Seeking some input from Radion owners

[ca2or]

I have 2 gen 1 XR30W units over my 56 gallon tank. Dude said he didn't run them very long for what that's worth. Anyway.... I plan to do the gen 3 upgrades through Ecotech in about 2 months when funds will allow but in the meantime I need to get these up to snuff.

My issue is that I have been advised by a source I have trusted for years to hike these up to 100% on all channels and use the acclimation mode too spread it over 4 weeks. My concern is bleaching corals and algae bloom, but he knows the lights better and also has a significantly bigger tank.

My tank is 36 inches long, 18 inches front to back, and 20 inches deep. Radions are 8 inches from the surface. Closest coral is about 6 inches from the surface.

What are your thoughts?

I also have 2 AI Primes that I am considering running as supplements. I was running these up until I got the radions at 80% with a 250w MH that ran for four hours.

I have a lot of ZOA's, hammer, torch, bubble tips, Yuma's, and a Stylo which is actually only 4 inches from the surface.

Help

 

[mcarroll]

Get a light meter and use that to set your lights.

They should be as close to the same intensity as the old lights as possible through the transition. (Measure the old lights too if at all possible.)

If you have no light meter:

Start with a free lux meter app for your smartphone. It uses the camera's light sensor to compute a regular lux reading. You should get one of these now and post up your results. (Sometimes apps don't work right with every camera so you get bad results.)

I would also recommend ordering a handheld lux meter like the "LX-1010B" that I use. They typically cost less than $15, delivered. They will give better results and will be safer to use around your tank! :)​

 

[Khh27]

I have 1 xr30 gen 2 pro set at 65% but that's not every channel at 100% of 65% and I get 350par at about 4inches below center. It does go down drastically as I go further out. I get 80par at far front corners of the 40 breeder this is with wide angle lenses with light 9" above water. I just switched over from TIR and I was getting over 400 at the same level I am now getting 350. I would imagine with the non wide angle TIR lenses I would fry everything senseless at 100% every channel even with acclimation. I would imagine over 800 par at 4" below lights.

But I'm not experienced with gen1

 

[Khh27]

I will get par reading of my gen2 pro at 100 every channel tomorrow.

 

[ca2or]

I will get par reading of my gen2 pro at 100 every channel tomorrow.

Awesome. The app on my phone said this at the surface.... So probably lie

 

[mcarroll]

Sounds about right! :)

Just out of curiosity, which fixture is that and how far from the fixture?

Now, as long as you make the old and new fixture's match according to the meter, it doesn't matter too much about absolute numbers.

There is not "correct" or "best" PAR or lux reading....except that which your corals are currently used to.

Measure how fast lux falls off from the peak area, and how far it falls. Corals may have trouble below 10,000 lux.

2 for $5 on eggs is pretty good too!

 

[Khh27]

With wide angle lenses at at 9" above water level. I'm getting 580-700par 4" below water level and 500-300par 5-12" below water. But I'm not familiar with gen 1 or the lenses so hard to tell I know I wouldn't run my fixture at 100% all channels if I had mostly lps and zoas.

 

[Khh27]

But I am also getting 100 par on edges and 150-175 in center at 18" which is a good # for the sandbed

 

[mcarroll]

@Khh27 Can you take a reading at or above the waterline please? I'm curious what you get there too. :)

 

[Khh27]

It was 1100-1200 with the sensor just out of water. I took readings with all flow on so it could be higher with all pumps off.

 

[Khh27]

@Khh27 Can you take a reading at or above the waterline please? I'm curious what you get there too. :)

^

 

[mcarroll]

Great minds, right?! :D

Do you know if readings just under the water vs just out are much different? Say 1cm in vs 1cm out?

(Any chance you could measure again if you don't know off hand? That's as much a question about your probe as the lights, but still interesting I hope!)

 

[Khh27]

The water makes a huge impact on the light as it has to penetrate it. Low 700s but that is with the flow on. I will take one in a few with flow off

 

[Khh27]

Great minds, right?! :D

Do you know if readings just under the water vs just out are much different? Say 1cm in vs 1cm out?

(Any chance you could measure again if you don't know off hand? That's as much a question about your probe as the lights, but still interesting I hope!)

Ok I lied. With flow off it is 780-800par with sensor cm off surface and 660-680par with sensor cm under water level at same spot. It is 1100par at about 3" above surface

 

[ca2or]

Sounds about right! :)

Just out of curiosity, which fixture is that and how far from the fixture?

Now, as long as you make the old and new fixture's match according to the meter, it doesn't matter too much about absolute numbers.

There is not "correct" or "best" PAR or lux reading....except that which your corals are currently used to.

Measure how fast lux falls off from the peak area, and how far it falls. Corals may have trouble below 10,000 lux.

2 for $5 on eggs is pretty good too!

Who are you asking? Me? Radion XR30W Gen 1. I have 2 of them.

 

[PupChow]

I am running a G1 upgraded to G3 XR30W over a 45g tank (24x24x18) mixed reef, with a big colony of frogspawn sitting right under the light touching the surface of the water. The light is roughly 8" from the surface mounted with the Radion arm, whatever fancy name it's called. I am running the CoralLab template at 95% intensity for 7 hours a day.

I started out with the light at 40% intensity at roughly 8 hours a day and ramped up 5% every other day, stopped and ran the light at 65% 9 hours for a long time until I decided to step it up more. Honestly I did not see too big of a difference... I have videos of my aquarium's progress since day 1 on my YouTube channel, you can check them out to see how my corals responded to the light. In my case, the LPS / softies have no problem taking the Radion G3 at 95% intensity for 7 hours a day and so far no major algae growth issue (I did but it mainly had to do with bad water source and detritus). Although like your buddy said, you probably want to slowly acclimate your corals to the higher intensity!

 

[ca2or]

Yeah I added my primes back into the mix to supplement more blues and UV.

 

[Salty1962]

I'd never run the Radions at 100%, you will burn up your corals. I have 2 G.3 Pros over my 36x24x18 and I run them at 50% with wide angle lenses in the center and TIR lenses on the outside.

 

[ca2or]

Thank you all for the input.

 

[AK_Reef]

When I first bought radions I lost a lot of my sps and assumed I was running them too high, as it turned out the opposite was the problem. I installed the 120' wide angle lenses on my three gen 3 xr30 pros when I first bought them. I read all over about people being able to run a max intensity of 40,50,60% or they would start to see bleaching. I borrowed a par meter and found out that anything under 80% with the 120' lenses was only getting 180-220 par to my acros. I've been running the AB+ schedule at 100% overall with the white,green,red bumped up to 80% on the day time set points for the last 4-5 months with great success, I have three gen 3 xr30 pro's over a 6'x2'x2' 165 g. Most my acros are 8-16 inches under water. I'd highly recommend trying to borrow a par meter to get them dialed in.