Is it worthwhile to upgrade to Radion Gen 5 Blue from Gen 3 Pro?

[Brett S]

So I’ve had three Gen 3 Radion XR30 Pro lights over my 220G tank for nearly 5 years now and I’ve been quite happy with them. I’ve kind of tossed around the idea of upgrading my lighting a little bit now and then, but given that I’ve been happy with the lights and that there is a significant cost associated with upgrading I never really got serious about it.

However, today I just found out that I won a Gen 5 XR30 Blue light from my participation in the WWC live sale on cyber monday (Thanks WWC ) so now I’m thinking much more seriously about upgrading.

I could sell my three Gen 3 lights to offset the cost of buying two additional Gen 5 Blue lights and wind up not paying too much to get Gen 5 lights over my tank. But I’m wondering if there’s enough of a difference in the Gen 5 lights to make it worth upgrading.

One big downside of upgrading is that I would lose Apex control of the lights. I have pretty much everything run through my Apex right now, including my Gen 3 lights through the WXM module. I know that the Gen 5 lights are not compatible with this and I’m not really liking the idea of having to deal with a separate system to control the lights, but I could live with it if there’s a significant benefit to upgrading.

So what do you guys think? Is there enough of a difference in the Gen 5 Blue lights vs the Gen 3 Pro lights that it’s worth dealing with the lack of Apex control and spending a bit to upgrade?

And one bonus followup question... I have the radion diffusers on my Gen 3 lights and I *love* them. That was one of the best lighting upgrades I ever did. Is it worth getting the diffusers for the Gen 5 lights as well or does the new LED pattern reduce the need for the diffusers?

Thanks in advance for your thoughts.

 

[BlennyTime]

I’ve run gen 3 and gen5 lights on my tank at the same time, and while there is a difference I dont think it’s mandatory that you upgrade. Unless you have extremely high PAR needs for a SPS tank, or you are cranking your lights up close to 100% now.

I don’t have the diffuser and haven’t missed it.

You can buy the RF upgrade chip for $20 from ecotech so you can control all through Mobius, if you want. That was pretty easy to do.

 

[Brett S]

Thanks for the reply. Do you see much of a difference in coral coloration at all? It’s my understanding that the Gen 4 and 5 lights have more of a UV spectrum than the Gen 3 lights.

I definitely have an SPS dominated tank, but I‘ve never used a PAR meter. I feel like if I switch lights it would be prudent to buy or rent one so I can try to match the PAR of my existing lights so I don’t cause any issues.

I’m attempting to match the sun’s natural solar radiation as much as possible with my lights, so right now I’m ramping them up from 0 through the morning and they hit 100% briefly in the afternoon and then start ramping back down to 0. They run above 90% for several hours during the day.

I think that if I decide to go with Gen 5 I’ll probably go all the way and replace all of my Gen 3 lights, rather than trying to run a mix, so I won’t need to do the mobius upgrade for the Gen 3 lights.

 

[Brett S]

So it just occurred to me that I’m in kind of a unique situation having won the light. If I was looking at purchasing lights I wouldn’t want to buy them unless I knew that I actually wanted to do the upgrade. But in this case I’m going to get the light no matter what. So once it arrives I can replace one of my Gen 3 lights and compare the Gen 3 and Gen 5 lights side by side and make my decision.

I was thinking I would try to sell it if I don’t decide to upgrade and I might be able to sell it for a little more if I sell it unopened, but the more I think about it, I feel like this is a great opportunity to compare the lights side by side with my own eyes at very little cost.

I’m not sure exactly when I’ll have the new light in my hands, but as soon as I do I’ll post back here and let you know what I think.

 

[Brett S]

So if anyone is interested, I was able to pick up the light today. I also rented a par meter from a local store because I didn’t want to blast my corals too much with the new light. I got the new light over the tank, replacing one of my Gen 3 lights and here are my initial thoughts and observations.

The Gen 5 light definitely provides more par than the Gen 3 light. The light penetrates deeper and it is much more evenly spread. With the Gen 3 light set to the AB+ spectrum and at 100% and the Gen 5 Blue light also at 100% I’m seeing at least 1.25 times the PAR everywhere and around the edges at the bottom of the tank the PAR is nearly double. This is also with diffusers on both the Gen 3 and Gen 5 lights.

At the mid tank level, with the Gen 3 light the corner of the tank was only getting 1/3 of the PAR that the I was seeing at the same depth under the center of the light. With the Gen 5 light the corner of the tank is getting 3/4 of the PAR that I’m seeing under the center of the light at the same depth.

