Should I switch to Radion LEDs from MH/T5?

[SloppyJ]

Wow there are a lot of opinions in here. I have a gen 3 pro over my tank that's filling up with water now.

You will need 2 fixtures to cover that tank correctly for a sps tank. I have 1 over a 30x30x24 and I think that's about the max for the radion while keeping good par from what I've played around with so far.

Either way, good luck

 

[Sleeperr34]

Saw this and thought you might find it interesting. It is an article iwhich can be found n the second quarter 2013 edition of Reef Hobbyist Magazine and is written by Joseph Peck about caring for anenomes. In the article he writes, "..we are not yet sure if all types of LED lights provide a broad enough spectrum."
Reef Hobbyist magazine is published quarterly and is free to download.

The trick is dialing in the amount of each color on the leds. They can work great but if u look at a t-5 light take a cool white for example. It looks more a clean white to our eyes but there is very little white light being used. Thats why u will have a lot more blue looking tank with leds when they r set right. Another reason i do say to get a couple t-5 to add in just to make it look more familiar to us. But leds only kick out the light of that led. And when u crank up the whites to make it look like a MH color even 20k u run a high risk of bleaching corals ( not for sure, water quality will always help or hurt this as well ).

This is just my feelings and from what i have tested out with my tank. I had a bad alk spike about a yr or so ago and lost almost all my coral while i was on vacation ( inverts in an auto doser ) but after that i had a few sps that some how lived through that and i spent about 5 months changing the lights and watching what effect each did to the tank or corals ( high red is NOT good fyi lol ). But i ran it at the end for 2 months with my whites only at 10% and saw great color started showing up on my sps. And saw the few Lps i had that i thought were about dead started opening up a lot more as well. I have slowly been stocking up my corals again and now have my whites at 30% but i still turn that down for a couple weeks or so when i get a new sps coral.

Just my 2cents. Im sure others have had diff things work for them. Each tank is its own creation. Ask the guy who says he has done 2 water changes in 2yrs and everything is great in his tank lol.me i favor the small amounts weekly.

 

[Gwitness]

Sleeper...what size tank do you have? And what leds

 

[Sleeperr34]

210 and 3 vegas

 

[Sleeperr34]

6ft long and 3ft tall

 

[shred5]

Why dont people show pics of their tank like in this thread:
https://www.reef2reef.com/forums/ge...lets-see-your-t5-sps-tanks-6.html#post1854432
would make things allot easier..
I see people claiming their light is better than everyone elses lights..
Well lets see pictures of your tanks and tell what your light is:

Ah halide is the best, sh led is the best. Been doing awsume for me well lets so those tanks pics and back up what you are saying..

You know everyone keeps saying I have this fixture or this type of lighting are the providing them great results but I never see any pics to back it up.. If people are going to claim this lighting is so much better and I have such great results well back up what your mouth is saying or you are typing and show these results otherwise it is just words. let us be the judge on how well your lighting is..
On with the pics...

Actually I am going to start a new thread:
People show pics and tell what lighting you have:

 

[shred5]

https://www.reef2reef.com/forums/eq...es-vs-halides-picture-thread.html#post1854640

There is the thread... Post your pics..

 

[Sleeperr34]

Sorry should have posted this sooner.

And i can not stress this enough. Take everything you hear from people with a grain of salt. We each have our own feel for things. What works great for me may suck for you. The hardest part to changing to leds is the dial in part. I left for a 2 week vacation a day after i put mine in. Came back to my 75% of my coral dead or dieing. I thought it was the lights and started getting ****** off quick. But came to find out my alk that usually sat at 9-9.5 was at 13 because of my stupid friend watching my tank. ( get a dosing pump set up lol ). But again all i can do is give what i have seen work and not work. I know people that have radions and LOVE them. I know people that run whites at 100% and things to fine. ( no idea how. ) i know people that have no whites at all on. People run tanks at 83-84 for temp no problem. 75-76.

The biggest thing and i think anyone that has been in this hobby for and period of time will Agee is the one factor to live by. Above all else. How ever u decide to run things..... KEEP IT CONSISTENT. Dont go doing huge changes

For me. My tank is a 210g with 3 rubber maid for filter 1- fiuge. 1- live rock. 1- mechanical. Run a biodenitrifier rated for 800g system. Phos media in a phos reactor. Carbon media in a reactor. Skimmer rated from 350-500g.

ignore the wires just got an apex controller and still testing it all out. And if u r thinking of getting one. I do recomend it. Love it so far.

