XHO vs. Ecotech Radions

CoralNerd · Feb 22, 2016

I'm in the process of buying a t5 fixture. I still want to have a little pop and shimmer. I understand on a six bulb t5 fixture the shimmer will be minimal if I run a XHO blue reefbrite however when just two of the t5's bulbs are lit the shimmer is good.

Does anyone have any experience of what a reefbrite blue xho vs. radion leds would provide when running t5's side by side? Any opinions welcomed.

I heard some guys with radions buy the reefbrite as the radions can't get the blue that reefbrite has, is that true?
I own two radions and I know they're nice but the install of reefbrite would be cleaner looking, however clean install is not exactly my goal.

SPEARGUNHUNTER · Feb 22, 2016

Thinking on adding 2 RF to my Radions, both are good lights, I don't see why not to use both on my tank, lmk we might save some money on shipping

Akida · Feb 22, 2016

I prefer the radion blue over the Reefbrite XHO blue. My personal preference, nothing I've seen beats the radion blue. I had a 24" ATI 8 bulb with a reefbrite and it was one of my fav lighting but I do love the radion blues I have now. Good luck

CoralNerd · Feb 22, 2016

Akida said:

I know what you mean about the radions blue as I own two radions and the blue is nice.
What's your complete set up now?

CoralNerd · Feb 22, 2016

SPEARGUNHUNTER said:

You can tag along as I know you live close by, with my order I'm going to get free shipping. I'm still in the planning stages. So far I'm thinking about getting ATI sunpower 6 bulb and adding RB to it. Then I would sell off my two radions however I want to make sure I get a pop and some shimmer. Euroquatics new E5 bulb might be good to run aside the t5's and RB XHO. All I know is two radions just don't give me the coverage. I added a t5 retro kit and I noticed my rainbow acan looked a lot nicer. Thinking t5 just too tried and tested so prob go that way.

pciscott · Feb 22, 2016

ReefBrite XHO have little to no shimmer same as T5. For shimmer you need a single point source light. With that said I do have XHO strips on all my tanks because of the pop.

newtothis · Feb 22, 2016

hey eric, not sure if you remember my tank. but i was running a RB TECHLED on my 6 lamp sunpower. The pop on the blue was awesome. You would get some shimmer when just the 2 lamps are on, but very minimal when all 6 lamps are fired. Keep in mind that RB use 3w diode, but is under driven to 1.5-1.75w. But if you get there dimmer, you can over drive them to get more power out of them. HTH

CoralNerd · Feb 22, 2016

Aren't reefbrite so powerful you don't want to run them 100%?

FYI: When I talked to Reefbrite they mentioned they have a new single channel interface that can go to apex and I don't think it needs another power source. Joy said they retail for about $78.07. She mentioned they will have pictures of it soon.

CoralNerd · Feb 22, 2016

pciscott said:

Do you run one or two XHO's per tank?

pciscott · Feb 22, 2016

On my frag tank one, on my displays I run both sides. I do run dimmers on both. FYI the tech light does not have led's all the way across so it can get a little shimmer, the xho not so much.

CoralNerd · Mar 11, 2016

Here's the new single channel interface. It runs inline so you don't have to use up another plug on your electrical outlets or Apex EB8. The picture below has two plugs to power two Reef Brites (the two black cords at the bottom). Cat 3 connector to your apex variable speed port.

XHO vs. Ecotech Radions

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