Reef tank looks horrible with Radions. Is it me, or the best it gets, or????

[bigfish1152]

So, I thought Radions were gonna be the bee's knees and grabbed me 2 G4 Pro's with Mobius receiver's in them. I have a 55 standard tank with a single ati 55w t5-ho whiteish bulb on the back side of the G4's. T5 bulb is tucked up in the fixture, so, its not putting out a whole lot in all directions, mostly downward. With the T5 on, its dark and dim by any standard measure, even down the back of the tank where it is at. After all it is only 1 bulb. With the G4's alone, I have the cool white and royal around 50% and intensity at 100 to get a white. It seems everything is almost as bad as the T5. Both are hard on the eyes to see everything.

Now, here is the rub.......... If I have all 3 on (L+R G4 & T5-HO) The whole tank is enveloped and blanked in light, it just knocked my socks off!!

LEDs may look "good" by themselves and grow corals, but, sorry, old school is still king. Those that have trained themselves to accept LED's, I dunno what to say. Thats like eating a hamburger, then saying you are full and satisfied while there is a plate of Filet Mignon wrapped in bacon with scalloped potato's sitting next to you. Just missing out!

Before you say anything, I know there are hybrid fixtures out there, but, if I have to run t-5's to get the non steril look, why even bother with LED?

 

[Rubberfrog]

Maybe try adjusting them a bit?

 

[Snookin]

Terrible take and analogy

 

[bigfish1152]

Maybe try adjusting them a bit?

Spent 6 hours alone this weekend adjusting height and every color in the rainbow. Even with everything at 100% is was an eye strain (in general) and gave me a headache. As soon as I plugged in the T5, it was like a hot cup of coca after playing in the snow all day. The feel's were like...wow, soooooooooo much nicer. LED's are in fact NOT the sh**! A nice option for supplamental lighting, but as far as for viewing, thats about it.

And to all others that read this, I am NOT happy about it. I wanted to accept LED's. I even had cheese, crackers and wine ready to go for the celebration of converting. Very disappointing!!

 

[bigfish1152]

Terrible take and analogy

Halides and T5's are about the best looking out there, along with the highest price to run.

If thats not a good enogh analogy for you, please feel free to rewrite it for me ....

 

[bigfish1152]

Oh, and if that wasnt enough, everyone raved no disco ball effect. Running red and white made my tank look like a 1970 roller skating rink with the disco ball on. Even the diffuses didnt help.

Anyone else a little upset with all the claims?

 

[Oldreefer44]

Has been discussed ad nauseam in previous threads.

 

[Jekyl]

I run kessil that I'm quite happy with. Even then I'm still leaning toward a hybrid setup with T5.

 

[bigfish1152]

Has been discussed ad nauseam in previous threads.

Sorry. I just saw all the great comments about LED and thought that was the way to go and I was being a dinosaur. I LOVE technology and wanted to embrace the newest fad, now that they said "looks great AND grows coral". I didnt realize it had been discussed ad nauseam. Looks like I have some reading to do, though a little too late.

 

[bigfish1152]

I run kessil that I'm quite happy with. Even then I'm still leaning toward a hybrid setup with T5.

It was a toss up between Kessil and Radion. After looking them over and comparing them, and with the Radions having more PAR, I went with them.

Really tempted t try Kessil but the Radions left a bad taste. ;Rage

 

[Jekyl]

It was a toss up between Kessil and Radion. After looking them over and comparing them, and with the Radions having more PAR, I went with them.

Really tempted t try Kessil but the Radions left a bad taste. ;Rage

There is zero disco balling with kessil.

 

[davidr2340]

Sorry. I just saw all the great comments about LED and thought that was the way to go and I was being a dinosaur. I LOVE technology and wanted to embrace the newest fad, now that they said "looks great AND grows coral". I didnt realize it had been discussed ad nauseam. Looks like I have some reading to do, though a little too late.

"Newest fad"? I'm not sure I would say LED's are a fad at this point...

 

[c_healy]

Oh, and if that wasnt enough, everyone raved no disco ball effect. Running red and white made my tank look like a 1970 roller skating rink with the disco ball on. Even the diffuses didnt help.

Anyone else a little upset with all the claims?

Of course you will get a disco effect with only those two channels on.

 

[ZoWhat]

LEDs may look "good" by themselves and grow corals, but, sorry, old school is still king. Those that have trained themselves to accept LED's, I dunno what to say.

Not exactly sure why you're out here posting a boo-hoo buyer remorse story

This is on you bruh for not doing the physical research to go look at different store display tanks or even fellow local reefers who would invite you in to see their LED lit tanks.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

You should have known exactly what the LED-look was going to give you before you spent a single penny.

I personally have passed on investigating a particular LED fixture further bc I physical went to look at one on display and didn't like the look on 1 of the 5 channels of lightwaves.
.

 

[saltybees]

LED newb.

 

[Tamberav]

Just sell it and get a ATI fixture. You can later add led bars if you want some led in there.

If the leds are causing strain then the kessil type shimmer may be worse. Probably worth seeing someone else’s tank in person first. They shouldn’t disco but you may need a lot of them to get a blanket light since you like that. Puck leds can cause shadows.

 

[skydirt]

I'll trade you two kessil A360x for them if you want. I can take those terrible nausea inducing things off your hands

 

[jmichaelh7]

Lol

 

[ckozma]

Try running a known good preset like AB+ or radiant color maybe instead of just dicking around with color channels?

 

[Jekyl]

Not a whole lot of constructive criticism going on here.