So this is what works for me. And has worked great. Im still to scared of a calcium reactor to go to that point yet. And given i very picky on what i am willing to pay for a coral no mater how rare or cool it looks dosing is working just fine for me right now.

 

[Sleeperr34]

 

[d2mini]

I went back to MH/T5.
There were many reasons for the switch. Some directly related to coral health, some just personal pref.
*d2mini's new 200g Reeftastic Build* - Page 76 - Reef Central Online Community

 

[jservedio]

no way man you may very well be disappointed, I know I was. I am an SPS guy and love to watch them grow. I ran radion Pros for 6 months and was disappointed for sure. The controllability was cool with the radions and gave the tank a cool look but it did nothing for my sps. Some colored up but growth was lacking for sure. Some corals didnt react well for me like my forest fire digi and some of my monti's. Most of my acros shifted colors a bit and would bleach if i turned the power up on the light by even 5%. I was confused that I spent so much money on a set of lights that I could only run at 50% power. This also meant that there were dim spots in the tank and some shadows.

Everybody thinks you save all this money on LED's which maybe in the long long run is possible. But the new radions aren't cheap and by the time you get the number of units you need to light your entire tank youve probably spent a lot. I feel like spread of LEDS and overlapping of coverage is what coupld have helped as far as making SPS grow faster but then we are talking about double the units and initial costs. IMHO its so easy to snag a good deal on a used ATI fixture or reflectors and t5s or VHO's which are tried and proven to grow SPS why would you stray from whats proven? By the time you buy all that LED units you need, hanging kits, and wireless compatibility setup, its really going to take some time before you start saving money....and then whos to say if they are going to do what youre trying to acheive. Take it from someone who loves this hobby and especially SPS, go with whats proven and maybe in time say a year or 2 look into LEDs.......but by that time your tank will look so great youll never switch.

This.

Let me guess - you guys spend over a grand on your lighting systems, hung them up, and couldn't be bothered to spend 3 hours with a PAR meter to CORRECTLY set up your lighting systems? If you turned up your light "by even 5%" and your acros would bleach - it means you had no idea what the PAR actually was and you probably had it turned WAY too high. Also, expecting all of your acros to completely acclimate to a totally new source of light, new spectrum, and new intensity that you most likely had mis-configured in 6 months is crazy. Spend over a year with a new light when you switch and actually learn its intricacies. No, LEDs are not the be-all end-all, but you can get great results with them if you actually learn how to configure them properly and use a PAR meter.

They are extremely powerful lights and can create spectrums that mimic most MH bulbs and T5 bulb combos - but can also be way overpowered and put out a TERRIBLE spectrum if you don't configure them correctly.

However, to the OP: No, if you already have a quality lighting setup and have only had it for 6 months - don't change it. Stick with it until you have good growth and your tank is mature then decide if you want to switch after actually checking out the lights in person. Weigh the pros and cons for yourself.

 

[Sleeperr34]

Thank you so much. It does seem like all the bad mouthing leds come from people doing the same thing. Plug in. Turn on. Sweet looks great! Done..... Week later post come up

Omg i hate my leds they r all crap killed all my coral im done.
( hey i can say it because i did it )

I didnt do enough research on the way leds penetrated and spectrum. I set it up so that it looked as bright as my 250s di bulbs. We live we learn.

 

[d2mini]

Or those of us who ran them for nearly two years.
Although some sps do well under off-the-shelf led units, I have yet to see one do as good as MH/T5 across the board with sps.
There are plenty of examples out there from experienced reefers with TOTM quality sps packed tanks who will tell you the exact same thing.

 

[Sleeperr34]

Just like i have been told by and have seen people with packed sps tanks running leds that once they got it fully dialed in they will never go back to mh. But yes mh are easy. Hang up plug in done. Leds u have to tweek it to get it just right. And this is an argument that will go on for years to come one part says leds suck one says they r the best ever. U get a standard led set up that u cant change the lvls of each led i (personally) feel you will fail more then not. At least with sps. But if u go with one of the more advanced set ups. Ai-hydra. Razor. Radions. Even DIY. And turn up and down the leds to get the right balance of each for the right spectrum they r just as good as MD. But it takes a lot of time and watching coral to get it right. And its hard to go off of what anyone else has done because almost everyones set ups r diff.

