Marie, I had thought about the reds earlier, and I think I can supplement red very easily for less money. I think. Ok, I made it up, but it seems sound :)

That was the deciding factor for me the green and red leds made all the colors pop. Im going with radions.

You probably can but I'm not even going to try and attempt anything DIY........ I am the plug in play queen if it requires me to read an instruction book to put it together then I don't want it. That's why I like my BK skimmer it didn't even come with an instruction book :lol:

I'm not gonna DIY. I'll pay Garreth at ProReef :)

Makes sense. Although, when I saw a AI tank, I didn't notice colors lacking..might have to look again.

When you do go look check the red coralline algae, that's what tends to look the worst under the wrong lights it looks like dried blood.

I don't think I have any red coralline :)

Marko, I'm not a photographer, took me a while to figure out my camera settings once I added the vertex illuminex on my smaller tank. If you could tell me what settings to use, I will take a pic of my set up tomorrow as they are now almost off for the night. I saw the ai's on Daves tank at concept and seeing ai's side by side I chose the radions as I liked the overall look and could see a huge difference in spread and the disco lighting uncle salty is speaking of. I felt I would have needed 4 ai's to the 3 radions. I'm also no expert in lighting spectrums so cant speak to this argument, I don't have any controllers or fancy equipment, therefore my layout costs for lights would have been fairly close. I only transferred everything this weekend so I can't speak to coral growth either, time will tell. Bottom line, everyone has a choice and those with specific lights will rave about how great theirs are. I'm sure a better product will follow these as the technology continues to improve and the ai's and radions will be surpassed by something greater, cheaper and cooler soon enough.

Yep, ModularLed has a red/green supplemental combo kit for cheap.

Lots of videos on Youtube with tanks running Ai's and Radions. None of them look any less or more colorful than the other. Seeing them in person is the only way to really decide, as what is aesthetically pleasing to one may not be to another. I've seen both set up in person and I can't really see much of a difference, they both make the tanks look great. Radion have more programming possibilities if that's your thing, the AI's are good if you just want the basics such as dusk/dawn ramping, intensity control and lunar simulation. I guess they both have lightening storms as well but that just gimmicky to me.

Ya, that sums it up well. I don't need the toy factor, I just need light. If they can replicate the radium color AND keep SPS color, the AIs will do just fine.

They both have clouds too, the lightning is a joke but the cloud feature is pretty cool, well at least the profilux version is, not sure about other controllers.

I agree as always the fixtures are very similar, arguing which one is better is pointless, compare the actual usable power and you'll see why tanks look pretty much the same running either one, spread has been discussed and realistically not as issue as it can be adjusted either way. While the Radions have some more features out of the box the sol is half the price, hence why it's the more popular choice, doesn't mean it's better or worse.

well put.

http://i1088.photobucket.com/albums/...s/1d2023c4.jpg
PAR READING FROM MY AIS AT 100%

do you have from your old lights for comparison?

NICE!!!

I'm starting to lean more towards the AI's myself.
In every online post I've read the Radion owners are pretty defensive about their fixtures until a par meter comes out........ Then There's just awkward silence.....

No I don't but I guess I can put the 250's back up and see whats it at. No promises though...:surprise:

Par reading only really gives you a entire reading for the overall intensity of the light thats produced. AI does extremely well due to the lens. Really they are all the same LEDs.:redface: Radion has a better spectrum hands down, I am not gonna argue with anyone on that, but due to blending issues its just not possible to get lens on the led without getting red and green spot light effect. Anyways like I said I have seen great growth and coloration on most if not all my sps colonies under the intense light(keep in mind my sps are frags from others reefers who use mininum 250w if not 400w halides and aqua cultured which makes them pretty hungry for light)so the more par I get the better. I would recommand any to use AI's. I would also recommand Radions since it is a better light when you consider the spectrum that it covers but you will need the same if not more units to boost the intensity.

I have 3 Radions on my tank, and am happy with them. But have never seen AI's so am not going to say mine are better, that's for sure.

I only run mine at 40% peak in Natural mode, and programmed in some moonlight for the night time. But have no SPS, so Par is a moot point with me at this point. It sure brings out the color in my fish and corals, though.

The software is still a work in progress. Just loaded down the latest version, and more new options and capabilities all the time. It is still a bit flakey so you have to fiddle around a bit to get everything you want to work properly. But my "clouds" now work in the Natural mode. Saw it today for the first time. Everything just gradually dimmed, and then came back up after a few minutes,... pretty cool.

I think if you want to know more about Radions, you have to go over to Reef Central. Lots of info there. That's where I learn how to use mine.

You'll find your AI lovers over there, too. But at least there is more experience with Radions available. The Radion guys say Par is not the most important aspect of growing corals.

With my tank, Radions were the best choice. AI's wouldn't even work because of my canopy. So never did look too closely at them.

Lightning storm today with my radions
 

Saw my first lightning storm today. Loading the new software and firmware versions finally got this feature working with the Natural mode.

I wasn't sure how the setting works, so had it at 30%, which is supposed to mean 30% chance of a lightning storm in the time period (day time in this case). I thought it might just flash once, but it went on for quite a few minutes (maybe 15 or 20, wasn't counting) with intermittent random flashes.

The fish reacted, too, and started swimming around, probably wondering what is going on. Even my CBB started hunting (usually doesn't do that until dusk) as the lights dimmed with the "cloud" cover. Definitely broke up the boredom for them.

Had my wife wondering too, as I didn't warn her about this feature. She thought something was blowing up. Anyway, it got everyone's attention. And have to say looked pretty cool. I like this feature. Should impress friends when they are over and see it....

How do the Sols work with this feature? Is it the same?