Before and After....

revhtree · Feb 20, 2018

SchnitzelReef said:
It’s really hard to get a good FTS of my tank since it’s 8’ wide. This pic is 6+ months old.

This is beautiful!

Abhishek · Feb 20, 2018

SchnitzelReef said:
It’s really hard to get a good FTS of my tank since it’s 8’ wide. This pic is 6+ months old.

I wanted to ask you - how did you get this look with so many blue plus bulbs ? Looks dang amazing !!!
Or was it a different bulb combo ?

Regards,
Abhishek

solitude127 · Feb 20, 2018

Looks good Schnitz. If you ever frag that gold torch, lmk, we'll trade for the PM.

SchnitzelReef · Feb 20, 2018

Abhishek said:
I wanted to ask you - how did you get this look with so many blue plus bulbs ? Looks dang amazing !!!
Or was it a different bulb combo ?

Regards,
Abhishek

That pic was taken with 6 blue 1 coral 1 purple and all blue Reefbrite XHO.
It’s not as blue as you would think.

SchnitzelReef · Feb 20, 2018

solitude127 said:
Looks good Schnitz. If you ever frag that gold torch, lmk, we'll trade for the PM.

I don’t think I’ll ever frag the torch. That’s 5 years of growth. Hahaha
only SPS are on the chopping block.

jwells77 · Feb 20, 2018

Tank looks great. I based my rock work on yours when I moved and reset up my tank. Just waiting for it grow in.

implusebuy · Mar 1, 2018

Amazing tank. I have radion gen4 pros now and thinking of going back to T5. I have a canopy as well. Did you
Mount the fixture inside your canopy and how far is it off the waterline?

Water Dog · Mar 1, 2018

Yeah, I just sold my AP700 and picked up an ATI Sunpower. Schnitzel’s and Big E’s tanks have definitely inspired me... absolutely stunning!

SchnitzelReef · Mar 2, 2018

implusebuy said:
Amazing tank. I have radion gen4 pros now and thinking of going back to T5. I have a canopy as well. Did you
Mount the fixture inside your canopy and how far is it off the waterline?

Yea you wouldn’t be the first to switch from Radions to T5s. It seems like for every 1 successful Radion SPS tank, there are 20 nice T5 SPS tanks.

ATIs are mounted to my canopy using hooks. I just put the cable inside the hook. They are 11-12” off the water.

SchnitzelReef · Mar 2, 2018

Water Dog said:
Yeah, I just sold my AP700 and picked up an ATI Sunpower. Schnitzel’s and Big E’s tanks have definitely inspired me... absolutely stunning!

Awesome, Love to hear it! I think ATI should make me their spokesman. [emoji23][emoji23]

DarkSky · Mar 10, 2018

SchnitzelReef said:
Awesome, Love to hear it! I think ATI should make me their spokesman. [emoji23][emoji23]

Schnitzel, how many radions did you have above the tank before making the switch?

SchnitzelReef · Mar 10, 2018

DarkSky said:
Schnitzel, how many radions did you have above the tank before making the switch?

5 gen 3s

I also had 6 retrofit 80w T5s staggered (my tank is 8’). 3 in front of the Radions, and 3 behind them.
Looking back I should have done 12-54w bulbs. But then it’s like the Radions became the supplement light to the T5s. I figured might as well sell all the lights I had and start over with ATI fixtures, which is exactly what I did.

DarkSky · Mar 10, 2018

SchnitzelReef said:
5 gen 3s

I also had 6 retrofit 80w T5s staggered (my tank is 8’). 3 in front of the Radions, and 3 behind them.
Looking back I should have done 12-54w bulbs. But then it’s like the Radions became the supplement light to the T5s. I figured might as well sell all the lights I had and start over with ATI fixtures, which is exactly what I did.

Sounds like you needed more! I'm doing a 6'*30" 220g build, and trying to decide on light. To get comparable coverage and PAR compared to an 8 bulb 60" ATI, I calculated that I would need 12 XR15s (XR15s over XR30s better depth coverage). $4800 in XR15s vs $900 for the ATI plus bulbs...

SchnitzelReef · Mar 10, 2018

DarkSky said:
Sounds like you needed more! I'm doing a 6'*30" 220g build, and trying to decide on light. To get comparable coverage and PAR compared to an 8 bulb 60" ATI, I calculated that I would need 12 XR15s (XR15s over XR30s better depth coverage). $4800 in XR15s vs $900 for the ATI plus bulbs...

Correct. I was in between adding 2 more Radions, so that I had a total of 7, or buying 2-4’ ATI fixtures. I was gunna have a total of $5k in Radions that I wasn’t even sure I would be happy with. That’s when I made the decision to ditch them all together. I sold all my Radions and retrofit T5s and bought brand new ati fixtures and Reefbrites, and I still had money left over. Putting enough Radions to properly light large SPS tanks is extremely expensive, and I don’t believe the extra price is worth it. :/

Tahoe61 · Apr 18, 2018

How is the tank doing? Would love to see an update.

Norcalreef · Apr 18, 2018

Some people just like to argue, seems like there’s at least one on every good thread. People hate to see others win. And you’re definitely winning.
I had originally bought a Radion G4 for my tank and realized I could buy a used car for what it was going to cost me to light with just radions. Been adding more time to the t5s now. It’s crazy how fast consumption has increased.