I am down on my Radions back to Halide?
 

I cannot get growth, color, thickness out of these radions...
I have (4) 30's over a 200 custom
previously ran 3 400 radiums w/ 4x80w t5 actinics and got WAY better everything....

Anyone else?

I plan on running 5 radions angled toward the coral from the front on a 96" x 36" tank, then 4 radiums directly overhead. Hoping to get the best of both worlds. We'll see.

maybe look into the settings on them? I know my boss had 3 of them on his 180 gallon reef and the corals grew like weeds. but he bought his direct from a very reputable pet store in lansing michgan and they guided him through the set up. after seeing what his lights did I would defintly use them.. "if" I could afford them

I think your issue is you are not comparing the same amount of light. The 4 radions could never compare with your previous lighting option. Comparing 680w to 1520w is simply not fair.

:facepalm:

Here we go again.

Those radions are defective.

Ship them to me and I will make sure they never do any evil again.

I forgot to add that you can make up some of that deficit by running a longer light cycle. What are the dimensions of the tank.

I agree with Gcaroll on this.. you had 3 x 400w radiums, and 4 x 80w T5s.

I don't think replacing them with 4 XR30s and expecting similar results is reasonable. I would suggest you would need 6 XR30s then you would have comparable lighting.

Which is very expensive! I think that the main issue a lot of people have with LEDs is they do not got enough to sufficiently replace their previous lighting.

It's hard to know for sure. Previously, I have been a vocal supporter of LED, yet in the 10 months since I dumped my HQI lights (plus some LED), in favor of just LED, my SPS has not done particularly well. In my case, it's hard to argue that it's an intensity/wattage problem. I accept that the issue may well be elsewhere, because there are plenty of examples of folks getting good results with LED, but I'm tempted (once the hot weather moves out) to reconnect the HQI lights just to see if there is any correlation to improved appearance and growth.

You absolutely can NOT compare MH, t5 and led light output by discussing wattage. You need a PAR meter.

I had 1000 watts of MH and 160 watts of t5 over my 180g sps & lps reef. I had 250 PAR at the sand when everything was on. Now I have 198 leds spread over 2 fixtures with 480 watts of drivers running at roughly 75% power and I get 200 PAR at the sand (which is the PAR I want).

I'm not a big fan of Radions (I did own one for 18 months). But other people love them, so they must work reasonable well. I just didn't want to use my laptop to adjust my lighting. Now I use much less expensive Chinese leds and my corals grow just as good as they did under MH & t5. My take is, you have other issues. But first, I'd get my hands on a PAR meter and actually test what your fixtures are producing.

I thought I read led par measurements were a wash...

It depends on the spectrum of the led. Most par meters do a poor job of measuring accurately once you approach 420 nm.


Edit. Look at kessils for instance. They have 3 emitters in their cluster that are in the 385-395 nm range. Most meters don't even register at that wavelength.

not enough lighting. I have 3 xr30 on my 150 and i'm tempted to add a 4th. dimension 48x30.

ecotech lied to us when they said 1 is suffice for the coverage they recommended. either you turn it all the way up and burned the center or the rest won't receive enough lighting.

it is what it is.

+1000000000

How can you compare the two?? And LEDs really do work, that has been proven.

those that said LED is working for them that is because they only have been using the light for a short time. they probably just switch from either MH or T5 to Radion for just a short time and did not see any wrong with it. and they claim that a success.
Those nice looking SPS tanks on the web that are lid by LED most of them are not very real.
I see way way too many sps lovers going back to T5 or MH while others are supplementing T5 to their LED.

Not going to get into a flame war but these comments are completely false and hinders new people in this hobby to make the right decisions. LEDs aren't for everyone's wallet but they grow corals just fine.

Bahahahhahahah

Budies tank all grown with LEDs since he set up back in 2011! Get it together people, LEDs can rock some coral growth and colors!

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/sh...177723&page=13

I'm a halide guy through and through btw, but I don't have my head up my return pump :lolspin:

:lol: I had to upvote this. :lol:

The people that say it CAN'T work sound like conspirators.

Well im not sure if you ment it this way but leds are not the only right way. Sure leds grow coral but then again so does vho, pc's, t5ho's, and mh's.

You thinking too deep into it brah. never did I say leds is the only light. It's not for everyone for sure.

I didnt think you did so sorry :D im also half asleep lol

if you want to sell those radions let me know, I'd buy them.. I know very well what they are capable of.. the free fish I get from selling corals to my lfs tells me they can grow stuff like crazy

ok, so if you buy more units then compare 1520w of led, where is the advantage?