Greg Carroll vs Amado Gonzalez- Radion G5 vs Kessil (1 Viewer)

[Reefahholic]

If you missed this drama, it was good. Greg pulled over on the side of the road to join the live stream.

Amado was boasting how Kessil was the best light with the best spectrum, spread, etc. However, the data shows otherwise.

Greg had to correct him. If you don’t know Greg, he’s president of one of largest reef clubs in North America (SCMAS). He was also one of the founders of Reefapalooza.

The DRAMA starts at 2:24:28 (in chat) watch the chat for Greg and WestCoast Reefer tells him to get on.

The real drama starts at 2:28:00. Buckle your seatbelts!

 

[Reefahholic]

I can’t believe nobody commented on this video. This was one heated and funny debate. If you see Greg listening with his ear to the mic, watch out!

 

[Cody]

Black boxes enter the ring hahaha

 

[Reefahholic]

Black boxes enter the ring hahaha

And the black box data is in.

 

[Cody]

And the black box data is in.

Are we about to do this again?! Haha



Seriously, let’s do a recorded chat about this subject. I think folks could take something away from our bickering.

 

[Reefahholic]

Are we about to do this again?! Haha



Seriously, let’s do a recorded chat about this subject. I think folks could take something away from our bickering.

Ok, let me call Greg.

 

[Reefahholic]

Cody, you did see the data on the 21 light review BRS did right?!

The black boxes lack spread and definitely don’t have a premier spectrum. So that leaves PAR and the Radion G5 will still smoke it.

What will the conversation be about?

 

[Cody]

Cody, you did see the data on the 21 light review BRS did right?!

The black boxes lack spread and definitely don’t have a premier spectrum. So that leaves PAR and the Radion G5 will still smoke it.

What will the conversation be about?

What would you define as the best spectrum?

 

[Reefahholic]

What would you define as the best spectrum?

The Radion G5. It matches a T5 blend pretty darn well.

Or a blend of light that closely mimics a combination of 6-8 quality T5 lamps.

What spectrum do you think the Black Box closely resembles?

 

[Reefahholic]

Let’s here what Ryan says about the black boxes:

The big question is...why didn’t they make it into the showdown?!!

 

[Reefahholic]

I’ll give you a hint on my favorite spectrum. It will be tweaked slightly, but this is pretty close.

 

[Cody]

The Radion G5. It matches a T5 blend pretty darn well.

Or a blend of light that closely mimics a combination of 6-8 quality T5 lamps.

What spectrum do you think the Black Box closely resembles?

The G5’s are very customizable so they don’t have an exact spectrum persay because you can just change them to be anything fro completely red, green, or blue.

A blend of T5 implies a presence of the full visibility spectrum. Is that safe to say what you describe as a good spectrum? Is there a particular spectrograph that you think represents the optimal spectrum?

 

[Cody]

I’ll give you a hint on my favorite spectrum. It will be tweaked slightly, but this is pretty close.

You guessed my next question haha

Just making sure we are working with the same definitions before we start our bi-annual light discussion.

 

[Reefahholic]

So let’s compare the Mars Aqua to G5 pro. Look at that full spectrum vs the space needle. Hehe

 

[Reefahholic]

I do like how the black box has some heavy yellow and green. I feel like corals need a more full spectrum for longterm growth and thickness.

 

[Cody]

So let’s compare the Mars Aqua to G5 pro.

For what it's worth, I have been using the Vipraspectra black boxes for years (which BRS confirmed have good spectrum). Long before they made that video and increased the cost of my lights (I historically bought them for $93-100 per unit and then the price went up to $180, thanks BRS), @reeftopia and I had done some experience and found that their precursors produced much better results with corals as far as coloration and growth.

 

[Reefahholic]

The only thing I’m doing to the Pro is reducing the red. Adding more blue at daylight and dusk and running heavy whites in peak photo period probably from 12-3pm.

 

[Cody]

I do like how the black box has some heavy yellow and green. I feel like corals need a more full spectrum for longterm growth and thickness.

And that's where my issue lies. I know what you're saying and my history of reefing has always led me to seek a more robust spectrum. However, I'm not so sure these days that it's as important as I have thought it to be in the past. I and Gregg have talked to Jason Fox multiple times where he bluntly says to double down on your blue spectrum and that's the most important. Couple that with the fact that Chlorophyll A and B both have huge peaks in the blue and red spectrum, but the blue spectrum is used more efficiently, and it makes me wonder just how important yellow or green is to corals. They thrive on photosynthesis, after all. Blue, where these corals have spent hundreds of thousands of years developing, it's pretty much just blue light that they get.

 

[Cody]

Again, we haven't hashed out this convo in real time and there's plenty of insight that both of us aren't addressing about one off comments from each other for the sake of keeping our message focused.

 

[Reefahholic]

For what it's worth, I have been using the Vipraspectra black boxes for years (which BRS confirmed have good spectrum). Long before they made that video and increased the cost of my lights (I historically bought them for $93-100 per unit and then the price went up to $180, thanks BRS), @reeftopia and I had done some experience and found that their precursors produced much better results with corals as far as coloration and growth.

The Vipraspectra is the best one. I still think you should come over to the dark side.

I’m only running two XR15 Pro’s for the first year on my 48x24.

I literally blasted my last tank with the ATI LED PowerModule- 8 bulbs on 48x18 with light spill all in the room. I can say I wasn’t impressed with how the corals grew. The corals were compacted and the corallites looked like crap to me. Yes they grew good, but I’m going a different route this time. I wanna run lower light for the first year to see what I can observe. WWC runs low light and I like how their corals look. I like vertical growth and not short compacted bush like growth. Plus I’m running slightly lower nutrients and last year I stripped their resources trying to push em with too much light. This time I’m growing for me and not to prove anything.