Radion and I broke up! Went back to my old girl, MH

kannon50 · Mar 2, 2015

Full Blown SPS tank here...

And before you ask, my water quality is nearly flawless. 8+ Years in the Hobby

OK full disclosure here..... this past summer i planned an upgrade and purchased a 210 gallon tank. Figured i would stay up on all the jazz and purchased 4 Radion G3 Pros. Was immediately impressed with the physical appearances and control they offered. ... transferred all my livestock over and lost a few colonies. Thought no biggie, stress is stress..... borrowed graphs from other hobbits stuff looked great. i saw colors in corals i had had for years that i never knew had those colors..... i was sold... this went on for many months and everything looks great. Yet no growth...... so i said screw it, i added (4) 80w T5's to the mix.... ahh there we go getting some growth now. A Little unwanted algae bloom but no worries. .... lost a little color, but things we at least starting to encrust. I was a little upset that after spending over $3k on Leds that i had to spend another $400 just to get some growth.

This went on for about 6 months. Finally fed up, i dumped the Radions and purchased (3) 400w Mini Reflectors from Coral Vue, and a 60" ReefBrite LED Strip.

I built a Custom Floating Canopy, and thew the MH on top, T5's on the front and back and the ReefBrite on front.

i used to run my tank around 78 degrees. since adding the MH my tank is climbing 1 degree an hour. I keep my house 72 degrees, in 4 hours my temp rose from 77.5 to 80.5

Since i have never ran MH on this magnitude

My questions are:

How hot is too hott?
What size chiller would be necessary to maintain 78 degrees on roughly 275 Gallons water volume?
Would fans help? if so where at?
should i increase the flow in the tank?

Anyone who can shed some light on this for me would be greatly appreciated.

Reef On!

pirate2876 · Mar 2, 2015

Welcome back to the bright side!

I can tell you I use halides and love them(aside from the cost of electricity). I use an RKL to control the fans over my sump(1x JBJ fan) and canopy(2x on sides,1x on the back). When the temp hits a certain # it kicks on the fans. I use a chiller that kicks on at 80 if it gets that hot but, rarely does. I feel its better safer than sorry when it comes to temp. Get a good chiller/heater when you can.

kannon50 · Mar 2, 2015

Thanks man feels good to be back. Im running radium 20k 400w bulbs and jesus the suckers are hot. Tomorrow is the first full day on the proposed schedule. Ill let you know how it goes.

reid429 · Mar 2, 2015

Everyone knows halides are the best for Sps. It's just the costs associated with them that is the downfall along with heat

kannon50 · Mar 2, 2015

reid429 said:
Everyone knows halides are the best for Sps. It's just the costs associated with them that is the downfall along with heat

I hear ya man, but still brand new the MH setup didnt even run a grand. The radions i bought when they first came out so paid like 3400 or so i think. .... luckily i was able to sell them to a guy for 75% what i had in them. ..... to the extra money coral shopping

docsky729 · Mar 2, 2015

I run 3 400watters on a 300 with about 400g total. I have fans that turn off and on to control the heat and as a safety I have the lights shut off if the tank gets to hot darning the hot august days. A plus side is that i do not have to run a heater. my tank runs 76 to 81 depending on the season. I have been running them around 5 years and love them. You should see crazy growth from them.

kannon50 · Mar 2, 2015

docsky729 said:
I run 3 400watters on a 300 with about 400g total. I have fans that turn off and on to control the heat and as a safety I have the lights shut off if the tank gets to hot darning the hot august days. A plus side is that i do not have to run a heater. my tank runs 76 to 81 depending on the season. I have been running them around 5 years and love them. You should see crazy growth from them.

Docsky- crazy growth is what im after. Need to grow all these signature pieces out so i can frag them for my buddies ....question ...where are you fans located? .... what temp do you keep your house?

reid429 · Mar 2, 2015

Yea startup for halides is the cheap but then there is the chiller, bulbs and electricity costs associated so it evens out on the radions

thejuggernaut · Mar 3, 2015

Yea, throw some fans on top of it. I use those little white 7-8" clip on fans you buy at walmart for 8 bucks. Get 3 of them and blow them in the canopy. They rust out every 18 months or so, but at about 20 bucks or so a year, who cares. If you keep your house at 72 you won't need a chiller with those fans. Either plug them into your apex if you have one or get a ranco 2 stage temp controller. I think they are 100 bucks. You plug your fans into one outlet and your heaters into the other and it will keep the tank within 2 degrees. Day or night! Chillers are a last resort, and usually only needed for people with a garage fish room or people who live up north and don't run AC during the day, cause it is cool at night when they get home.

IBEW41 · Mar 3, 2015

radions at 85% grows sps with no problem

thejuggernaut · Mar 3, 2015

lol wondered how long that would take

IBEW41 · Mar 3, 2015

it took about 2yrs but I trim a lot and trade it into a local lfs

pirate2876 · Mar 3, 2015

IBEW41 said:
it took about 2yrs but I trim a lot and trade it into a local lfs

I think he was being sarcastic.

powdermonkey · Mar 3, 2015

IBEW41 said:
it took about 2yrs but I trim a lot and trade it into a local lfs

Before someone defended radions...lol
I still use radions myself...for supplementing the 400w...welcome back!

thejuggernaut · Mar 3, 2015

Yea, I mean't before someone defended LEDs. Don't get me wrong, they have their own benefits, just like any kind of lighting. Check out the new TOTM. 900 gallons and nothing but LED. That said, MH despite having to replace the bulbs, the added heat and the added electrical cost, they still put out the best looking light in my opinion. On my next tank I plan on a combination of T5 and LED. I think that is a good sweet spot.

IBEW41 · Mar 3, 2015

powdermonkey said:
Before someone defended radions...lol
I still use radions myself...for supplementing the 400w...welcome back!

electric company must love you

macscale · Mar 3, 2015

I hear so many mixed stories about Radions but so far my new tank with new LED's are working good.. We'll see nothing grows SPS like halides.

MattL22 · Mar 3, 2015

I'm running 2 radions and 2 250w mh on my 220 so far I have a bunch of encrusted frags and would say I'm getting better color with my radions then 250 w but growth seems painfully slow under them so we shall see over all I'm happy with them as 400 w mh r just not an option for me if I wasn't restricted by anything I'd run 400 w mh but that's a lot of power usage

SCMatt · Mar 3, 2015

I'd love to run some MH....but I refuse to put up with the heat they put out, especially during summer here. Nope! I'll stick with my LEDs and moderate growth. Can't knock the MHs though, tried and true light.

thejuggernaut · Mar 3, 2015

2 radions and 2 250 is actually more electricity than 2 400s, and even if it wasn't, the price difference isn't really that much. Here I pay under 10 cents/kwh. So running 2 400w bulbs 8 hours a day is only around 20 bucks a month. Granted they put out more heat, but it isn't too bad considering when I had metals, about an hour after the bulbs went out the heaters would start cycling on and off. A Radion peaks out at around 170 watt, so when you really look at it the electrical difference it is negligible, atleast here where electricity is cheap. Now the price of bulbs does come into consideration, but 400 watt bulbs aren't much more than a 250. People hype the energy savings on an LED, but honestly I doubt you would see the energy savings alone make up the higher initial purchase price over the whole life of the fixture.