Switching to AI Blades

[shadyraro]

I have a Cade 600 2ft cube with one XR15 light, and I'm currently looking to swap it out for a 21" blade grow light. My tank is LPS and softie dominant and I'm wondering if I'd need to get one or two blades? From the reviews I've seen online they seem to be an impressive slim line light with a lot of punch, and the look of them when setup is what I'm wanting to go for.

 

[Slocke]

I have a Cade 600 2ft cube with one XR15 light, and I'm currently looking to swap it out for a 21" blade grow light. My tank is LPS and softie dominant and I'm wondering if I'd need to get one or two blades? From the reviews I've seen online they seem to be an impressive slim line light with a lot of punch, and the look of them when setup is what I'm wanting to go for.

I have blades and I do really like them but they have one major issue and that is a lack of colors. The grow and glow only have 3 colors each and with only the grow you will miss out on some colors in the tank. For example the lack of red means my red fish look dull and before I added a glow and only had the grow many of my corals lost their awesome glow they had under my previous lights.
These frogspawn for example did not have green tentacles under the Grow they just looked brown. Only under the Glow to they glow green.

 

[shadyraro]

I have blades and I do really like them but they have one major issue and that is a lack of colors. The grow and glow only have 3 colors each and with only the grow you will miss out on some colors in the tank. For example the lack of red means my red fish look dull and before I added a glow and only had the grow many of my corals lost their awesome glow they had under my previous lights.
These frogspawn for example did not have green tentacles under the Grow they just looked brown. Only under the Glow to they glow green.

Interesting, the videos I’ve been looking at the guys said their coral colours popped more with just the the grow blades over the Radions and Hydras and their comparisons backed that up. I currently only run 5% red and green on my radion as it encourages algae growth.

 

[Slocke]

Interesting, the videos I’ve been looking at the guys said their coral colours popped more with just the the grow blades over the Radions and Hydras and their comparisons backed that up. I currently only run 5% red and green on my radion as it encourages algae growth.

Dont get me wrong it is a great light. The way the color wraps the corals makes it so you can see more of your corals and it just looks more natural. My tip which I never said is to get maybe one of each. A glow and a grow.

 

[Slocke]

This explains it better then I can:

 

[twentyleagues]

I've got a single 21" grow over a similar sized tank. Lps and softies. They are doing fine in fact very well for the most part. A couple zoas are not doing great they all came from the same vender so maybe something there not sure. The lps I got from that vender are fine. Zoas from other sources are fine. Anyway my current setting is 48rb 48b and 38w. Corals pop just fine, infact the gold hammer and dragon soul torch look better under my grow then they did under the tank from the guy I got them from under radions.
I didn't have a par meter until this last Monday so I had no idea what the par was. I went by how the corals reacted. When I checked par the other night it was 130-150 where most of my hammers and torches are. About 50-75 at the sand bed. I'm slowly going to bring up the par. I finally took time to figure out the acclimation setting so I'll probably use that to bring it up to 60blues and maybe 40-50w. I'll test par as it increase, I'm thinking 200 at the hammer torch lvl wouldn't be to bad.

 

[shadyraro]

I've got a single 21" grow over a similar sized tank. Lps and softies. They are doing fine in fact very well for the most part. A couple zoas are not doing great they all came from the same vender so maybe something there not sure. The lps I got from that vender are fine. Zoas from other sources are fine. Anyway my current setting is 48rb 48b and 38w. Corals pop just fine, infact the gold hammer and dragon soul torch look better under my grow then they did under the tank from the guy I got them from under radions.
I didn't have a par meter until this last Monday so I had no idea what the par was. I went by how the corals reacted. When I checked par the other night it was 130-150 where most of my hammers and torches are. About 50-75 at the sand bed. I'm slowly going to bring up the par. I finally took time to figure out the acclimation setting so I'll probably use that to bring it up to 60blues and maybe 40-50w. I'll test par as it increase, I'm thinking 200 at the hammer torch lvl wouldn't be to bad.

What size tank do you have and do you think the one blade is enough?

 

[twentyleagues]

What size tank do you have and do you think the one blade is enough?

Inside dimensions put it at 30 gallons. The black trim on top is 20"x20" water level in the tank is 18". I have the blade on the extended tank mounts. All the leds are over the water just the metal ends are over the trim. I think the one blade over this tank is perfect. Like I said above corals appear happy. Tank has been set up since February. I have been adding corals since March most were added between March and May didn't really buy any corals in June. The gold hammer has gone from 3 heads to 6 in that time. It's been the fastest grower. You can look at my build thread for some bad cell phone pics. The tank itself has been through a lot and the glass is damaged from hard water so it appears cloudy. It was something I set up quick and didn't notice how bad the glass was until got reef lights over it. Technically it's only temporary to get my feet wet in saltwater again. I'll be setting up my 180 as a reef in the next few months. The angler will be going in a display refugium once that system is up. Still debating lighting for the 180 this blade was a try out for possibly lighting that tank.

 

[twentyleagues]

I should add that I was told and by the research I did I should have used the 12" model. But I had/have other plans for this light. I wasnt going to set up the 180 I was going to set up a cube tank thats 28"x28"x24". I would need another 21"blade for that tank to get good coverage. Like this tank the glass is also damaged on the 28" by hard water. Plan was to polish the glass which I started to do but its still not great. For fresh water the tank is fine anything with lots of blue light like a typical reef the glass is hazy.

 

[rtparty]

Been running solely Blades for 5 months now. Not a single color in my tank is lacking. My Flame Angel and Anthias are brighter than they were under halides. My corals also all have much better color and growth these days.

