supplement radion pro with t5

[Dashiki]

has anyone tried this? I am thinking of adding 2 or 4 bulbs to my 24x24 cube. I have two reasons first is to add lumens so the tank is brighter and the second is to fill shadows and reduce the pinpoint light that led's provide.

[Dashiki]

what bulbs would you suggest?

[rtparty]

For 2 bulbs, 2 blue plus. For 4, 2 blue and 2 coral plus.

[R.ahlskog]

The par values that the radion pros hit do not need anything else. If anything u should be careful not to turn the radion up to much or u will burn ur coral.

[R.ahlskog]

Sorry to say but I would spend ur money on something else. Don't think this will help ur tank.

[4bruceinc]

This is only a suggestion. If the Radion was sold, the ATI hybrid would seem to give you the best of both - leds and T5s. It may also be more aesthetically pleasing.

[4bruceinc]

About the two or four bulb combo, i believe some with the four bulb ati hybrid are using 2 ati blues and 2 ati actinics.

[asylumdown]

The only reason I could see you doing this would be to reduce shadows. I think you'll find that most people who run ay of the radion (gen 1 through pro) end up having to turn them down considerably from max power if they've got the recommended number of lights for the footprint. I've got 8 Gen 1s on a 6'x3' by 27 inch deep tank (two more than the recommended) and I can't grow chalices or most super fleshy LPS (open brains, etc.) at 75% max intensity. My lights only hit all channels at 100%, 75% intensity for 3 hours a day, and while my shallow water, high energy SPS go crazy, my LPS bleach out, sometimes to death.

I tried bumping them up to 80% max intensity for 3 hours a day, and it was almost 3 months recovering from all the burning...

[Dashiki]

Like I said I'm not looking to add par.

I have two goals lumens and reduce shadows.

My tank looks darker than I want it to be and my lights burn corals over 50%

[sirreal63]

Your plan is a good one, stick with it, it will help even things out and do what you want.

[Wills612]

Your plan is a good one, stick with it, it will help even things out and do what you want.

x2, plan to do the same thing with my AI vegas, add a t-5 in front and behind my vegas. Im leaning toward 2 blue plus bulbs.

[heritage]

I don't have the radion but I added 2 t5 for supplement. I went with a blue plus and true actininc.

[BluberryReefer]

I did something similar by supplementing AI Sol blues with 2 t5 vho bulbs. I think you will like the results for the goals you have.

My goal was to add spectrum, so I initially I tried a coral plus and a fiji purple. Coral colors improved but made my tank a bit too pink looking.

So i swapped the fiji purple for a UVI super Actinic bulb. Tank now looks good with balanced white and blue...I like the overall color. Also with this combination the coral colors pop even when the t5 bulbs go off (I use the t5 to supplement the daytime lights).

Also I believe my corals are also growing faster. I have mostly sps but have some lps and softies.

After getting a few recommendations you might want to try different combos to see what you like best.

[Dashiki]

Is the aquaticlife 2 bulb fixture any good? Thinking of two of these since I don't have a hood.

[BluberryReefer]

I don't own those but haven't read anything bad about them. I hear they don't come with good bulbs, so you should swap out the bulbs for some better quality ones like ATI.

[ColtonMeng]

I was running a 38'' deep 220 gal. with 5 orphek PR-156 panels and still bleaching out my corals. I swapped three of the fixtures out, removed the optics and added two-two bulb 80W 60'' T5 fixtures.

What was decent growth has gone bonanza, and all of the corals that I thought were colored up have significantly increased in color intensity. Those that were bleached are fully back and roaring in color.

I know the debate on LED vs. T5 vs. MH is endless, but for my case supplementation of T5 seems to have really made my tank pop, for what it's worth.

Thanks,

Colton

[dunc101]

I agree with what rtparty suggested as I have done something similar. Instead of radions, however, I have 2 of the 120 watt Maxspect Razors over my 90 gallon. I too thought the LED's were a little dark so I added 2 T5's later to add 2 more for a total of 4. I currently have 3 blue+ and 1 purple+ (I had these bulbs laying around). When I replace I will either do 2 blue+ and 2 coral + or 3 blue + and 1 coral+. To my eyes, the T5's "made" the tank. It now "looks" twice as bright to my eyes as it did with just the LED's and has a 20k blue look to the tank now.

[vmacisback]

I have 4 80w t5s paired with my 2 radion pros. 2 blue plus and 2 actinic.

[TRENT_G]

I have 4 80w t5s paired with my 2 radion pros. 2 blue plus and 2 actinic.

any feed back on color or growth? How long have you been running this combo?

[Big E]

I was running a 38'' deep 220 gal. with 5 orphek PR-156 panels and still bleaching out my corals. I swapped three of the fixtures out, removed the optics and added two-two bulb 80W 60'' T5 fixtures.

What was decent growth has gone bonanza, and all of the corals that I thought were colored up have significantly increased in color intensity. Those that were bleached are fully back and roaring in color.

I know the debate on LED vs. T5 vs. MH is endless, but for my case supplementation of T5 seems to have really made my tank pop, for what it's worth.

Thanks,

Colton

That's great Colton...........I helped Colton with his changes and have worked with another friend of mine that has Radion Gen 2.

He's running 4 T5's and just recently told me about his colors and growth being much better. Right now he's using 2 antinics and 2 Coral+.
He's got his Radion blues at 100% and the white, red and green in the teens.

His biggest problem was he had some corals that were bleached, some pooh brown, and others that looked spectacular. You could visually see the un-eveness and lack of certain colors.

Now he's getting the 420nm from the antinics and the Coral+ and gets more than enough white from the Coral+ and the Radion at 20% or less.

The Radions can create some vicious hot spots with especially the whites turned up too high. Directly under the discs are 200+ higher par than 6" or so to either side.

His tank looks terrible and dark without the T5's. I don't know why the reluctance for people to supplement LEDs......they need it. We have done this for years with halides to fill in the missing spectrum or give a fuller aesthetic look.

[Ssteve]

I'll be doing the same with kessil 350's and after talking with a few people, I think LEDs usually lack in the low 400nm range and T5's can really help out there. I'll be running ati blue plus and actinics but only for a few hours mid day and being extra careful when acclimating the corals to the lights. I'll start in 30min increments and bump up 30min a week.