Thinking Of Switching to Radion G4 Pros

[denverjon]

I know this is a popular subject but I'm thinking of making the switch from mh's to led’s and would like to get opinions.

I have a 250g mixed reef and my dimensions are 60" long x 36” tall x 27” wide. I currently have two 48” reefbrite led/t5 combos sadwiched in the middle by two 250w 20k mh's.

I’m thinking of keeping the reefbrites and switching out the mh’s for three Radion Gen4 Pros. The reason is twofold…I’m tired of dealing with heat issues (my tank is always between 79.5-82 degrees) plus I like the look of the led's. My tank is about a 50/50 mix of sps and lps along with a bunch of zoas.

Any thoughts on this? Would it be overkill to add the G4's since I already have the reefbrites?

 

[Reeferdood]

I have G4P's and could not be happier, you will want at least 4 for that size tank so be ready to fork out some bucks...

 

[denverjon]

I initially thought I might need four but since I've got the reefbrites running the length of the tank on each side that are each covering maybe 25% of the tank, that really only leaves me the middle 50% that I need to cover if that makes sense. Plus, I've got a built in tank and lost about 3-4" of both the width and length due to overhanging woodwork.
-

 

[Sherman]

You are going to be happy about this move.
It will reduce the heat in your area, reduce running cost and your chiller will be very much happier

 

[A. grandis]

You will deal with the initial hassle of figuring out the right settings for your new LEDs, possibly loosing some corals (hopefully not!), and you will miss the wonderful power and distribution of photons and PAR from the halides, if you have the right halide reflector. The UV emitted from your halides won't be anymore, so some of the nice colors will change. You could have trouble in keeping the bottom of some of the colonies alive. Even the best guys have reported that. Your tank won't look as lit and will have some shades and the shimmers could show some distinct colors (disco), specially if you don't have a plastic diffuser that will cut some ~20% of your intensity.

I see heat as part of the package with halides and not a big deal. You can cut up to 80% of the heat transfer when you place a good Vornado fan between the halide fixture and the water surface. Maybe you should take a look at your LFS and compare the results to your tank and see if that is worthy. If you don't have a chiller you could probably get a good one, and it should cost less than those LEDs.

That said, set your priorities and pull the trigger for a chiller or the Radions.
If you choose the Radions please don't sell the halide system just yet!!

But I'm writing this to let people know just as a reference because you already said that you like the look of LEDs.
Good luck.

 

[jda]

The vast majority of the people who get to even 80% of where they were with Halides use Radions in the same way... they raise them way up high, turn them up nearly all the way (whiter spectrum) and they use about 3 of them for each Halide that they replace. Dr. Joshi is one of these... 10 XR30s to replace 3 Halides.

The big issue with a 36 inch deep tank is that in order for a LED to penetrate to where you can grow stuff near the bottom, they will fry corals up top. You won't have this issue with T5 or MH since the spectrum is better. I do not know how you get around this... lens changes are no good since wider will not penetrate and narrower will just burn more. The only real solution that people have come up with is to just continue to supply light that does not fry corals at 600-750 PAR up top so that you can have 100-150 down low. This is why most display tanks at major aquariums and stuff still use 1000w Halides since they need the punch and also not to burn the shallower stuff.

I would caution you to think of this as a change, not an upgrade, so you framed this correctly by saying "switch."

I am in Boulder and I can keep my tank rock steady at 78 degrees with just a Vornado fan that comes on when the halides do. I do not get cute with a controller and wait for the tank temp to rise. I have 5x 250w over 240g, so similar volume with more wattage/output. With the low humidity in Colorado, there is no reason that a tank should ever be hot when evap is so powerful... I just think that people have poor planning or use small computer fans. It is 56 here this morning... and my heaters ran all night once the halides went off.

I know that you have probably not seen any G4 tanks in town that look as good as Halide/T5/Reefbrite tanks, so solve the heat (which should be easy) and then you are golden.

 

[lwmnfrvr]

jda what size Vornado Fan are you running on your tank?
Are your lights inside a canopy?

 

[jda]

12 or 13 inch. I have one tank with an open top and a few AquaMedic fixtures hung from the ceiling (think Giesemann Spectra) - this tank has 5 halides. I have anther 225 with 3x 250w Radiums on m80 that does have a canopy - I keep it open in the summer and use the same Vornado on this blowing across the top of the tank which then disperses when it hits the other side of the canopy. The Vornado keeps either cool, but keep in mind that we are like 20-30% humidity a lot of the time here.

 

[lwmnfrvr]

Thank you.
I have been considering going back to halides for awhile. I just can't seem to dial in my Reef Breeder Photon V2"s. Whats holding me back is the summer temps. The Northern California Redding summer temperatures can be brutal for three months out of the year. I refuse to run a chiller as we are paying 15 cents a kw hr. I let the ambient indoor temperature control my tank in the summer.
This is the reason I asked about your fan size. My lights sit inside a canopy and would have to vent the heat out.

 

[Scorpius]

T5 or MH. I've been down the led path and I wish I'd have gone full T5 sooner. LED's need a ton of units to replace MH.

It's easier to cool a tank than it is to completely change lighting.


Sorry for doubting you in the past A. grandis. I should have listened sooner.

 

[A. grandis]

Never is too late, my friend.
I'm happy for you!
Enjoy the ride!

 

[reefwiser]

Ecotech G4 pro's 599 x 10 =5,990 the cost for the lights on big tanks do not add up. If one had gone to a MACNA and heard the talk Sanjay says that. He was hoping to save electric but ended up having to cool and heat his tank anyway. Besides 10 G4's over a tank is not a pretty sight seen it and it totally kills the cool vibe people buy into with LED's Better to get more t5's and MH on a tank of this size. Had a club member with a ton of G4's on his tank switched to a T5 LED fixture and boom his tank finally took off.

 

[A. grandis]

I wish we had that MACNA video of Sanjay's talk, reefwiser.
Some times people gotta see it to believe it.
Things like that need to be published!