Overall the spectrum actually looks whiter (less blue) than what I was seeing with my Gen 3 lights set to the AB+ spectrum. It also seems to look slightly greener to me. This might be because I was using the Apex with the WXM module to set the spectrum and they don’t have an AB+ setting there. Instead I was using the custom option to set the individual channels to match what was shown in the Coral Labs document. It’s possible that something was lost in the translation and I didn’t have the AB+ spectrum exactly right.

Interestingly, I actually like the slightly whiter spectrum. I don’t see a huge difference in the way my corals look, but I think that either the whiter spectrum or the more even distribution of light actually makes the colors of my fish pop much more than I was seeing under the Gen 3 lights. I’m seeing colors and details on my fish that I have literally never seen before.

I had experimented with different spectrums with my Gen 3 lights before and one thing I struggled with was that while I liked a whiter spectrum it was kind of a compromise because as I moved toward more of a white spectrum I tended to lose some of the pop from colors of the corals. With the Gen 5 lights I’m definitely getting more of a white spectrum than I had, but my corals aren’t losing any of their pop or coloration.

Overall I’m very happy with the Gen 5 lights and I think the upgrade is definitely worthwhile. I am still sad to be losing Apex control over the lights.

Now, excuse me while I go and replace my other two Gen 3 lights now. (I bought two additional Gen 5 lights when I rented the PAR meter figuring that if I didn’t see much of a difference then I could return them when I returned the PAR meter.)

After all that, if anyone is in the market for Gen 3 XR30 Pro lights, send me a PM. After I get them cleaned up I’ll be putting them in the For Sale forum.

 

[Brett S]

I worked until nearly midnight swapping out the lights, taking PAR readings and programming the lights (Grr mobius). I think the fish got pretty annoyed with me as the lights kept coming on and going off as they were trying to sleep.

They light the much more evenly than the Gen 3 lights, which actually proved to be a bit of a problem as I was trying to program them and set the intensity. If I adjusted it so the corals in the middle on the top we’re getting about as much PAR as they were with the old lights then the corals near the bottom edges were getting nearly double what they had before.

In the end I wound up setting the lights where I wanted them and then configured a 30 day acclimation schedule which will set a lower intensity initially so I don’t blast the corals on the bottom and then slowly raise it to where I want it over 30 days.

Overall I’m very happy with them. Here are a couple of shots of the front and back of the tank under the new lights.

 

[aheausler]

So if anyone is interested, I was able to pick up the light today. I also rented a par meter from a local store because I didn’t want to blast my corals too much with the new light. I got the new light over the tank, replacing one of my Gen 3 lights and here are my initial thoughts and observations.

The Gen 5 light definitely provides more par than the Gen 3 light. The light penetrates deeper and it is much more evenly spread. With the Gen 3 light set to the AB+ spectrum and at 100% and the Gen 5 Blue light also at 100% I’m seeing at least 1.25 times the PAR everywhere and around the edges at the bottom of the tank the PAR is nearly double. This is also with diffusers on both the Gen 3 and Gen 5 lights.

At the mid tank level, with the Gen 3 light the corner of the tank was only getting 1/3 of the PAR that the I was seeing at the same depth under the center of the light. With the Gen 5 light the corner of the tank is getting 3/4 of the PAR that I’m seeing under the center of the light at the same depth.

Overall the spectrum actually looks whiter (less blue) than what I was seeing with my Gen 3 lights set to the AB+ spectrum. It also seems to look slightly greener to me. This might be because I was using the Apex with the WXM module to set the spectrum and they don’t have an AB+ setting there. Instead I was using the custom option to set the individual channels to match what was shown in the Coral Labs document. It’s possible that something was lost in the translation and I didn’t have the AB+ spectrum exactly right.

Interestingly, I actually like the slightly whiter spectrum. I don’t see a huge difference in the way my corals look, but I think that either the whiter spectrum or the more even distribution of light actually makes the colors of my fish pop much more than I was seeing under the Gen 3 lights. I’m seeing colors and details on my fish that I have literally never seen before.

I had experimented with different spectrums with my Gen 3 lights before and one thing I struggled with was that while I liked a whiter spectrum it was kind of a compromise because as I moved toward more of a white spectrum I tended to lose some of the pop from colors of the corals. With the Gen 5 lights I’m definitely getting more of a white spectrum than I had, but my corals aren’t losing any of their pop or coloration.

Overall I’m very happy with the Gen 5 lights and I think the upgrade is definitely worthwhile. I am still sad to be losing Apex control over the lights.

Now, excuse me while I go and replace my other two Gen 3 lights now. (I bought two additional Gen 5 lights when I rented the PAR meter figuring that if I didn’t see much of a difference then I could return them when I returned the PAR meter.)

After all that, if anyone is in the market for Gen 3 XR30 Pro lights, send me a PM. After I get them cleaned up I’ll be putting them in the For Sale forum.

Do you still have the gen 3 up for sale