Long term(1+ years) radions only experiences?

[Ssteve]

Big fan of T5's for sps. But really kicking around trying some radions for my next build as it seems like there's lots of people with them on great tanks.


So.... How long have you had them? Was your tank established with them? What model do you have? Have you ever upgraded them? What's your overall experience with them Vs whatever else you have used.

Most importantly. Let's see a fts please.

 

[rovster]

My tank has been running for a little over a year. I started with all small pieces and frags but I did have a crash a few months in that wiped out nearly all my SPS. I restarted with acros about seven months ago with all new tiny frags and a few of my pieces that survive the crash.

I started with three G2 pros and a few months ago added a fourth. Shortly after I added to T5's not because I was unhappy with the color or growth but because I'm a tinkerer and I'd like to squeeze all I can out of things. If I'm being honest I haven't really noticed a difference in color or growth since adding the T5's although the visual appearance of the tank looks much more well lit which I'm not sure I prefer.

This was 13 months ago...


This was 2 months after my crash shortly before adding new small frags (February)..



Three months later after adding the fourth radios. Noticed a huge difference after this (May)



End of May



Added t5 in June



End of July



iPhone video in August



Currently going through an all funk because of 2 months of bad Hanna all reagent. So yet another setback. During the year I had 1 major sps crash, a major funk, and 2 minor funks where I had issues with stn and poor health but tank is still kicking. Looks like crap to my eyes now but I've had a few reefers come over recently for frags and they think it looks amazing lol.

I'd be happy to post progression shots too.

My last tank was halide with blue led. My take on it is growth is about even for me, although my new tank is 120 gal and my last was 30. Color was about 10-15% better with the halide but by no means is my tank colorless.

Hope this helps...

 

[Leopardshark]

Tagging along.

 

[CJBuckeyes]

i have a similar story to rovster in that I started with radions and added t5's. I had a g2 radion on my tank for about 2 years with good growth, but poor color and poor spread. I upgraded my pucks a few months ago to g3 pros, and my color started to improve.

The best improvement that I saw was when I added two t5's to my radion (ati b+ & c+). The color improvement was really noticeable after a few weeks. The pic of my current setup is attached.

I just started a new tank and went with a cebu t5 + MH.

 

[rovster]

Did you have the G2 Pro? It seems those that have the Pros either G2 or G3 seem to report better results with SPS specifically. I don't think it matters for other corals as much. Not that you can't do it with G1 or non pros. I think water quality is #1, and getting the proper spread is #2 but #2 is REALLY important.

I noticed that when I had the 3, everything that was within the Radions looked great, and the stuff outside looked meh. That's why I added the fourth. My tank is pretty much wall to wall acro, and I wanted ALL of them to look great, LOL!

 

[M007]

It would seem manufacturers ratings in terms of coverage never quite makes the grade. The Mitras I was running was supposed to cover 24x24 but in my situation, 84x28x24, 4 units was the only way I could make it work.

 

[CJBuckeyes]

Did you have the G2 Pro?

I was running the standard g2 before I upgraded to the g3 pro. The g3 pro plus t5 accents is getting close to respectable coloration. I'm very curious to see how the same corals react to the radiums/cebu once I get the new tank up and running.

 

[rovster]

In my experience, assuming all other factors equal, the radiums just make the corals pop more. Tips are ever so slightly more colored, colors are just a touch more vibrant, etc. It's subtle but if you know what you're looking at its noticeable.

That said corals under led under good water conditions can look great and far better than corals under halide under marginal conditions. I think that goes without saying but you get a lot of people blaming LED for problems they have nothing to do with...,

A few before and afters...

 

[Ssteve]

After looking at about a billion tanks, the one thing I have noticed is that LED only tanks always lack the really vibrant reds and oranges. I haven't seen a single example of a led ONLY tank that has a solid mix of really great colors. Seems like blues and green flourish, but a lot of the deeper purples, reds, and oranges are seriously lacking over time. I have also noticed there's a whole lot of people who have run led's with success that report much much better coloration with T5's added.

So I think I might just stick with a ati 8 bulb and throw a couple kessils on it for some shimmer, like I did before.

 

[rovster]

I'll admit my reds are nothing to brag about. Blues are incredible as well as greens. So yeah, there's one trade off lol