Radion xr30 vs Ai hydra52 hd need help

[me & my baby]

I am looking at buying some new lights I can either I can get the radion xr30 no pro or the AI hydra52 hd. They don't offer Internet at my house so wifi is not an option . I would like to be able to Controle them with my apex . My tank is 42 l x 32 w x 24 deep. Heavy sps . Any advice would be great.

 

[mcarroll]

Is this a new tank, or are you converting mature coral from some other lighting? (If so, what kind, watts, etc?)

I might consider a 3-pack, or even a 6-pack of the smaller model lights - much better coverage vs fewer large lights.

Plus, I doubt you need the extra punch from the bigger lights. (All they really give.) 24" isn't all that deep.

I think the Prime might be too small, but maybe not in the quantity I'm describing - and six are only $1200. But I think the smaller Hydra or Radion would definitely do.

I'd probably lean to the AI myself since it has the edge on power. There may be other benefits or issues for your scenario, so u decide! (Honestly, for most wide tanks, I think I'd lean to a strip-format light for the best coverage...but I don't know any that are Apex controllable.)

And you might get away with 4 or 5 units vs 6.

@hart24601 did something similar with his pucks, and his tank was similar to your dimensions, if I'm recalling correctly. Check his old posts out. (And maybe he'll chime in here?)

Also, you don't need internet to have wifi at your house for your lights. Unless some dependency has been artificially engineered into the software, you should even be able to get by with just a laptop and the wifi light - "no network" at all, per se. That doesn't mean you want to monkey with wifi just to make your lights work (I still favor independent light control)....but I figured I'd throw the info out there in case you did.

 

[me & my baby]

It's a new tank

 

[mcarroll]

You mentioned SPS heavy is why I asked, but I think you mean how much intensity do you want. Right?

Most corals can be found across the spectrum of depths where corals grow. Diversity is the least at the very top and bottom of the range due to the extreme light situations - low and high.

Knowing this and which corals you are growing, you can make a decision now how intense you want your lighting. 80,000 lux down to about 20,000 lux is the range where most corals grow in the wild...and most species can be found throughout that range. (Know your corals - there are exceptions. There are quite a few lagoon corals in the hobby.) "More" is not "better" for "SPS" or any other grouping of corals...neither is less.

Interestingly, most reef lights top out at a peak right in the center of that 20K-80K range - around 40,000 lux to 50,000 lux at peak/100%.

So for a long-winded way of coming around to a general recommendation, that's it - whatever lighting you get, use a [HASHTAG]#lux[/HASHTAG] [HASHTAG]#meter[/HASHTAG] to dial it in to around 40,000 to 50,000 lux. But keep in mind that any coral you might have in mind can have some specific preferences for a shallow environment or a deep environment. Shallow water light has a different character from typical "blue reef" light.

Compare the "reef blue" curve on the left to the two shallow-water curves on the right:

 

[me & my baby]

My heavy sps is that is what I am playing on keeping. I have always used metal halide but this time around I want to try LEDs . I don't want the heat issue and running a chiller .

 

[mcarroll]

Right on. That's what I used prior to this - a Coralife Aqualight that ran dual Radium 150w's at about 175 watts. Fond memories - just don't miss the heat or bulb costs! (Tho thankfully I got away without the chiller!!!)

Well, SPS is kinda a made-up category by-us, for-us....it doesn't constitute a group of critters that is actually related in any ecologically meaningful way.

You can get the idea of some of the ecological groupings from this chart:

From: http://www.sepmstrata.org/page.aspx?pageid=54
Looks like more of a geology website, but we're using the chart!

A few well-known groups depicted (paraphrasing the data above):

• "massive" corals that get battered with massive wave action that grow almost in the shape of well-worn river rocks/boulders (use your imagination!)
  
  
• "branching" corals that take advantage of the more peaceful water (laminal flows) and grow MUCH further out into the water with fragile branches
  
  
  
  
• "dish corals" that essentially form their own kinda-parabolic solar dishes at the bottom to still gather a critical amount of light AND falling marine snow (food) to grow skeleton fast enough to exceed natural reef erosion.
  
  
  
• The zones before and after these are littered with an assortment of corals from all three groups, eventually giving way to soft corals and polyps, clams, etc as well as whatever corals from the "reef core" can survive the more-and-more extreme environments of the shallows and deeps.

You can certainly get away, like most of us, with providing a "middle of the road" reef environment - not emulating shallow water or deep water - and support a wide range of hard corals, and hopefully it's easy to see why.

"Middle of the road" meaning around 40,000-50,000 lux at the water surface....which is a common peak for commercial reef lights. All of the Hydras and XR's...but the Prime is only 50 watts....only about 12,000 PAR measured the same as the XRs and Hydras. (In terms of watts, an XR30Pro is like a Hydra52HD+a Prime.)

After saying all that, I think the Primes might be out. The other lights should all be able to pull it off I think...using no more than three or four. More is better for coverage, so I'd optimize for more units of the smaller models vs fewer large ones, I think. See how you think @hart24601's setup compared.