Trying to decide on lighting for my new tank.

[Tristanzs]

I recently aquired a 40 breeder and was thinking about doing either a t5 hybrid setup or perhaps just led. I was thinking primarily sps for this tank. I am debating between an aqua life 36" fixture with either ai prime 16 hd leds or ecotech xr15 pro's. Or I can just run something like an xr30 pro as a stand alone solution. Atm I'm considering the prime's and t5 running four blue plus bulbs. Really it comes down to what would give me the best spectrum of light and coverage. I'd appreciate any input from those with experience on the subject

 

[Luis1992]

Hybrid is the way to go in my opinion. Best of both worlds!

 

[2Wheelsonly]

I recently aquired a 40 breeder and was thinking about doing either a t5 hybrid setup or perhaps just led. I was thinking primarily sps for this tank. I am debating between an aqua life 36" fixture with either ai prime 16 hd leds or ecotech xr15 pro's. Or I can just run something like an xr30 pro as a stand alone solution. Atm I'm considering the prime's and t5 running four blue plus bulbs. Really it comes down to what would give me the best spectrum of light and coverage. I'd appreciate any input from those with experience on the subject

I hopefully can offer input as I have all three of these. My display (96x30x24) has 2 48" aquatic life hybrid T5 running ATI blue + bulbs and Radion G4 Pro XR30 fixtures (6). My frag tank (waterbox frag 60.3) running two AI Prime 16 reef editions.

Light spread and par on the prime are much weaker than I expected. Blues look nicer in person than the G4 pro (my opinion of course) but I expect that as these lights are brand new. You can't say many bad things about Radions as they have been the champ for a while now. The hybrid fixture is nice, innovative and a welcome addition to this hobby. The light adapter kits fit the ecotech lights perfectly. Heat is an issue, I am not getting the life expectancy out of my T5s that I had hoped and the expense of powering and replacing them adds up quickly. I wont get into the benefits of T5 as they have been around forever and we know this is the proper way to overcome shadowing.

The prime's are cool but I feel have limited use if your'e serious about building out a tank for growth. Interface is really nice and super simple to setup.

Even with all these lights over my tank I recently had issues getting light to the mid-front-lower portion of my display so I bought some Orphek blue plus 48-inch light bars to put directly in front shooting at an angle towards my sand band and middle rock work. These lights changed my opinions completely; if money wasn't an object i'd ditch my G4, ATI and T5s in a heartbeat and run solely Orphek units and lightbars to fill in shadowed spots. The color pop and fluorescence they add to corals just blows everyone else out of the water.

My tank under Radion/T5 combo: washed out, no shimmer but great coverage and growth.
My tank under AI Prime: good color, bad spread and not enough power to handle larger growth (good option for frag tanks).
My tank under Radion/T5/Orphek bars: Expensive, tons of blue and PAR off the charts.
My tank under just Orphek light bars: Absolutely amazing color, 100% difference in color pop. Can see frags and colonies I never noticed before from across the room.

 

[Tristanzs]

I considered the orphek option like a single large fixture. It's odd I had no problems ordering 2 mp10s for the tank I got for 40 bucks but I just don't know if I want to commit to radions given the current speculation and have no friends running the orphek option. My current mixed tank is running the previous version of ai prime hd and a t5 with 4 blue +. It's really a tough choice.

 

[2Wheelsonly]

I considered the orphek option like a single large fixture. It's odd I had no problems ordering 2 mp10s for the tank I got for 40 bucks but I just don't know if I want to commit to radions given the current speculation and have no friends running the orphek option. My current mixed tank is running the previous version of ai prime hd and a t5 with 4 blue +. It's really a tough choice.

I hear you! I guess having a reef tank since 2008 has made me a bit jaded so I welcome anything "new". The thing with the Orpheks are that I have no idea on the long term growth or size of that company. What if they get out of the business in two years? We invest heavily in LED due to the longevity of the units; while my Orpheks make my Radions look like kid toys I know Ecotech is here to stay and their support is fantastic. If you're new to reefing and LED, any LED unit is going to "wow" you but after having ATI and Ecotech for years I am so impressed with these Orpheks I just can't imagine using anything else regardless of price/risk/support.

 

[Tristanzs]

I can run the compact version of the orphek according to the information available. It should have enough coverage for a 40 breeder. Then if I'm seeing shadowing I can upgrade later with a couple light bars perhaps. Honestly though I was hoping for a cheaper option as investing in these means I won't be upgrading for quite some time.

 

[2Wheelsonly]

I can run the compact version of the orphek according to the information available. It should have enough coverage for a 40 breeder. Then if I'm seeing shadowing I can upgrade later with a couple light bars perhaps. Honestly though I was hoping for a cheaper option as investing in these means I won't be upgrading for quite some time.

If it helps I can say my experiences have taught me that you want to stay away from the "upgrade" train. I think an assumption that you should expect to get 5 years out of these lights before an upgrade makes sense is the correct and best approach.

I had the original AI Color LED units that replaced the SOL. Sounded cool but at the end of the day, didn't perform any better than the SOL blue. I then went with a new tank build and purchased AI Hydra 52, much better color blending but again my corals did not really take off to justify the expense.

I switch from AI to Ecotech G3, I thought it was a good upgrade at the time with a very slightly different look but again the return did not justify the expense. I fell into the "amazing new innovation" trap and replaced my G3 with G4 pro and saw no noticeable improvement in coloration and growth of my SPS system. I STILL had to add T5 to fix shadowing and only then I saw growth improvements. I am raving about Orpheks because since owning my first LED unit in 2008 I am FINALLY getting the fluorescence and color pop that I expected LED to get from the start. Do they grow my corals better than Radions? Probably not, I just like the look over the boring/underwhelming Ecotech pop.

When it's all said and done, if you want to grow corals then just make sure you have enough lights and any vendor will come through. I 100% do not in any way believe the Radion G5 will be such an improvement over my G4 to justify $100 let alone the $5,500 it would actually cost to replace.

The upgrade game in the LED world is for suckers and that's my honest and maybe controversial assessment.