 

[d2mini]

Please show me a TOTM quality sps show tank with mature colonies, not wimpy little frags, where the sps were all grown under LED like an AI or Radion or Mitra.
Again, LED do work for many coral, but they still can't match a MH/T5 setup for coral health.
The change in my current tank after switching back to mh/t5, which was exclusively LED lit from the get-go, for almost two years, has solidified everything I always suspected.
The most successful led-only lit tanks that I have seen have been lit by DIY custom units, with MANY more LEDs than you would every get out of the typical off the shelf setup, and created by someone who really understands the science behind the spectrums.

So no, you can't discount why people have switched and chalk it up purely to impatience and ignorance.
And like you say, MH/T5 is easy because it's proven. Buy it, set it up, and watch your coral thrive. Done.
Unless you are paying an ungodly amount for electricity in a tiered sector, I see absolutely zero reason to switch if your mh and/or t5 is working for you.
And even then, I think I'd rather run a smaller tank and find other ways to cut costs like dc pumps than switch my lighting.

The amount of people switching back to mh/t5 this year has been astounding.
The manufacturers are clued in as well, offering more and more led/t5 combo units.
Guess which part of that light is actually going to do the growing/coloring up and which is just going to act as supplementation.

LED may be the future, but the future is not here yet.

 

[Sleeperr34]

Old leds systems u could not change the lvl on each leds color. Again why i said u have to dial it in right.

And saving money. Let's see i had 3 250 mh. Only ran them for 6hr because i didnt want to throw a chiller in my living room given my stand had no room. My electric bill went down over $150 a month in the summer. And that is without a chiller on my tank. And now my leds run for a true photo period.

Oh and u want to talk about health of the coral. Or I'll play along that part. We try and mimic nature. So yea lets take a fish out of the ocean were it gets sunup and sun down and put him in a sustem that BAMB! U have noon sun then dark. Oh wait so u add t-5s in the give it that feel of dawn and dusk. Ok that is more to add to replacing things wires parts timers. And heat. But all that gets done by my 3 little vegas i have over my tank right now.

Again not saying MH r not tried and true. They r. They work great and will be around still working long after i am dead and gone. What i am saying is that u can get just as good with the right combinations of leds. If you take the time and dial them in to the right lvls.

Coral growth and color when it clones to light takes it from it all just a bit. The full spectrum. I red an artical about coral color saying that the color is more or less a def from the uv light from the sun. The same thing as when people tan. Now if that artical is true until recently uv was not a light in almost all led systems. But now it is.

You said u ran leds for 2 yrs but never said what u had or in truth what any real problems. Just a half statement without anything else. And then you start to pick a fight because i feel leds r just as good. I'm not the one here bashing on you or urs. Im just defending me and mine.

Bottom line this is both our opinions. U feel mh are the best period im not here to change ur mind or anything along the lines of it. Im just repling to a post and giving my opion on what i would do. Not running around with my chest out saying ur wrong im right no other way around it.

 

[Pete polyp]

I also read an article that used our skin getting tan as a reference to coral colors. The author made it a point to include how many led tanning beds there are in existence....

 

[Sleeperr34]

I remember him saying that as well. And there r starting to come out with led tanning beds. Not nearly as much but they r comming out.

And as far as the TOTM statement 90% or more have been systems that have been up for years. And yea if i had that system i would stick with MH or T5s. Its not worth the risk in a system like that. But look at the diff that has come out just in the last yr with leds. Was just white and blue a yr or so ago and now they realized they need the other shades to the spectrum.

 

[ritter6788]

The problem with many LED fixtures is the optics. Corals don't need 40, 60 and 90 degree optics which is what many LED fixtures come with. The optics increase the par but can focus the light to tight and fry corals. MH are great so are t5. The argument that LEDs will kill all your corals and anemones shouldn't even be brought up any more. If you go back on forums before LEDs were invented there are as many arguments about lighting and as many people complaining that lights are killing/browning/bleaching their coral.

 

[Pete polyp]

You're absolutely correct Ritter. "stupid dad gum ole lights" catch 90% of the blame anytime there's an issue..... Everything from corals bleaching, browning, dying, cyano hair algae etc. people in the hobby are quick to blame every issue to lighting.