To ex ati hybrid owner

[Superlightman]

Hello Guys,
Question to the people that had an ati hybrid prior and who switched to full led, did you regret your choice or not or maybe you switched back?

 

[Eagle_Steve]

Hello Guys,
Question to the people that had an ati hybrid prior and who switched to full led, did you regret your choice or not or maybe you switched back?

I am an odd one here.

I had a 61" hybrid over my 180 and loved it. I am running LED only over it now, but this was only due to how my rock work is after a re-scape. Due to the rocks now sitting midway in the tank with almost equal distance from rock to glass on both sides, I no longer needed it. There were no issues with shadowing, like their previously was, so it got moved.

It is now over my mangrove lagoon and is there only to stop shadowing. The mangroves are growing and the LEDs for it just were not doing the job (tank is 7' x 3' x 16") with lighting the items around the mangroves. So the light now provides most of the par for what items I do have that are beyond the spread of the LEDs. Luckily the tank is shallow, so the T5s mounted up high provide enough light for those items to thrive.

I will say this, I do miss the t5s over the 180, just for looks in the tank and how they reduced some of the shimmer. There was a faint shimmer there, but looked more realistic with them.

So, I kind of regret taking them down from over the 180, but only for looks.

 

[piranhaman00]

I went from the 4 bulbs to 8 lumi light strips, better coverage and more par but I’m not saving energy actually using more, but I didn’t switch for energy costs at all, I noticed that if I didn’t switch bulbs around 12 months corals would really start to change. I like the lumi lights because they run cool and are low power per unit, I just needed extra units, very happy

 

[piranhaman00]

 

[Tamberav]

I love my sunpower with led bars! I am taking it down though and going to use some radions. The only reason though is I want to change the direction of my tank from a mixed tank to a soft coral one (new baby taking all my time!) and the t5s put out a lot of heat into the living room which the central air then has to fight.

If I was to keep a mixed tank… I would not change at all. Can put anything under it and grow without worrying about settings… so awesome.

 

[Superlightman]

I am an odd one here.

I had a 61" hybrid over my 180 and loved it. I am running LED only over it now, but this was only due to how my rock work is after a re-scape. Due to the rocks now sitting midway in the tank with almost equal distance from rock to glass on both sides, I no longer needed it. There were no issues with shadowing, like their previously was, so it got moved.

It is now over my mangrove lagoon and is there only to stop shadowing. The mangroves are growing and the LEDs for it just were not doing the job (tank is 7' x 3' x 16") with lighting the items around the mangroves. So the light now provides most of the par for what items I do have that are beyond the spread of the LEDs. Luckily the tank is shallow, so the T5s mounted up high provide enough light for those items to thrive.

I will say this, I do miss the t5s over the 180, just for looks in the tank and how they reduced some of the shimmer. There was a faint shimmer there, but looked more realistic with them.

So, I kind of regret taking them down from over the 180, but only for looks.

Thanks for the sharing and how is about the growth and colors compared to the led only?

 

[Superlightman]

I love my sunpower with led bars! I am taking it down though and going to use some radions. The only reason though is I want to change the direction of my tank from a mixed tank to a soft coral one (new baby taking all my time!) and the t5s put out a lot of heat into the living room which the central air then has to fight.

If I was to keep a mixed tank… I would not change at all. Can put anything under it and grow without worrying about settings… so awesome.

I have the radions I can tell you the softies love the t5 more..If led I would take the kessil or reefi the spectrum is better than the radions

 

[Tamberav]

I have the radions I can tell you the softies love the t5 more..If led I would take the kessil or reefi the spectrum is better than the radions

can’t comment on reefi. I had kessil before. I liked it except the shimmer is too much.

I plan to hold on to the t5 awhile to make sure. I feel like I have grown softies under a lot of stuff and they didn’t fuss.