Need opinions on led lights

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danb73

New member
I just set up a 30 gallon breeder reef tank with the intention of growing LPS and soft corals. I currently have a Fluval sea marine light that I used previously that can barely grow softies but has a good spread throughout the tank. Ok, now for the question....I have $200 to spend on lights and am looking at the following options.
Kessil A360we - 2 years old $175
Radion Gen 2 - not sure exactly how old but they came out in 2012, $200.
AI Prime - New $200
Keep in mind I will be supplementing these with the flu all lights so I should get full coverage with one fixture. Any advice or opinions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance
 
They’re all great and reputable lights so it’s more of a preference. The Radion can be upgraded so that’s a plus over the other two
 
I agree that's why it's such a tough choice. The Radion's go for $650 new so it would seem like a no brainer but they are probably close to 8 years old which adds some serious risk. The AI Prime is probably an inferior light but being new I can expect at least 4 or 5 years of good use. Owning a Radion would be pretty cool though....lol.
 
Plenty of decent cheap led fixtures out there that will work for you and you can get beams new for that price fyi. I have ran ocean revive lights on multiple tanks for years. Great coverage and you can grow anything with them. I have used them on heavy dominated sps tanks and very mixed reef tank with a bit of everything
 
The 3' length makes it tough.

I believe all three of the lights are about 18"x18" spread. You could hang them high and crank them up.

Are you supplementing with t5? That helps. Maybe add more T5s instead of LED? There are bigger LED fixtures with more spread. Or maybe a black box, in this case, would actually be better than the name brand fixtures. I believe lots of folks run 40 breeders with black boxes, like marsaqua or viparspectra
 
I might supplement with the fluval marine 30" fixture. I know it's not great but working together with either the AI prime or the radion it might work. I might even just use the blues on the fluval. Thanks for your response I appreciate everyone's suggestions.
 
If the Radion is an xr30 it will have the most coverage of those options. You’ll probably need to raise it up or be limited in coral placement.
 
I use Visparspectra 165w for my tank as I could not afford $1000 in lights.
Instead I paid $200, and after three years, super happy with results.
Supports my 6 clams, SPS and Acros. No special effects or WiFi but my corals don't care.
 
Michael Hoaster said:
My opinion on LED lights is that they are inadequate, over-priced and unnatural-looking.
Click to expand...

What do you mean by unnatural looking?

I'm using Red Seas ReefLED 90 on my tank. This light gives a great shimmer and I can change the color to anything I want. I don't think it was expensive either.
 
nereefpat said:
To puts words in his mouth, he's probably referring to the disco ball effect, or the heavy blue look, or both.
Click to expand...


The lack of metal halide like shimmer was a complaint of T-5s.

This LED definitely has shimmer.

As for too blue. You can change the color to anything want.

For me 15K is too white and 20K is too blue.

I have my LEDs set at a custom color temperature. You couldn't buy a bulb this exact color if you wanted to. You could probably mix bulbs and get close. But how many bulbs would you have to experiment with before you got it right?

I can open the app on my phone and change the color from anywhere. Or photoperiod. Or add clouds. Whatever I want.

Other light systems just can't compare to LEDs.
 
aquaman67 said:
The lack of metal halide like shimmer was a complaint of T-5s.

This LED definitely has shimmer.

As for too blue. You can change the color to anything want.
Click to expand...

"Disco ball effect" doesn't refer to lack of shimmer.

I'm not here to debate MH v LED v T5. You asked what he meant by "unnatural." Many folks that run LEDs have them too blue, and they have the disco ball look of non-blended, different colored spots of lights that look like a seizure. That is what was meant by "unnatural."
 
If you ever go diving, anything other than MH looks unnatural to one extent or another.


I’m not sure that natural is a benchmark that many people are shooting for.
 
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