T5 Talk

[Kevin Cantelon]

Luke save your money and get radions.

 

[Luke.]

How long would they last ? I’ve ad 2 a160 tuna blues kessils where half the led chip burnt out 1 was a year after warranty and the other weeks after , so it just makes me second guess leds lol .. maybe I’m just crazy or maybe kessil just isn’t as good as radions ? @Kevin Cantelon

 

[Luke.]

@TORX whats your max intensity on them and for how long is it there ? (Just curious)

 

[TORX]

@TORX whats your max intensity on them and for how long is it there ? (Just curious)

I run them at 11 hours at 65% max with ramp up and down.

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[Josh]

I know a few different people with kessils and most of them have had burnouts, i think they must overheat or something. I gather from the amount of used radions going around constantly that they are probably a longer lasting light.

 

[Winks]

I am running 2 x Radion XR30 Pro Gen 3 that I purchased used. I do not run any other lights. I personally am very happy with them solo. Before that, I was running 2 x RapidLED Onyx fixtures where I had supplemented T5 for actinic. Before that was the 6 bulb T5 unit.

I have seen Torx's tank recently and I can only say it's nothing short of stunning!

 

[Kevin Cantelon]

How long would they last ? I’ve ad 2 a160 tuna blues kessils where half the led chip burnt out 1 was a year after warranty and the other weeks after , so it just makes me second guess leds lol .. maybe I’m just crazy or maybe kessil just isn’t as good as radions ? @Kevin Cantelon

Luke maybe you had a little bad luck with the Kessils. I've had Radions for a few years now and no problems. When I buy a light in the future it will be radions again.

 

[harleymike]

Radions. So for a 4 foot tank you need at least two. Holly crap there like 900 each plus mounting accessories.
So your at least 2000 bucks.
What makes these things worth that much money. I don't get it.

 

[Luke.]

Radions. So for a 4 foot tank you need at least two. Holly crap there like 900 each plus mounting accessories.
So your at least 2000 bucks.
What makes these things worth that much money. I don't get it.

Yeah I’m a little confused on that , plus you have to buy a wifi thing to control from phone .. and if a get a 125 I’ll need 3 lol if they lasted 10 years I’d buy them lol

 

[TORX]

Yeah I’m a little confused on that , plus you have to buy a wifi thing to control from phone .. and if a get a 125 I’ll need 3 lol if they lasted 10 years I’d buy them lol

If you are going new, you only need 2 Radion G4 XR30's although suggest 3 for proper coverage. You could cut costs further by only getting 3 Radion G4 XR15's you would need 4 G3 XR15's). Yes, they should last you 10 years. I bought my G3 Radions used for $500 each. Reeflink is pretty cool, but only really needed if you also have vortechs. Once lights are set, there isn't really a lot of reasons to have to touch them again. For small changes, you can use the control buttons on the lights. The Reeflink allows you to do 100x more with the vortechs then just the controller. If I just had the lights, I probably wouldn't use a Reeflink


There, took some digging, but I found what I was running when I was doing T5. I used a lot of feedback from the T5 guys here at the time in a different thread, but that was almost 4 years ago. I am assuming most have switched over to led or moved on out of the hobby. I started T5 in November of 2014 and switched to my Onyx LED's November of 2015. Absolutely nothing bad about T5, you can not really go wrong with T5. The only negatives I have are heat, hydro and replacement costs and maintenance. I also like the extra control.

48" 6 bulb Tek Light Elite installed. Light is about 6" over the water line. Went with Blue Plus, Coral Plus, Actinic, Purple Plus, Coral Plus, Blue Plus for my bulb order to even the coloring on both sides of my rock work. After only one day, I am impressed. Of coarse I did not have a great LED set up prior, but the corals have loved these lights. Some are already showing colors I did not know they had. The PE on my montis is awesome to see, especially with that wave I have tuned in right now. Pics will be up soon.

Like I mentioned earlier, I was happy with them. They were better then my cheap black box LED and DIY set up by far. I ran them for what appears to be a year. I liked them more then the Onyx LED that I had switched to after the T5 for color and growth. The Onyx was nice, but if I remember correctly I had better growth and color with the T5. That was some was willing to accept that on the massive cost reduction and changing bulbs required me to take my hood right off my tank, pain in the ass.

 

[kapelan]

Metal Halide is not an option?

 

[TORX]

Metal Halide is not an option?

Sun tubes...even better

 

[monizb]

When I had. My 160 I ran the ati t5 8 bulb Unit and I love I had coral growth like crazy ibefore that I had the aqua illumination on my 90 gal and hated the led then I had my 90 gal cube and went with the maxspect razor light again gave led a try and did not like it with this new 75 gal setup I went with the ati t5 setup and all I can say is stick to t5 true colour and coral growth


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[Luke.]

Now just a thought here , if I had a 6’ long tank could I get away with a 60” fixture and just leave the ends (6” each side ) just bare ? Would that be cheaper ? Or 2 36” fixtures to equal 6’ ?

 

[kapelan]

ATI 8 bulbs : 440W
Most powerful hydra (https://www.bulkreefsupply.com/hydra-fiftytwo-hd-black-aqua-illumination.html) only 130W
Of cause under 440W everything will be better.
Put it this way: to provide equivalent light for ATI 8 bulbs we need 3 Hydra FiftyTwo

 

[Jewel]

Now just a thought here , if I had a 6’ long tank could I get away with a 60” fixture and just leave the ends (6” each side ) just bare ? Would that be cheaper ? Or 2 36” fixtures to equal 6’ ?

I think you be fine with the 60 inch T5, if you could raise it up a bit you'd be laughing, 10 inches off the water.

 

[harleymike]

ATI 8 bulbs : 440W
Most powerful hydra (https://www.bulkreefsupply.com/hydra-fiftytwo-hd-black-aqua-illumination.html) only 130W
Of cause under 440W everything will be better.
Put it this way: to provide equivalent light for ATI 8 bulbs we need 3 Hydra FiftyTwo

So that would be 1800 plus plus for those lights. This is crazy to me.
I have a great job, but i cant justify that kind of money. I would love to see how much it costs to build these and how much of that 1800 is profit.
Some of these companies are way overpriced in my opinion.

Same goes for those ATI fixtures.There nice, but not 900 nice.

 

[TORX]

Vehicles have over a 200% increase over cost, (when I worked for FCA I got my Caravan for $17,000 that had a MSRP over $34,000) jewelry has over 400% increase, everything has a mark up, some of which is astronomical depending on supply and cost. That is why Chinese lights are cheap. When a company pays no benifits and $0.50 a day to their employees while using the cheapest parts, most of them not safety certified once assembled of coarse they are cheaper. But that is a whole other discussion. I think we have a thread here somewhere with a better break down.

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[kapelan]

So that would be 1800 plus plus for those lights. This is crazy to me.
I have a great job, but i cant justify that kind of money. I would love to see how much it costs to build these and how much of that 1800 is profit.
Some of these companies are way overpriced in my opinion.

Same goes for those ATI fixtures.There nice, but not 900 nice.

These are definitely overpriced. And I know why - they looks stylish and nice.
But there is an option to have something like Black Box light. It is not so pretty but they are using the same LEDs crystals. And if we are not picky on esthetic - it works good for corals.

 

[Jewel]

Isn't it a double sword, we bitch about the quality and the lost jobs then we bitch about the high price of quality, I said I'd never cheap out on my lights and it came down to affordability, I'm not an LED fan but it works. Ya 900 for a light is crazy, but if I had the cash I'd buy that light, an ATI 80 watt, yup