I’ve been running 2 Grow and 1 Glow. Just added another grow and glow so I can go full blown sps dominant down the road if I so choose. Tank is in my build thread

 

[Hooz]

Think of it this way (very simplified)... The AI Prime (and Hydra) has violet, blue and white channels.

Blade Grow - White/Blue
Blade Glow - Violet/Blue

The Blade has a few other benefits due to the form factor, etc. but, to get the "full/wide" spectrum, you need to have BOTH a Grow and a Glow.

 

[bushdoc]

I have a Cade 600 2ft cube with one XR15 light, and I'm currently looking to swap it out for a 21" blade grow light. My tank is LPS and softie dominant and I'm wondering if I'd need to get one or two blades? From the reviews I've seen online they seem to be an impressive slim line light with a lot of punch, and the look of them when setup is what I'm wanting to go for.

Not a criticism, but just plain curiosity, why do you want to swap XR15 for Blade?
Blade is heavily marketed, but it does have different spectrum than Ecotech and seem to be targeted more as entry level light ( sort of). As someone mentioned here, you would ideally need grow and glow version, while with XR15 you have it all.
Besides, stability in Reefkeeping is very important. Just swapped old Hydra 52s ( not even made anymore) for Radeon XR15 and although it is to early for me to give unbiased opinion, I like my new lights.

 

[rtparty]

My own belief and experience is that "full spectrum" is completely oversold and overused these days. There isn't enough violet in the Glows to make a difference. It is one of the big misses with the Glow IMO. It needed more violets and less royal blue. I still use 2 of them because they remind me of the old VHO actinic bulbs when you crank the violet LEDs and turn the royal blue down. They are doing very little work when it comes to the health and colors of my corals.

 

[Hooz]

My own belief and experience is that "full spectrum" is completely oversold and overused these days. There isn't enough violet in the Glows to make a difference. It is one of the big misses with the Glow IMO. It needed more violets and less royal blue. I still use 2 of them because they remind me of the old VHO actinic bulbs when you crank the violet LEDs and turn the royal blue down. They are doing very little work when it comes to the health and colors of my corals.

There were several misses with the Blade. The overlapping royal blue between the two versions (Glow/Grow) being a big one. They could've made those two fully complimentary and crushed the "wide blue spectrum" thing. Instead they overlapped them, exaggerating the 450nm spike and missing several other beneficial color ranges.

I mean, for coverage, blending, etc, the Blade nailed it. Everything else is pretty "Meh."

 

[rtparty]

There were several misses with the Blade. The overlapping royal blue between the two versions (Glow/Grow) being a big one. They could've made those two fully complimentary and crushed the "wide blue spectrum" thing. Instead they overlapped them, exaggerating the 450nm spike and missing several other beneficial color ranges.

I mean, for coverage, blending, etc, the Blade nailed it. Everything else is pretty "Meh."

My own results show them to be better than ReefBrite, Orphek, GHL, Radions, Kessil, other AI lights, and countless other lights I have used over the years. Of course, that is opinion of what I see happening on my tank. Version 2 should hopeully fix the few misses they have.

They have been better than advertised for me. I did have my early issues though LOL. All documented here

 

[twentyleagues]

The glow reminds me of when I had t5s and used only ati blue+ ( at least how I have it set). Hopefully it performs as well.

 

[Hooz]

My own results show them to be better than ReefBrite, Orphek, GHL, Radions, Kessil, other AI lights, and countless other lights I have used over the years. Of course, that is opinion of what I see happening on my tank. Version 2 should hopeully fix the few misses they have.

They have been better than advertised for me. I did have my early issues though LOL. All documented here

I would posit that the "better than" is more due to light quantity (spread/coverage) than light quality (spectrum).

Most of the puck/panel style lights you mentioned have much better spectrums, but they don't have the coverage. The other strips you did mention have the coverage, but even more limited spectrum.

The first one to nail both is going to make a TON of money.

 

[rtparty]

I would posit that the "better than" is more due to light quantity (spread/coverage) than light quality (spectrum).

Most of the puck/panel style lights you mentioned have much better spectrums, but they don't have the coverage. The other strips you did mention have the coverage, but even more limited spectrum.

The first one to nail both is going to make a TON of money.

I had 250w halides with 2 ReefBrite XHOs previous to the Blades. I had plenty of spread and arguably "better spectrum"

An Ecotech Pro version of the Blade would be killer IMO. It will also kill the wallet lol

 

[shadyraro]

Not a criticism, but just plain curiosity, why do you want to swap XR15 for Blade?
Blade is heavily marketed, but it does have different spectrum than Ecotech and seem to be targeted more as entry level light ( sort of). As someone mentioned here, you would ideally need grow and glow version, while with XR15 you have it all.
Besides, stability in Reefkeeping is very important. Just swapped old Hydra 52s ( not even made anymore) for Radeon XR15 and although it is too early for me to give unbiased opinion, I like my new lights.

Don’’t get me wrong my Radion is a great light, but I like the slimline sleek look of the blades. From the reviews I’ve seen online they’re pretty good lights, and for an LPS/softie tank I think they’d be fine.
Two blades are cheaper than one Radion, and value for money I think that’s a great deal.
My current light setting is very blue with only 30% white and 10% red and greens, so the blade would suit my current setup I think.

 

[bushdoc]

Don’’t get me wrong my Radion is a great light, but I like the slimline sleek look of the blades. From the reviews I’ve seen online they’re pretty good lights, and for an LPS/softie tank I think they’d be fine.
Two blades are cheaper than one Radion, and value for money I think that’s a great deal.
My current light setting is very blue with only 30% white and 10% red and greens, so the blade would suit my current setup I think.

That’s if U are gonna manage to sell your Radeon for a decent price.
Guess what, send me a Cade aquarium and I will send you any light U want.