Don't forget about the Hydra Fifty Two guys. They will easily cover +30" with the 80 degree optics. Defiantly will not need to run 3

http://www.aquaillumination.com/ligh...tytwo.html#top

Ray

2 Hydra Fifty Two = in price 3 Hydras and about same power

Ray you should send me two of the Hydra 52's so I can test them :lol:

For those running them;

How do you find, if at all, the "disco" effect? Does coverage compare to the SOL?

I'm running two Sol's on my 75gallon and am playing around with the idea of doing the SOL-> Hydra upgrade. My two concerns as far as the lamps go is whether the coverage is the same/better/worse than the Sol's and whether there is a bad disco effect. Also slightly concerning is the reports of the director disconnecting randomly and turning the lights on to 100%.

^what's the problem with the Sols?

I'm running 4 Sols and 2 Hydras. I have never seen a disco effect with either fixture. I could'nt figure out what the disco effect was until I seen a Vega. There's a post on this site about it and it's quite noticeable. I do notice that when my lights ramp down the Hydras do seem brighter. But definetly no disco thing going on.

No problem with the Sol's. I'm quite happy with them. But I wonder what I'm missing out on with the colour spectrum available on the Hydra's!

What do you want to accomplish by switching?

From my experience and strictly my opinion...

Greens look WAY better under LED, especially Hydras with B,RB,V cranked way up.

Purples and reds look WAY worse under LED compared to T5. For some reason it's just not the same.

Stag growth is better with T5.

Monti growth seems better under LED.

Zoa growth is WAY better under LED.

Other stuff like Stawberry Shortcake, Birdsnest, Digi's seem to be fairly equal for both.

With my tank, I have better polyp extension with T5 (not sure why).

The Hydra really made the colors pop and the amount of shimmer is no where near as annoying as the Kessels... But not as true (halide-like) as Radions or Mitras. With a director this would be a fairly epic setup. The wireless controllers are :censored:. I would buy Hydras again for the price point. Their customer support is truly astonishing. Ask for parts and they arrive within a day or two.

Depending on your aquascape, you may want a bunch of these things. They will cover a 20" x 12" in the middle of the water column on a 24" tank (10-15" off the water surface). If you have them higher you loose too much power. Aim for one pendant for each foot x 20"-ish of tank you have. Check out the 8 ft tank here http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/sho...d=93114&page=6