shop all day and most of the night and my chiller went out ad roasted my tank in one day.
At that point I got a controller and switched over to t5 but it was not even close to te look I wanted.
I started at that point reading up on the Led's and it is alot of info out there to ready through. alot of people our there talk highly about them and as you ready on down there post they all seem to have the same issues that Jay has pointed out in his posts.
So I decided to up grade my 6 bulb cheap fixture to a sun tek 8 bulb t5 fixture and went with giesemann bulbs and I have not looked back I have had some nice growth out of my sps in my tank.
On the new tank I am running 2 t5 fixtures with a total of 14 T5 bulbs
6 Aquablue +
3 Pure Actinic
4 Actinic +
1 Aqua Pink
I hope to pull off something between 15k to 20k look
With this setup. I will have 4 outlets on the apex set aside for light control.
 
That's where the controller comes in handy. To have it set to cut your lights off when you hit a certain water temp. It's saved my tank before when our a/c went out a couple of years ago.
 
insanityink2 said:
This is the question that caused me more thought with my new build than anything
Led's, T5's or back to MH.
I agree the look of the dual 20k 400 watt MH made my present tank look amazing while I was using them.
But one day about 5 months ago I was at my shop all day and most of the night and my chiller went out ad roasted my tank in one day.
At that point I got a controller and switched over to t5 but it was not even close to te look I wanted.
I started at that point reading up on the Led's and it is alot of info out there to ready through. alot of people our there talk highly about them and as you ready on down there post they all seem to have the same issues that Jay has pointed out in his posts.
So I decided to up grade my 6 bulb cheap fixture to a sun tek 8 bulb t5 fixture and went with giesemann bulbs and I have not looked back I have had some nice growth out of my sps in my tank.
On the new tank I am running 2 t5 fixtures with a total of 14 T5 bulbs
6 Aquablue +
3 Pure Actinic
4 Actinic +
1 Aqua Pink
I hope to pull off something between 15k to 20k look
With this setup. I will have 4 outlets on the apex set aside for light control.
Click to expand...

Yes, thats an idea - I could upgrade my T5 outfit - its only a 36 incher with 3 bulbs - I am using the geiseman bulbs (Memfish) 1 actinic and 2 aquablues -the color is better than it was but still not what I am looking for.. I will keep at - love reading about everyones experiences.. :reading:

I did buy a flexible moon light LED strip to run around the inside rim of the tank just for Shiz and Giggles - the corals look AWESOME under the light and my little bar goby is totally fascinated by it.. That lil guy LIGHTS UP with color under it. I just plugged it in and held it around the outside edge tonight to get an idea. I will get it installed this weekend when I do my maintenance.. :)

Well just got in from bike night on Beale - saw our Pres, Jay and the scooter crew while we were there :) Got a little two wheeled therapy and now I am gonna call it a day... Sleep well folks :)
 
Another consideration that should be brought up is TCO.

With T5's you are "supposed" to buy bulbs every 6-10 months and halides is every 12-15 iirc. LED's are exempt from that requirement which brings your TCO down after "x" amount of time. Granted with something like the Radion it is going to take 3-4 years for my TCO to be better than T5's/halides.
 
"They" say lots... IMO Radion haters are like iPhone haters... They mostly talk crap about what they "can't do or why this or that is better" until they get one. Then they see the "light" :)

I've seen amazing color and growth out of SPS in a 29 gallon tank with no skimmer, absent of all bells and whistles on most tanks. Simple Radion light, water changes (15% weekly), and Part 1 and 2 (spotty at that) are all that it has. Check out the Cardiff at Memfish.

With that said, run 250w Phoenix bulbs at home and I have great growth and I love them. I do have heat issues on really hot days but I am able to keep it under 80.5 with fans in the canopy and thermostat drop at the house (74 down to 73, 72 if bad).

I also have a tank lit by t5 and it cannot come close to the one with Halides, oddly in the closed hood it still gets warm (no fan). I hate that tank! Nothing in it but overgrown LPS, mushrooms, star polyps etc. It was meant to be a frag tank but it kills the color of any SPS that I put in there.

I do believe my next tank will still be MH with a few Radions in for light control and effects. MH for the crisp BA colors and fast growth will run for like 3-4 hours a day. Radions for everything else.
 
Seems like I saw a post on RC somewhere where it said most of the people showing success with Radions were on small tanks. Like <30g. I like the Radions, its a nice light. I think that I read they are coming out with an update soon as they have realized another spectrum is needed. Radions are one of the best on the market right now. But It would be hard for me to justify spending $800 per unit (on any unit, not just Radion) when they are about to make changes to it. Long LED bulb life sound great, like it did to me, but in reality, most of us will be changing lights before they go bad, or the LED fixture that we currently own/buy will be quickly outdated. LED advancements are going so fast right now, it would be tough to buy any LED that may be outdated in 6 months to a year. I thought AI Sols were going to be 'it' for me for years. AquaIlluminations told me the Sols have all the spectrum needed and that it was all I would need. Then they replace it with the Vega (different color and spectrum) less than a year later. Besides, LEDs may last 7-10 years, but how many tanks are in Memphis that have been set up for 7-10 years? Only a few. People change tank size, get out of the hobby, change lighting, etc. all the time. I doubt many folks will have the same LED fixture on their tank 7 years from now that they do right now. But maybe I'm wrong. I am a believer in LEDs, Ive owned them ,seen them, researched them, but have decided to wait a bit till the LED companies settle down a bit and figure out whats what before I buy another. Im sitting in MH for a bit. Maybe Ill see something new and exciting in LEDs at MACNA that I will need to buy, lol.
 
OneReef said:
More on one of Radions. LEDs are fast changing technology...

http://blog.captive-aquatics.com/ca...radion-xr30-led-light-a-swing-and-a-miss.html
Click to expand...

Funny - this person reviewed the Radion and made judgments on it without even having one. He also stated that the red and green LED's would do nothing but cause nuisance algaes. In my experience, that has not happened.

I agree that LED's are a fast changing technology, but so are computers and people still buy those everyday. It drives the manufacturers to make better products.
 
Richard you are right. My parents still don't own a camcorder after 10 years of looking cause prices are still dropping and they are always changing. They'll never buy one.....lol
 
I love the radion but dont like the windows based software when they work with a mac I am sure I will buy them for the new tank!!
as far as cost It would not have been much higher for me to go with LED when you figure the price of 2 large t5 fixtures and 14 new German bulbs for them.

I was in memfish last week and my better half fell in love with the deepblue 24x24x24 cube Richard has setting in there.
So richard when I finish this build I am Starting another and I have decided to go with the Radion over it and a pair of mp10wes.
I love the small Tank at memphis that has the radion over it the look is amazing. I have watched that tank for a while and I do have to say the growth in that tank is amazing.
 
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