Radion and Kessil TOGETHER?

Daniel Waters · Oct 31, 2017

I currently run multiple Kessil A360 with 4 bulbs of T5 (mostly to take care of shadowing). I need to add some additional units. Instead of getting more Kessils, I was contemplating throwing in a couple XR15s with my Kessils.

I'm not sure what the true benefit would be, but I thought the radions might offer more color options with their individual channels to allow me to tinker a bit more.

Has anyone done this and can comment on their experiences?

Crabs McJones · Oct 31, 2017

I don't know of anyone that uses the two led leaders together. Be interesting to see.

Cherub · Oct 31, 2017

seems odd, I would think the tank would look uneven. Might work idk...

Newb73 · Oct 31, 2017

The light blends Beautifully, just remember you'll need an odd to even ratio.....i added 3x Hydra 52s and 4x A360s
Kessil-Hydra-Hydra-Kessil-Hydra-Kessil

.....and then realized to do it right I needed.

Kessil-hydra-kessil-hydra-kessil-hydra-kessil.

......my 4th A360 arrives Thursday....ill have 7 units on a 6ft tank.

You can dial in pretty much dial in what ever colors and PAR you need.

Newb73 · Oct 31, 2017

It is uneven in the image cause Im missing a Kessil above and the Hydras are at like 4% at the moment...lol

The par graft above from today is also whack cause I had my Hydras turned off all morning so it's showing a schedule it wasn't running on but you can see when I switched them on (you get the point).

Here is an image from earlier today when the Hydras were on...

HB AL · Oct 31, 2017

Why not, I say go for it and report back

Bronx19 · Nov 1, 2017

Do the Kessils remove any disco ball?

Newb73 · Nov 1, 2017

Bronx19 said:
Do the Kessils remove any disco ball?

The Hydras don't disco ball as bad as radions do in the first place but the Kessil smooth it out to nearly the bare minimum.

It's the next best thing to T5s w Your radions but requires a lot of units.

In my case I have no more than just a few inches between each LED

mcarroll · Nov 1, 2017

Daniel Waters said:
I'm not sure what the true benefit would be, but I thought the radions might offer more color options with their individual channels to allow me to tinker a bit more.

You're correct. Corals hate tinkering.

Newb73 · Nov 1, 2017

mcarroll said:
You're correct. Corals hate tinkering.

You don't "tinker" you dial in the spectrum based on the AB+ coral farms settings...through a par meter in and dial in your power settings throughout the day and.....DONE.

mcarroll · Nov 1, 2017

Newb73 said:
You don't "tinker" you dial in the spectrum based on the AB+ coral farms settings...through a par meter in and dial in your power settings throughout the day and.....DONE.

Don't tell me – tell all the tinkerers!!

Daniel Waters · Nov 12, 2017

I just wanted to do an update in case anyone comes across this thread in the future. I added two radion G4 xr15 pro's to my 4 Kessil A360s on my 6 foot tank. I have them spaced as Kessil, radion, Kessil, Kessil radion, and Kessil. Here are my observations. I run my lights fairly high off the water, so the spread on the xr15s covers most of the tank where I have them placed. I run the AB+ program, which is close to the color blend I was at on my kessils. Thus, I believe the color blends pretty well between the different units and is not a concern (or I know I could adjust my color on either units to get the color very similar). The radion shimmer does have noticeably more disco ball than the kessils. I think the kessils make it less noticeable, but if you're very sensitive to color separation, this might be an issue. I run 4 bulbs of t5 also, so the color separation and shimmer gets muted greatly when my t5s are on anyway. Overall, I have been pleased. The radion xr15s are more powerful than my Kessil a360s from a par standpoint (comparing one unit to one unit), and I have enjoyed the controllability through my phone app with the reef link. I run a canopy so the mismatch of units is not an issue from an aesthetic point of view. The mix and match approach has worked well for me, as I have been to keep my older kessil lights and seamlessly add in some newer units that I needed to support my acro lighting needs.

