Lets argue !!!! Metal halides Vs T5s Vs Leds

[allan]

I've said this a couple times since breaking down.

If I ever get back in, I'm picking up a bucketful of the Chinese fixtures. They grow coral, and the colors were just as good as with the sols.

Sure, you can't program them to ramp up or down, to mimic a cloudy day or thunderstorm... But the truth of the matter is I never say through a ramp up cycle with a cup of coffee or even Geritol.

I believe that there are a number of delicate coral out there that will not take a switch from halide to led, simply because the change is so rapid. And they're delicate.

I made the swap from 100% halide to 50/50, then to 100% led.

I didn't have any of the delicate stuff.

The cloudy weather or lightening storm was more of an irritant as it always happened when I was showing my relatives the tank.

[kkiel02]

I've been super happy with my radions. I was also thinking about the whole t5 retro but in the end I didn't need it as you can control the spectrum from your computer and it would be another yearly bulb replacement. I'm going to have to research this 52 fixture though as I need spread in my tank more than anything. The radion 2 is doing good but they are just lacking slightly(maybe four") in between each of the three fixtures I have noticed over time.

[kkiel02]

Double post

[kkiel02]

I also don't run the storm mode anymore. It felt like a rave and just got annoying. Haha

[350gt]

No storm for me but i use the cloud feature which is cool... Portion of the tank will be dim then brighten up...

[kkiel02]

Yeah I took that offline cause I would see that then think I had the re calibrate the lights. Lol. After a few times I figured it out but now it's off. I think...

[grouch]

I went to LED cause I was tired of spending the $$ on T5 bulbs.
My current config is: 1 VEGA blue.2 AquaBeam 600 Ultima - Reef White twin 18'' strips and
2 50 w bridgelux chips on 6'' MakersLED heatsinks.

I like the progamming fratures of the Vega but am not impressed with coral grouwth.
The 2 Aquabeam strips put out a lot of light for the numberof LEDs and I use this as a hgh noon boost. Nice lights with a 5year warranty.
The 2 50w chips on heatsinks add that nice blue look.
The best grouwth I ever got was with T5's on my 28 nano with a 6bulb T5
I just bought 2 coral pro fixtures from Reef Radience to replace the 50w chips cause they have UV in the spectrun mix and thay had a Xmas special price. This gives me some backup lighting for just in case also. Im with Allan the black box fixture seems to grow just as good if notbetter the the high price fixtures.

[350gt]

I like the progamming fratures of the Vega but am not impressed with coral grouwth.

Im with Allan the black box fixture seems to grow just as good if notbetter the the high price fixtures.

How long did you have the vega up alone before assessing this?

[350gt]

I also believe alot of ppl have luck with the black box because of the lower wattAge leds(earlier models) and set its a set it and forget it type of fixture..... Well the non dimmable ones...

With higher end units, its alot of guess work and ppl tend to blast their corals with too much light....

I almost gave up on my vegas, when things started going south.... But i figured out it had to do more with my husbandry than the lights.. Although i was blasting my tank with too much light.....

So glad i didnt as stuff has turned around rather quickly... And growth is finally noticeable..

[allan]

Actually, the black box that I have is dimmable... old school. Has a little knob that you turn to the color brightness that you want. Can't control it with a computer... unless you set your computer to alarm when you want to be notified to turn it up.

Yeah, next time I'm just picking up six or eight of the black boxes and running with them.

As far as growth is concerned, I don't think it's that far behind halides... but it is behind halides.