Colton’s Red Sea Cube

[Airedale.Reef]

Clowns are looking so good! I am quote found of the Snowflakes myself! 

 

I am bummed to hear that  the Kessil's did work out for you, but Radions are a solid choice! 

[KC2020]

On 4/28/2024 at 7:38 PM, Crawford_T said:

I’ll be using the RMS mount for now so I think that puts it at 8”. Thanks for the info! 

Yes it's 8" above the water. That's what I'm using too. My stand/tank/light height is more than yours. It's 53" to the bottom of the light and sitting in a chair my line of sight is right into the LEDs but the hood solves that. You many not need one.

 

On 4/28/2024 at 7:44 PM, Crawford_T said:

Well, we have life! The wife and I stopped by our LFS as he let me know he had a new shipment of clowns. We ended up with a “black snowflake” and an “orange storm”. Both are quite small but beautiful colors, hard to capture without light but I did my best. 

 

They look great ! 

[Crawford_T]

31 minutes ago, AiredaleReef said:

Clowns are looking so good! I am quote found of the Snowflakes myself! 

 

I am bummed to hear that  the Kessil's did work out for you, but Radions are a solid choice! 

Thank you! I really like their colors and can’t wait for them to grow. 
 

Yeah, I can’t explain it. I just wasn’t happy with the color temperature, it seemed way too icy blue. Either way, I’m excited to try out a Radion. 

15 minutes ago, KC2020 said:

Yes it's 8" above the water. That's what I'm using too. My stand/tank/light height is more than yours. It's 53" to the bottom of the light and sitting in a chair my line of sight is right into the LEDs but the hood solves that. You many not need one.

 

They look great ! 

Ok, that makes sense. I’ll mount it and go from there. I appreciate the input!

[Crawford_T]

Radion is mounted and WOW, it looks incredible. I have it set to 40% and around 12k with the warm whites equal to the cool white. It looks similar to the T5 setup I used to have, blue+/coral+. I’m also using the diffuser which makes the shimmer so smooth, zero “disco” effect. My LFS uses Radions over their frag tanks so I can’t imagine an issue acclimating. I’ll post a photo later on. Overall, very happy with the fixture. 

[ml86743]

Mmmm.  I almost want to bite the bullet and go with one XR 30 over my new build.   
 

glad you’re diggin the light!!

[Crawford_T]

9 minutes ago, ml86743 said:

Mmmm.  I almost want to bite the bullet and go with one XR 30 over my new build.   
 

glad you’re diggin the light!!

I mean, for me at least it was worth it. I cannot comment on growth rates but I can comment on ease of use and visual appeal. I’m very satisfied. 

[Crawford_T]

I cannot for the life of me get my phone to show the tank how I see it. I’m going to order one of those clip on filter/macro kits and see if I can get things to look good. In the meantime, here’s the best I can do. 
 

[Airedale.Reef]

Always a good day when new equipment arrives! For what it's worth, I think the Radion is much more symmetrical and provides a more pleasing appeal to your cube (vs the cylinder styler of the Kessil)

 

You have inspired me to go and turn my lights on and give it a look 👍 

 

[Crawford_T]

28 minutes ago, AiredaleReef said:

Always a good day when new equipment arrives! For what it's worth, I think the Radion is much more symmetrical and provides a more pleasing appeal to your cube (vs the cylinder styler of the Kessil)

 

You have inspired me to go and turn my lights on and give it a look 👍 

 

The wife said the same thing, she felt the new light fit the tank better. I spent too much time getting the color temperature right, then getting the schedule down. Now that I have light over the tank, I see that I have a very very slight micro bubble problem… going to try to raise the water level in the return chamber. Not sure if having the Sicce 1.0 dialed all the way down is the culprit. 

[KevMax]

Your reef tank is looking great.

[Crawford_T]

6 hours ago, KevMax said:

Your reef tank is looking great.

Thank you! 

[Crawford_T]

Tried to get a better shot of the tank today. I ordered one of those clip on lense kits, I’ll play around with it once it comes in. 

[Airedale.Reef]

17 hours ago, Crawford_T said:

Tried to get a better shot of the tank today. I ordered one of those clip on lense kits, I’ll play around with it once it comes in. 

There it is! Seems like you are dialing in the lights well! I saw an add for those little lenses on Amazon. Let us know how you like them. 

I have a pair of glasses from Kraken Reef that work really well when looking at the tank, but as far as tanking photos, the lenses will probably be more effective. 

[Crawford_T]

5 hours ago, AiredaleReef said:

There it is! Seems like you are dialing in the lights well! I saw an add for those little lenses on Amazon. Let us know how you like them. 

I have a pair of glasses from Kraken Reef that work really well when looking at the tank, but as far as tanking photos, the lenses will probably be more effective. 

Thank you. I have been tweaking the light settings trying to get it to my liking. Overall I love the Radion so far. 

[Crawford_T]

Orphek “coral view” lense kit came in today, it’s actually pretty awesome for $30! I feel like it adds too much yellow to full tank shots but the closeups are super clear. I’m using the 15k lense so it does make the light appear whiter than it actually is. I’m sure with more time messing with it I’ll figure out how to get better photos. 
 

here are a few from today

[Crawford_T]

[Crawford_T]

Annnnd current light settings for those who are curious. 
 

[Airedale.Reef]

Clowns really seem to pop with the new lenses. 👌🏽I’m sure coral will do the same too. 

[KC2020]

3 hours ago, Crawford_T said:

Annnnd current light settings for those who are curious. 
 

I'd be willing to bet you change that significantly once you start adding corals. Though I'm sure the clowns are just glowing with that much red and warm white and it looks nice.

[Crawford_T]

5 minutes ago, KC2020 said:

I'd be willing to bet you change that significantly once you start adding corals. Though I'm sure the clowns are just glowing with that much red and warm white and it looks nice.

Honestly I used the Kelvin slider to 12k and then just upped the warm white to match cool. I really don’t like the ultra blue look. This reminds me of T5 coral+/blue+. What’s wrong with the red and green out of curiosity? 

[KC2020]

Oh there's nothing wrong with what you're doing. I didn't mean to suggest that. It's just way more than I think you'll use as you add corals. 

[Crawford_T]

3 hours ago, KC2020 said:

Oh there's nothing wrong with what you're doing. I didn't mean to suggest that. It's just way more than I think you'll use as you add corals. 

I understand. The PAR numbers at 50% really didn’t seem that high on the BRS videos I’ve watched and I’m even below that. I recall you saying you’re around 25%?

[geekreef_05]

Looks good dude!.

[Crawford_T]

2 hours ago, geekreef_05 said:

Looks good dude!.

Thank you! 

[Crawford_T]

I spent some time with the tank today, mostly trying to fix my leaky bulkhead… too much superglue later and it’s good for now. I’d really like to remove the Red Sea bulkhead all together and go with a standard one from brs I just need to figure out what size the hole is so I get it right the first time. No idea why Red Sea decided to silicone in the bulkhead rather than having a standard bulkhead with gasket and nut, you know… serviceable. 
 

Side note, while I was doing a water change I tweaked the rock work a tad. The little rock on the far left has bothered me since day one. I took a larger piece and broke it down until it fit perfectly into the scape. Now I feel that it all flows together better.