Ecotech Radions Pre set schedules

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Waternut13134

Member
Hi,Ive had the ecotech radion XR30W Gen 2 for a few months now,until now I have just figured out there is preset settings for the light. lol After battling algae and corals not growing im convinced I dont have the lights on the right spectrum and just messing everything up. I currently have picked deep water reef natural for my tank. My tank is 24 inches deep but with the light hanging over the tank its 3 ft. I have some zoas,hammer frag and GSP. Will the setting of deep water reef help my coral grow? I guess my main question is will the coral grow under this setting? If not what preset do you recommend? Thank you so much for your help!

Im sorry if this is the wrong area to post, I have searched and people have all these different schedules but most I have found are from 2008 on the older radions and such. Again thank you for your help!
 
reefer gladness

reefer gladness

Well-Known Member
Before assuming that lights are a factor what are your water chemistry test results and have they been consistent?

Pretty sure deep water setting only adjusts the color temp, not the intensity, and corals will grow under just about any color temp from 10-20k which is the range of the Radion's I believe. My corals grown like mad under anything from 10k to 24k so I really doubt color temp is a factor.

I always feel people should adjust the color temp to whatever they like best visually and then adjust PAR output according to the corals needs. If you don't have a PAR meter you can experiment by observing how your corals react but IMO this is guessing and not a good substitute for using a PAR meter to know exactly how much light your corals are getting. If you over-expose your corals to light they expel zooxanthellae (aka - bleaching) and may take months to recover.
 
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Waternut13134

Member
Chemistry is good. No ammonia,less than 10 nitrates which is much lower than last month as it was off the chart. No nitrites, alk is 9DKH, 0 phosphates I forgot what calcium was. My nitrates were high due to some bad plumbing that was catching a lot of crap but thats all been replaced and me being a idiot and keeping the lights at 100 percent lol

How do you adjust the PAR on the radions? I cant figure Ecosmart out to save my life lol

Thank you so much for the help by the way, Im going to switch to the radiant and try it =)
 
reefer gladness

reefer gladness

Well-Known Member
High nitrates might be your culprit, you don't want them to be zero but when they get too high it pisses off the corals and they don't react well.

PAR = photosynthetically active radiation. You adjust it by controlling the intensity of the lights.

Sounds like you're just getting the tank in balance so be patient and see how they do with decent water quality before making lots of other changes.
 
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Waternut13134

Member
Also what got me thinking with the lights is I just added a frag of GSP and a frag of hammers saturday night (LFS had a huge Christmas sale) and I cant get them to open at all. My xenia and zoas are looking amazing but I cant get my new frags to open, there on the sand bed out of direct flow,I even turned my MP10 down a bit. My LFS said they can take days to open? I thought I would see something by now as my zoas and xenias opened within hours. I do want to say I did add bio pellets about 2 weeks ago to help bring down the nitrates,I added them very slowly and have had no ill effects (no algae blooms,no cyno or ill fish) I didnt know if the bio pellets could be causing the corals not to open, I called 2 LFS and they said the bio pellets weren't causing the problem. What is your opinion on this? Again my other corals look good so I do think it striped the nutirients out of the tank.
 
reefer gladness

reefer gladness

Well-Known Member
Waternut13134 said:
Also what got me thinking with the lights is I just added a frag of GSP and a frag of hammers saturday night (LFS had a huge Christmas sale) and I cant get them to open at all. My xenia and zoas are looking amazing but I cant get my new frags to open, there on the sand bed out of direct flow,I even turned my MP10 down a bit. My LFS said they can take days to open? I thought I would see something by now as my zoas and xenias opened within hours. I do want to say I did add bio pellets about 2 weeks ago to help bring down the nitrates,I added them very slowly and have had no ill effects (no algae blooms,no cyno or ill fish) I didnt know if the bio pellets could be causing the corals not to open, I called 2 LFS and they said the bio pellets weren't causing the problem. What is your opinion on this? Again my other corals look good so I do think it striped the nutirients out of the tank.
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How did you acclimate the corals? They may take a few days to adjust depending on how far off your water is from the LFS. Need to make sure water chemistry is in balance, calcium, alkalinity and magnesium. Alkalinity seems to be what they are most sensitive to. Those are both pretty hardy corals so I'm pretty sure they will come around with time and stable water chemistry.
 
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Waternut13134

Member
I did the drip method over an hour and half. They use the same salt as me (reef crystals) but they keep them at .23 salinity and I have mine at .25 so its pretty easy. Alk is at 9DKH which I read that is good?

Again thank you so much for all your help!
 
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