Help Me Pick My LED Light for Evo 13.5

Which Light for my Evo 13.5

  • Radion XR15 Pro

    Votes: 8 50.0%
  • Prime 16 HD

    Votes: 7 43.8%
  • A160WE Tuna Blue

    Votes: 1 6.3%
  • ReefLED 50 Red Sea

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    16

ForTheLoveOfCoral21

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Want to be able to keep everything under the sun.

Im not to worried about price as i am in the fact i never want to have to upgrade and have the best bang for the buck to even keep SPS

Any other suggestions please post, also let me know what you're thinking on these lights and why or why not!
 
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Gtinnel

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I've never used any of those lights or even those brands, but of them if money is no object I'd get the Radion. There is no real reason for my decision other than I think of Radions as the best high end led lights. It does seem like a ridiculous overkill for that size tank, but that kinda seems like what you're wanting.
 
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ForTheLoveOfCoral21

ForTheLoveOfCoral21

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I've never used any of those lights or even those brands, but of them if money is no object I'd get the Radion. There is no real reason for my decision other than I think of Radions as the best high end led lights. It does seem like a ridiculous overkill for that size tank, but that kinda seems like what you're wanting.
Not looking for overkill so to speak, as in the fact that i can never outgrow it, and if and when i upgrade to a larger 24x24x24 cube i can still use it.
 

Gtinnel

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Not looking for overkill so to speak, as in the fact that i can never outgrow it, and if and when i upgrade to a larger 24x24x24 cube i can still use it.
If there is a possibility of upgrading to a bigger tank then I think the Radion would be the way to go. I wouldn't think any of the others would be suitable for a 24x24 SPS tank. I'm not even sure the Radion would be suited for that size high demand tank.
 
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ForTheLoveOfCoral21

ForTheLoveOfCoral21

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If there is a possibility of upgrading to a bigger tank then I think the Radion would be the way to go. I wouldn't think any of the others would be suitable for a 24x24 SPS tank. I'm not even sure the Radion would be suited for that size high demand tank.
Good Point, i would most likely in that case get a second if needed.
 

Dkmoo

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Want to be able to keep everything under the sun.

Im not to worried about price as i am in the fact i never want to have to upgrade and have the best bang for the buck to even keep SPS

Any other suggestions please post, also let me know what you're thinking on these lights and why or why not!
in a tank size that small - just because you want a light that "can" grow anything, doesn't mean you will ever need it - and this has to do with what corals you ultimately end up keeping. The reason i bring this up is that because of your tank size, the PAR range between top to bottom will not be that high. (probably 100 PAR difference max between top to bottom).

so when you make your coral choices, you won't be able to, say keep softies that can't exceed 50PAR and a high end Acropora that needs 400 PAR+ in the same tank without some serious shading/creative rockwork, and even that isn't sometimes possible due to the internally reflected light from the side glass.

So, for example if, you started off with softies and LPS, and have gotten some good success/flourishing reef with lighting around 50 - 150 par. There is no way you can add a fancy acropora and dial up your light to 400PAR, without some serious rescaping/removing of your existing corals, or they will be burnt under the high light. So, if you do not ever plan on doing that, then there's really no use to have a light that can get up to 400PAR.
 
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ForTheLoveOfCoral21

ForTheLoveOfCoral21

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in a tank size that small - just because you want a light that "can" grow anything, doesn't mean you will ever need it - and this has to do with what corals you ultimately end up keeping. The reason i bring this up is that because of your tank size, the PAR range between top to bottom will not be that high. (probably 100 PAR difference max between top to bottom).

so when you make your coral choices, you won't be able to, say keep softies that can't exceed 50PAR and a high end Acropora that needs 400 PAR+ in the same tank without some serious shading/creative rockwork, and even that isn't sometimes possible due to the internally reflected light from the side glass.

So, for example if, you started off with softies and LPS, and have gotten some good success/flourishing reef with lighting around 50 - 150 par. There is no way you can add a fancy acropora and dial up your light to 400PAR, without some serious rescaping/removing of your existing corals, or they will be burnt under the high light. So, if you do not ever plan on doing that, then there's really no use to have a light that can get up to 400PAR.
Thank you! This was the high level answer that i needed. Makes perfect sense in all aspects. Do you think the Prime HD 16 is to much then?
 

Dkmoo

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I think the 16 hd is fine - its as "jack of all traits" as you can get. I just wanted to point out in my post that there is a "theoretical" best choice and a "practical" best choice that will cover "85%" of what corals you can fit in one tank, which the 16hd is amply suited for.

Infact, I have some doubt that a single Prime, when set to the most popular "blue focused" settings, can even reach 400 par anyway. As a reference, my 30G long mixed reef had the aforementioned 400+PAR acro and the sub 50 par mushrooms and the only way I achieved that is lighting up half the tank so I have a high par/low par half. The half is probably similar dimensions as your 13G and I needed 2 primes and 2 reefbrite strips to achieve 350 par bottom and 550 par top.

With 1 Prime, you will likely reach up to 200-250 PAR max, with some shading you can probably keep bottom at 50 - 100PAR for the softies, Most LPS will be in that 100 to 200 sweet spot, and at the 200 to 250 par areas you should be able to keep many non-acropora SPS, and maybe a few beginner "green colored" acroporas. You just won't be able to keep many of the higher end acros that have other flouresence colors (red, pink, yellow, blue) as many of those can only be achieved and maintained at 400PAR +

I would highly recommend buying or renting a par meter when you set everything up so you can dial in the exact par values and take out the guesswork on your coral placement and choice. A seneye is only around $200
 
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