Hairmetal89 · Jul 10, 2019

Waters-
I know this is an old thread.. hopefully it finds you. I have an AP700 and 4 bulbs of T5 on a 120. I am considering adding another AP700 (slide existing to evenly space the 2) or one XR15 Radion on both ends of the AP700. All these forums and commercial SPS companies (WWC, etc.) use radions and I feel like I may be missing potential. Are you still running this setup? Whats the 18 month review?
Thanks!

Daniel Waters · Jul 10, 2019

@Hairmetal89

I sold my radions, as I went to a 6 bulb T5 fixture that I run in the middle of the tank, and I now have 4 kessil A360s on articulating mounts for my LED coverage. My change was purely from a desire to go with more T5 coverage as my main lighting and use the LEDs more for supplementation, whereas before I was more LED heavy.

I'm not familiar with the AP700 as far as personally running it, but I'm familiar with its specs. Comparing an AP700 to two radion XR15s, I would say both setups have plenty of power. Comparing an XR15 to a kessil A360 for instance, I would say the xr15 is definitely more of a par producer. The AP700 has more power than 2 kessil A360s. Given your tank setup and lighting combination already, I can't imagine that you are as concerned about lots more par output as you are about getting more distribution (but I'm guessing). Either approach you go with is going to be fine for distribution also in my opinion, though.

The differences i think come down to a few areas: if you are not running a canopy, aesthetically it might look less sleek with a mix and match of units. I'm a little OCD about things like that, but I run a canopy so it's a non-issue anyway. Visually, the radions are going to have a little disco ball unless you are running diffusers on them. It's not bad, but it does not blend the light as uniformly as kessil. You may or may not notice this depending on how sensitive you are to these things. Lastly, the radions do have some nice violet channels and their royal blue channels are excellent from what I remember. So visually I like what the radions can do, especially when using them for dawn / dusk. Newer kessils like the 360x have the violet added in, but the older AP700 I do not believe has those LEDs. I don't think it's an issue from a spectrum / coral health viewpoint, but just pointing out that I did like the radions better in that regard. Lastly, you might need a Reef link for your radions, so that might be a consideration (a little extra cost + one more thing to power and find a spot for).

Hope that helps.

Hairmetal89 · Aug 11, 2019

Waters- thanks for this response. Now the xr15’s are on sale. But I’m still drawn to the Kessil. I do think this forum leans more Radion = SPS success. Kessil = good shimmer. What is more important to me? Certainly the first one but I’m not convinced I can’t have great SPS with kessil and no Radion. Especially with 4 T5. Again, most thanks for your insight!

Imyourhuckleberry · Jul 20, 2020

Hairmetal89 said:
Waters- thanks for this response. Now the xr15’s are on sale. But I’m still drawn to the Kessil. I do think this forum leans more Radion = SPS success. Kessil = good shimmer. What is more important to me? Certainly the first one but I’m not convinced I can’t have great SPS with kessil and no Radion. Especially with 4 T5. Again, most thanks for your insight!

sabor · Jul 20, 2020

I say go for it. I got 4 Orpheks and 2 a360x. I’m acclimating the a360x in to get additional blues and shimmer.

Imyourhuckleberry · Jul 21, 2020

New comer in the thread: For what it's worth, I been in the hobby long enough to have hybrid lighting, my first reef set up was all regular Florencent light which was lighting up 90 gallon of 5 watts per gallon, then I moved on to compact Florencent with a single 400 watt metal halide and this where it popped for me, I liked the shimmer it looked so natural. I had to give up the halide due to electric bill and over heating in the summer. So I moved on to 2 sol blue by AI, full spectrum and can grow sps corals, but not the same as the halide hybrid. Now I found the close match to the halide and Florencent combination, which today is my setup and it's 2 kessil a360x tuna blue combined with 4 t5 bulbs (3 blue plus and 1 true actinic by ati). It's the best combo in my opinion.