Radion G5

Rhoads238 · Oct 31, 2020

Hey everyone,

I'm looking into getting some Radion G5s for my upcoming build. I am torn between the pro and the blue. I went to my LFS today and they had xr30 blues over one of their tanks. I thought that the ab+ spectrum looked really nice and really made the corals pop. For those of you that have them I would love to hear wether you went with the pro or blue and why. How long have you had them? How are your corals doing under them? What spectrum are you running? Anything else you would like to add about them I would love to hear.

Thanks for the info and feel free to share pics of your Radion lit tank!

Timmtom49 · Oct 31, 2020

blue you can make them white any way just more blue to play with and corals look better always go blue

JGT · Oct 31, 2020

Rhoads238 said:
Hey everyone,

I'm looking into getting some Radion G5s for my upcoming build. I am torn between the pro and the blue. I went to my LFS today and they had xr30 blues over one of their tanks. I thought that the ab+ spectrum looked really nice and really made the corals pop. For those of you that have them I would love to hear wether you went with the pro or blue and why. How long have you had them? How are your corals doing under them? What spectrum are you running? Anything else you would like to add about them I would love to hear.

Thanks for the info and feel free to share pics of your Radion lit tank!

It’s a matter of preference but I found the blues too blue so I did half blue and half pros.

Conchman · Oct 31, 2020

I went with the Pros, you will find a pretty regular statement that the blues are too blue...

Jon's Reef · Oct 31, 2020

Blues plus a single Kessil set to white. Coverage, color and shimmer.

Rhoads238 · Nov 16, 2020

I think i am going to choose the blues. I think i will be less likely to mess with the spectrum and the corals will be happier for it.

Anyone have any thoughts on xr15s or xr30s? The tank will be 84x32x24. And will be a mixed reef but will be pretty acro heavy. I'm thinking either 10 xr15s in two rows or 5 xr30 mounted perpendicular to the front glass.

Joedubyk · Nov 16, 2020

I have 5 over my 525XL Reefer. I run 3 blues and 2 pros

Not a huge fan of the blues, which I had before, but the pros can be quite white.

Regardless. it's a great light

Rhoads238 · Nov 16, 2020

Joedubyk said:
I have 5 over my 525XL Reefer. I run 3 blues and 2 pros

Not a huge fan of the blues, which I had before, but the pros can be quite white.

Regardless. it's a great light

Are they xr15 or xr30?

Joedubyk · Nov 16, 2020

Rhoads238 said:
Are they xr15 or xr30?

15s, SPS dom.

Jon's Reef · Nov 16, 2020

8 would be good. 2 rows, 21" apart. Here are some pics:

The Kessil versus Radion debate - why not use both?

So I’ve probably read just about every post out there on Kessil lights versus Radion lights and have concluded both company’s have extremely loyal fans. Both can growth corals, but use different approaches/technology and go about it in slightly different ways including the applications they...

www.reef2reef.com

Rhoads238 · Nov 16, 2020

Jon's Reef said:
8 would be good. 2 rows, 21" apart. Here are some pics:

The Kessil versus Radion debate - why not use both?

So I’ve probably read just about every post out there on Kessil lights versus Radion lights and have concluded both company’s have extremely loyal fans. Both can growth corals, but use different approaches/technology and go about it in slightly different ways including the applications they...

www.reef2reef.com

Jon that looks really great. I had thought about doing something like that. How did you mount the kessil to the RMS?

ReeferBean · Nov 16, 2020

I'm glad I went with the blues. I have 4 XR30 over a 300 and the corals are growing well.

Jon's Reef · Nov 16, 2020

Rhoads238 said:
How did you mount the kessil to the RMS?

Radion G5 Blue + Kessil Hybrid

Love the Radion spread and the Blue spectrum... but I wanted to bring in some of the sharp Kessil lines. So this is what I came up with: 2 Radion G5 XR15 Blue with 30.5" RMS bar and hanging kit Add a 2.5" hole saw Now a A160W (XR15 rotated so long way is front back)... And done... Without...

www.reef2reef.com

The Kessils are for the "look" not necessarily for par (gives a little infill though... but mostly for shimmer and shadow). A160's would work fine, bonus is that they can be controlled via apex by 0-10V. If you want more oomph, go with A360

Also, benefit is that you can adjust each XR15 for the light "zone" requirement. For me, the left light is set to 90% for the SPS (~400 par) while the right side is set at 50% for LPS (~200 par). Since most of the light is in the Blue, your eyes can't tell 50% vs 90% easily.

Here is another pic that shows the kessil shimmer-shadowing with XR15 background a bit better (tank is 36x24)

Rhoads238 · Nov 16, 2020

Jon's Reef said:
Radion G5 Blue + Kessil Hybrid

Love the Radion spread and the Blue spectrum... but I wanted to bring in some of the sharp Kessil lines. So this is what I came up with: 2 Radion G5 XR15 Blue with 30.5" RMS bar and hanging kit Add a 2.5" hole saw Now a A160W (XR15 rotated so long way is front back)... And done... Without...

www.reef2reef.com

The Kessils are for the "look" not necessarily for par (gives a little infill though... but mostly for shimmer and shadow). A160's would work fine, bonus is that they can be controlled via apex by 0-10V. If you want more oomph, go with A360

Also, benefit is that you can adjust each XR15 for the light "zone" requirement. For me, the left light is set to 90% for the SPS (~400 par) while the right side is set at 50% for LPS (~200 par). Since most of the light is in the Blue, your eyes can't tell 50% vs 90% easily.

Here is another pic that shows the kessil shimmer-shadowing with XR15 background a bit better (tank is 36x24)
View attachment 1884381

Awesome looking tank! I was thinking of doing something similar with my tank. With the xr15 i was considering doing the back row brighter than the front. With the extra height of the rocks toward the back I think i should be able to split the tank well.

Can you send a pic of how you incorporated the kessil into the rms mount?

Jon's Reef · Nov 16, 2020

Drilled a 2.5” hole into the track with a hole saw. The trick there is to take a 2x4, drill a hole in it, then clamp that on top of the track to guide the hole saw.

It is a really close fit. 1 layer of black electrical tape around the kessil and it is perfectly snug.

Rhoads238 · Nov 16, 2020

Jon's Reef said:
Drilled a 2.5” hole into the track with a hole saw. The trick there is to take a 2x4, drill a hole in it, then clamp that on top of the track to guide the hole saw.

It is a really close fit. 1 layer of black electrical tape around the kessil and it is perfectly snug.
View attachment 1884532
View attachment 1884533

That is an extremely slick install. it looks like it came from the factory that way.

metzer · Nov 16, 2020

I like my XR-30 blues. i have four of them centered but placed perpendicular on a red sea 900. I run the AB+ and they are white during day and have that deep blue pop in the morning and afternoon. Great spread and shimmer.

Rhoads238 · Dec 8, 2020

Anyone know how long the wire from the unit to the power supply is on these lights? I see that it says 13 feet but i believe that may be the total length. I'm considering doing a pass trough the wall so I don't have to look at the wires coming down the wall. Is there any way to make the cable longer like people do for the vortechs?

Kfactor · Dec 8, 2020

I’m not a big fan of to much blue I think it makes the tank look to (fake) in my opinion. I like to pros more but that’s my preference. I only run more blue the last 1 1/2 - 2 hours and the end of the day

Rhoads238 · Dec 9, 2020

Anyone know if the cord length between the unit and the power brick can be lengthened? I’m thinking about doing a pass through the wall to hide the wires since I don’t run a canopy