LED coral growth Hydra 26 or other
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saltyphish
Certified Sand Groomer
I like the radion's over the hydra's personally.
I won the acro growout contest using hydra 26's for the last half. Reefbreeders for the 1st half of the contest. I like the hydra dual pucks over the radion for just a bit more coverage. My 120 with 5 hydra 26s.
Tri color acro, 1st photo around new years - 2nd photo 6 months later. All growth under hydra 26. 1st photo was under RB right before changed over. Color of 1st photo is a bit strange, not a good camera.
Tri color acro, 1st photo around new years - 2nd photo 6 months later. All growth under hydra 26. 1st photo was under RB right before changed over. Color of 1st photo is a bit strange, not a good camera.
WetWhistle
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Someone should tell your corals they shouldn't be growing. I heard LED don't grow sps. 
lol
Nice setup. Love the Tricolor.
lolNice setup. Love the Tricolor.
rubin88
Community Member
Hey sorry i did't reply fast but if you have any corals and if so how are your coral doing.
rubin88
Community Member
Do the hydras look bright in person...
That is hard to say as bright it totally subjective. It also depends how blue you like the tank. If you are running 10k where the whites are higher % than the blues or 12K where they are even % then to me the tank looks crazy bright. 20K to me looks like the t5 setup I used to have brightness wise, but it's been ages since I had anything besides LED. They are sure brighter than my old reefbreeders though. They do have green LEDs, so while that doesn't do much for coral, it does make them brighter to our eyes since we are sensitive to green without making the tank look green.
NoStRaThOmAs
Active Member
I won the acro growout contest using hydra 26's for the last half. Reefbreeders for the 1st half of the contest. I like the hydra dual pucks over the radion for just a bit more coverage. My 120 with 5 hydra 26s.
Tri color acro, 1st photo around new years - 2nd photo 6 months later. All growth under hydra 26. 1st photo was under RB right before changed over. Color of 1st photo is a bit strange, not a good camera.
NoStRaThOmAs
Active Member
Just curious why you went with the 26's over the 52's? Beautiful tank and corals! What did you use to hang the lights? Can you share your lighting schedule?
IMO the 26's are superior to the 52s unless you have a deep tank, like 30". According to AI 2 26s are more powerful than 1 52, I think because they cool better, but the real reason I went with 26s is because it splits the pucks. It's only slightly more expensive to run 2 26s over 1 52. Shading is a real issue, as is coverage with LEDs in general. IMO if you have a proper number of LED fixtures there should be no hotspots really, just an even PAR number across the the tank at the fixed depth. Breaking those 4 pucks in half increases power and distribution as you can position them wherever you want.
I just used the AI classic rail kit with the hanging attachment. You can see in the pic that I used the spacer for the 52s and mounted the lights parallel instead of perpendicular for the 120's depth. Also with the director you can run the fixtures at different times and intensities for different coral - another advantage of having more 26s over less 52s. Unless as I said the tank is deep and you need the power of those 4 pucks. The spread pucks is also why I like AI right now over radions.
I have a simple lighting schedule. 1hr ramp up - RB, DB, V UV at 95%, W, R G at 45% for 7hr before ramp down over 1hr.
I just used the AI classic rail kit with the hanging attachment. You can see in the pic that I used the spacer for the 52s and mounted the lights parallel instead of perpendicular for the 120's depth. Also with the director you can run the fixtures at different times and intensities for different coral - another advantage of having more 26s over less 52s. Unless as I said the tank is deep and you need the power of those 4 pucks. The spread pucks is also why I like AI right now over radions.
I have a simple lighting schedule. 1hr ramp up - RB, DB, V UV at 95%, W, R G at 45% for 7hr before ramp down over 1hr.
NoStRaThOmAs
Active Member
NoStRaThOmAs
Active Member
Thanks for the information. Great looking tank and corals!
TankRazr
Active Member
I have some rapid led onyx fixtures with 60° optics controlled via the apex vdm over a 48" deep tank and so far like the trajectory the tank (and corals) are on. I'm just starting to stock the tank with corals and photographing as the tank progresses, but nothing to post just yet.
Saltyphish, do you have any full tank shots that might give us an idea of the results your getting with the radions?
hart24601, nice work! Tank looks great, I'm taking notes on your settings. Great insight as far as utilizing the 26's vs. the 52's.
TR
Reefcowboy
Well-Known Member
I also run hydra 26's and love them. I also run t5's supplementing, but i really like the sleek, slim fixture of these LEDs.
Running three 26's over a 36" sps tank.
Going back to a question a few posts above, the 26's have more watts per led, and allow for a better distribution of the light over the tank length(one would need however more modules). This is IMO the biggest mistake with LEDs...fewer, way powerful LEDs modules covering a long tank, forcing the user to up intensity to cover all corners, thus frying the corals. If one instead uses more units at lower intensities better covering the corals, I think one can get great results.
Running three 26's over a 36" sps tank.
Going back to a question a few posts above, the 26's have more watts per led, and allow for a better distribution of the light over the tank length(one would need however more modules). This is IMO the biggest mistake with LEDs...fewer, way powerful LEDs modules covering a long tank, forcing the user to up intensity to cover all corners, thus frying the corals. If one instead uses more units at lower intensities better covering the corals, I think one can get great results.
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Joeganja
2500 Club Member
With 1 radion xr15 pro and it only has one puck compared to a hydra 26 that has 2 pucks the hydra wins because your chance of growing sps is higher and better because it's an amazing light for the price they dropped down to $299 compared to the $349 or 400 radions
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