I am happy with the TIR. To be honest I can't say I notice much of a difference in how bright it appears to me, but it seems to blend the colours better. I could really see the different colours of lights on the sand bed as they shimmered, and while that's definitely still there, it's way less severe.
Before I got the lenses, the brightest my lights got was 75% with all channels at 100% and that was only for 4 hours in the middle of the day, the rest of the day it was either ramping up or down. After the TIR lenses I actually increased the intensity slightly, I kept the 4 hour period where all channels were at max, but over that 4 hours it increased from 75% to 80%.
I wasn't all that happy with radions in general to be honest, I wasn't digging the colours in my tank, or how washed out it looked, and was seriously considering ditching them and getting halides or plasma. Then I had computer issues, lost my entire windows partition, and along with it, my radion program. I wasn't sure what that would mean for my group, and last time I had to re-set up a group (one of the units failed and was replaced under warranty) it was 6 hours of hair pulling infuriation. Once they're set up and the group is exactly the way you want it they're easy as pie to use, but getting them to that point, modifying, or adding to a group of radions is an exercise in pure, unadulterated rage. It's their biggest flaw, I think. It took daylight savings throwing my lights off by an hour to convince me to try re-programming them, and, much to my very pleasant surprise, the group seems to be stored locally on the units, not in the config utility software. I had to set up a totally new schedule, and I finally see why these lights are awesome. My last program clearly sucked, because now that I've gone back and done it all again with different pre-sets that ramp in to each other better, the tank is practically sparkling.
I will say they still don't hold a candle to T5s in terms of coral colouration. I was just at another reefers house buying some frags, and his frag tank had an ATI unit over it. I've never seen colours that vibrant on a coral before. I picked up a green montipora frag from him that I realized I already have a piece of, only the one that's been in my tank has turned a pale yellow/green, while the one in his tank looks like it's been painted with dark green neon paint. Some corals actually improve in their overall coloration, developing an almost internal glow, but then others really seem to fade and wash out under the radions. I have one mini colony that started life in my tank as a light pinkish green Walt Smith frag. It's now a dark brown/slightly rust coloured colony with the slightest hint of green iridescence when the lights are all royal blue. While I have two other colonies that started out as rust coloured with the tiniest hint of blue on the tips, and are now glowing cyan on the main branches, and electric blue at the growth tips. The frags I just picked up are all super electric shades of green and red, so we'll see if they hold their colours over time, or if they wash out. I've been playing with placement to try and maximize the colouration of each colony, but things are still growing, and nothing is burning, so I don't want to decrease the intensity.
man, a simple question you ask and I give you a novel.
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