Time to decide on which lighting setup to use... Opinions please.

[fredro]

I am going to be redoing my entire tank/plumbing. The sump, skimmer (vertex 180i) and tank will remain the same. The rockwork, sand and all other contents will be removed and I will be restarting with dry rock from BRS, new dry 3mm-5mm substrate and restarting the tank, doing it right from the beginning, with a straightforward plan, no more just adding and changing as I go.

I will be setting up an all SPS tank, with minimalistic aquascaping and a shallow substrate, in my Deep Blue 80 gallon shallow Reef-Ready tank. The tank will be either ZEO or Red Sea, but likely ZEO.

Now for the dillema.

I have 4 Radion Pro XR30 LEDs which I started the tank originally with. I then came across a killer deal on an ATi T5 8x54w Dimmable SunPower, which I couldn't turn down, so i bought it, just to have, just because. After a few months, my curiosity got the best of me and I took down the Radions and put up the ATi, slapped in some fresh KZ and ATi bulbs and crossed my fingers. A month later, I added a ReefBrite XHO Blue LED strip, running via my Apex and the newly designed ReefBrite 0-10v Dimmer module (great dimmer, much better than the old black manual/VDM box). Both lighting setups worked just fine. I have both setups already so initial purchase price isn't a factor, but I'm torn as to which setup to finally go with. The only downfall to the ATi is bulb replacement, but that's all I can think of.

If I go with the LEDs, I'll buy the RMS rail kit and hang all of them on the rail, the ceiling, via the two cables. I am not a fan of the way the RMS mounting bracket looks when you have more than 2 and will be selling the 3 I currently have.

I know 4 is overkill on a 48" tank, BUT when I went from 2-3 Radions, the coverage/spread was so much better and the shadowing was cut down immensely.

Please let me know which lighting setup you think I should go with by voting and any further opinions, would be greatly appreciated in the comments.

Thanks guy.

 

[Bpb]

First of all...I don't think 4 is overkill. Yes it's more than people typically use, but you'll just have better coverage and can run them closer to the water. Or you could use two at a time and have backups.

I personally like t5ho tech a lot better for sps growth and colors. I know a lot of people love LEDs. And I've seen plenty of nice tanks with radions. No big deal. They can work. I just like t5ho better. Easier to use. Much larger margin of error. I tend to get a lot better PE and colors from all corals not just sps, when using t5ho without anything else being different.