JRLBRENNAN

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new jersey
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Thinking of going back to my four bulb T5 fixture and adding an LED strip been running ocean revive LEDs for the last three years constantly losing coral thinking should have gotten better LED fixture had much more success with coral with my T5 set up before some thoughts and And advice would be great


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Geraud

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Location
Manhattan
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What kind of LED's have you using? I moved to LED from MH about 6 years ago (Ecotech XR15 then XR30), and would never look back.

If you are interested, BRS always say great things about the pendants with T5 on the side, and room for mounting an LED system (Ecotech, Kessil, etc) in the middle. Personally, for a larger tank, I would go with these.

 

Actinic Atoll

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..
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A 4 bulb T5 and actinic LED strip is the sweet spot for cost vs performance, IMO. (I also have a Gen4 over the QT)

I agree with @Geraud that the Ecotech fixtures do grow coral well, it just gets expensive trying to replicate that T5 distribution.

It just depends how much of a gear enthusiast you are vs pragmatism, vs coral junky etc.

Ecotech is making steps in the right direction, first with the release of a diffuser on the Gen 4 lights, now they are moving away from pucks and more towards panels. Time will tell how many generations of Radions it takes to get there, how much will be spent on the intermediate generations.

If and when Ecotech makes, for all intents and purposes T5 replacement, it seems unlikely that it will compete against the price of a generic T5 fixture. Although an offshore company may be able to do it with a less polished device.

My feelings are this, like most others, you can't help but have some sort of a reaction when you hear the new iteration of a product is announced. I find it amusing that the LED light I bought about a year ago is now deprecated, yet the T5 bulbs I purchased are scheduled to be changed at 18 months with virtual clones of themselves. lol. I wonder how Than at Tidal Gardens feels.

The only tangible savings of electricity LED offer is if your LED never breaks and you never replace it. They are compact and sexy though, not to mention being able to adjust the colors.

I know nobody "has" to replace their Gen4, however you may see where I'm going with this. The writing is on the wall. It's going to be a long and expensive road nudging incrementally towards the result you can get today with T5 bulbs and a blue strip for pop.

I am glad to not be chasing the LED dragon anymore, T5 and a Reefbrite or SB Reef Actinic strip are just way to easy to implement, flexible to layout and effective at growing coral with pleasing colors.
 

Actinic Atoll

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Location
..
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Maybe you can use that along with some T5 instead of buying a reef strip. I'm assuming you could turn the power down to 30-50watt would be plenty to run along side some T5.
 

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