lighting is my problem!!!

[Bori]

hi there! Im new here on R2R and im in need of some help!;)

I have been in and out of the hobby for couple of years but only with agressive fish aquariums! Now i have been looking around and getting more interested on keeping corals and fish that are reef safe! I just bought a nepute apex controller and a bunch of stuff to start growing corals on both of my tanks! One is a 125g (72"long x 18"d x 24"h) and the other one is 300g (84" long x 30"d x 30"h)My question is lighting setups. i've been reading a couple of threads or may i say "battles" lol of people that go for L.E.D others for T5's and MH!

I just want some expertise on what kind of light can i use with the apex to create a dawn till dusk scene "what hours on/off use of lights and % to used them on" and obviously get the best coral growth! Im riding on the fence between Radions XR 30w pros or ATI T5's 6 or 8 bulb fixtures. I know i can get the dawn till dusk with the radions but im not sure how ATI's can create the same effect with the controller!

If i go with ATI's what model would you guys recommend?

Sorry for the inconvenience but just looking for some words of wisdom!

 

[jsker]

If you would like information about the ATI T5's ask @john.m.cole3 We created a friendly thread to do a straight up comparison and we are only reporting what we see that our light are doing for our systems. Our Thread is here. John really like his ATI 5's
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/our-lighting-comparison-ati-t5-sunpower-hydra-26-hds.243852/

 

[JPSika08]

I would def. go with the Radions, if you combine them with the Vortechs you'll have some pretty good thunderstorm effects, aside from the dusk till dawn scenes. With T5's you won't be able to do this.

Apex and Ecotech work like a charm together.

 

[Bori]

I will check it out! Thank you!!!

 

[Aznxgqboyx]

Ati sunpower dimmable T5s all the way, and the thunderstorm affect, really common that thing is annoying and people rarely use it looks like you have a club going in in your reef.

 

[john.m.cole3]

I am running the ATI 6 bulb dimmable fixture. It has 10 set points for each channel. channel 1 controls 4 bulbs and channel 2 controls 2 bulbs. It is totally capable of doing dawn --> dusk effects! Radions can also do this and they are more controllable overall. The reason I picked T5 was b/c I didn't want to spend all the time fine tuning it in. I watched some videos by Tidal Gardens on youtube that showed examples of bulb combinations to bring out different colors in your tank. I think the folks using Radions have lots of preset programs you can use to figure out what colors it will bring out. For the 6 ft tank I would recommend a 5 ft T5 fixture or 3 x Radion 30's. The 7 ft tank would do best with 2 x 36" T5 fixtures or 3-4 Radions. Radions might do better due to the 30" depth of the tank.

But yeah, come check out our lighting comparison thread. It is building up some good info already. Not a battle zone either :)