Swap from Red Sea to Radion

[trippinoutreef]

Thinking about making swap from Red Sea lighting to Ecotech Radion.

What are your thoughts?

I feel like the Radions are better lights!

 

[Lavey29]

Which lights and tank size? The XR15 are weak par lights.

 

[trippinoutreef]

Red Sea 525 XL and XR30 Radions. I have two of them

 

[littlefoxx]

Which lights and tank size? The XR15 are weak par lights.

Oh crap really???

 

[Bob Weigant]

I like the XR30's. Im running 2 with reef brites on both. Acro's are loving them

 

[TangerineSpeedo]

It is apples and oranges... Yes, Red Sea lights have a different par level and spectrum, but what is in your tank? What are your goals? Red Seas grow the heck out of softies and LPS. A good portion of SPS also, But Acros, there might be better choices out there.
This is my experience, others may differ.

 

[Lavey29]

Oh crap really???

Yes I have them and tested them. Weak par lights for medium or large tanks.

 

[littlefoxx]

Yes I have them and tested them. Weak par lights for medium or large tanks.

Well crap. I have 4 for the 300 Im working on. They came with the tank. But Im 99% sure Im just going to keep it FOWLR but thats good to know if I ever want to start a reef in there

 

[Naekuh]

Well crap. I have 4 for the 300 Im working on. They came with the tank. But Im 99% sure Im just going to keep it FOWLR but thats good to know if I ever want to start a reef in there

well it really depends on how high the lights are mounted.

Radions have a more diffused pattern unless you get that lense upgrade, so thats the weak par.
If your using the radion mount, and not hanging, they put out nice par.
If its hanging 3 feet above your tank without a lense, then yeah, your gonna lose a lot of par on the lower levels of your tank because its not a focused beam like a kessil for example.

I have 2 x XR30 G6 PRO on 30%, and i peak at about 350 par at the top of the tank with lights hanging 2 feet high.

XR30's is a beast compared to the XR15, so YMMV if your using a 15.

 

[littlefoxx]

well it really depends on how high the lights are mounted.

Radions have a more diffused pattern unless you get that lense upgrade, so thats the weak par.
If your using the radion mount, and not hanging, they put out nice par.
If its hanging 3 feet above your tank without a lense, then yeah, your gonna lose a lot of par on the lower levels of your tank because its not a focused beam like a kessil for example.

I have 2 x XR30 G6 PRO on 30%, and i peak at about 350 par at the top of the tank with lights hanging 2 feet high.

XR30's is a beast compared to the XR15, so YMMV if your using a 15.

They are mounted inside a canopy thats pretty far from the water level actually

 

[Biokabe]

Oh crap really???

No, not really.

As always, it depends on how you mount them and how you have them set up.

I have three XR15 over my Reefer 350. At about 60% overall, I get 200-250 PAR on the sandbed, 350-400 at the top of my rockwork. Tested with two different Apogee sensors calibrated for LEDs - one that I put together myself with a sensor + multimeter, and one that I rented from BRS.

Mine are mounted about 10" from the water level, evenly spaced throughout the tank. Two G4s, one G5.

I picked them specifically because they were more diffuse, and in my application that's what I wanted. They're mounted in a hybrid T5 fixture that's set up at that distance from the water, and with the way the rest of the lighting worked out it gave me an even spread of good spectrum throughout the tank. The PAR figures I gave are without the T5 bulbs on, by the way - add about 100 PAR when the T5s are on.

Note that when I picked the lights, the Kessil 360 lights didn't exist yet. If I were doing it brand-new I might pick the Kessils over the XR15.