Hydra 32hd or redsea LED 90?

[Tomb85]

What would you prefer and why? Looking to upgrade but dont know which light I would prefer.

 

[DesertReefT4r]

I am looking at the same lights. Leaning toward the Red Sea 90w.

 

[motortrendz]

I'd definitly go with the hydra. I've used them for years and they're proven

 

[partimereefer]

I got the Hydra 32s and am really happy with them. Good color blending and coverage and it’s a second generation product so I felt it the safer option long term.

 

[Tomb85]

I am looking at the same lights. Leaning toward the Red Sea 90w.

What's making you lean to the redsea led 90's?

 

[Tomb85]

I got the Hydra 32s and am really happy with them. Good color blending and coverage and it’s a second generation product so I felt it the safer option long term.

Is this your first time using hydra lights?

 

[DesertReefT4r]

What's making you lean to the redsea led 90's?

A few things. 1 you can get more PAR from this light it seems compared to other 90w fixtures due to choice of diodes. Lets say you run the AB+ settings on a Hydra 26 HD, to get that you need to turn some channels down which makes the PAR drop off some. You can only get full output from the Hydra if you run all channels at 100% and not many of us are using the light like that, mainly for pleasing color to the eye or more blue appearance. The HD function does help with this some though by taking power from the diodes that are turned down and giving it to the ones you want. 2 Red Sea has made the Reef LED very simple to use and ensures that no matter what setting you use the light produced will be good for corals. No chance of hurting corals by not having the proper spectrum, Kessil uses this same logic with their lights. 3 having the Reef Beat app for me will be a plus because if the lights loose power you will get a notification. Not having a controller capable of that makes this a nice feature if there is a power outage. 4 the excellent blending of the diodes. There is not disco effect at all with this light due to the lense and diode matrix designs and as a plus it makes some nice shimmer lines in the tank. I have seen a few of these in person and the light color is very nice, makes corals pop and seems to grow them well too. Now I will say I am not sold on the Reef LED, Hydras are still on the table and I have found some clearned 26s here and there for sub $300 and that is also appealing. I do wish either of these would come with a basic cable hanging kit as apposed to needing to buy some form of mounting system.

 

[Tomb85]

I'm also leaning to the redsea for the same reasons. I also like the tank access you get with the lifting arms of the lights. I thought the brs video on the light was very helpful and has pushed me very close to getting this light. In England the redsea light and the hydra 32hd light are the same price so that's why I wanted to do abit of homework before purchasing the right light for me. The only thing that's getting me at the moment is some of the issues regarding power failure to the light and trying to reset it and the issues people are having with this and the customer services experience people have with redsea regarding doing manual fixes yourself to their product. I dont mind fixing it myself as I'm more than capable, I just think its abit strange for a large company to request you do it. Have you thought about these things too?

 

[DesertReefT4r]

I heard of some power supply issues with the Red Sea when tney where first released but it seems that issue is resolved now. I personally think Red Sea having the customers attempt repairs is a good thing. You dont need to send your light in to them and so you have less down time on the tank getting your lights working faster, possibly. Still the 26 HD is tempting for sub $300. Can anyone chime that is using the 26s with your thoughts?

 

[Tomb85]

Think I'm going to go with redsea led 90's

 

[partimereefer]

Is this your first time using hydra lights?

Hydra’s yes but I run their Prime HD on another tank.

I’ve owned Kessil in the past and currently have an Ecotech Radion on my other tank. For my latest build I opted for the HD 32’s and really like them so far. No SPS in the tank yet but I don’t foresee any problems.

 

[DesertReefT4r]

So looks like Im going with the 32 HDs over the Reef LED 90W. I think either light is a great choice but I want the extra control and colors of the Hydra. Plus why not get the newest light from AI for my first LED. Stepping away from MH after many years.

 

[fl3xlinton]

I’m leaning towards the 32 because I feel like the 90 won’t have enough reach for my 40 gal cvue

 

[Deiby Garcia]

I saw them on a Red Sea Max 650 at my local fish store. The tank looked amazing. Full of SPS and the spectrum was awesome. I'm leaning on getting them for my 265 gallon. They had 4 on their 5' tank and light was more than enough. Light was coming off the sides. I was impressed with them.

 

[DeniableArc]

I am using 4 prime 16’s on a rsr250 and I am using 48watts from each light whilst only using 15% white green red.

 

[MichaelReefer]

What would you prefer and why? Looking to upgrade but dont know which light I would prefer.

Love my Hydra 32's

 

[DropInTheOcean Matthew]

What would you prefer and why? Looking to upgrade but dont know which light I would prefer.

hope I'm not too late... but I have 2 bed side tanks (bio cube on each side)- both sps.. they are plumbed together into 20 gallon sump. my 32 g bio cube with has two black box lights over it and it makes it hard to service the tank. so I have been needing to upgrade my lights!! I was going to first get Orphek v4 compact, but with how many issues they have I decided against it.. same with Radion- I was going to get a g5 xr30 blue (with an upgrade in the near future) however, they also have a lot of issues and I didn't see the $1000 value in a cheaply made light... my LFS is changing to all RedSea and they look awesome so I was going to get the 160! but after doing some digging, people are having more issues with the redsea lights than the Radion and Orphek combined!! so after A LOT of thought, I ordered an AI HYDRA 32 today! Probably despite Ecotech.. but nevertheless, I have had an AI prime HD for 4 years now and it hasn't skipped a beat so I felt most confident in going with AI once again. It will be here next week and I can't wait! ill have to update this post soon and let y'all know how all my sps are responding to the new light!