LED questions and general Reef

[asylumdown]

I've been running Gen 1 radions since i set up this tank in mid 2012. I can second the statement that the diodes themselves might last all that time, but I promise you not even the "best" built lights from high-end companies have any hope of making it that long. I've got 8 radions. I've had to replace major parts - from the power supplies to the entire head unit on 7 of them. Yesterday my 8th that is still 100% original just starting blinking on and off when it hits max power (I think it's over-heating).

Ecotech was awesome and sent me 5 new head units out of warranty when a bunch of diodes burnt out, but unlike metal halides, replacing any component of the head unit of an LED fixture usually means replacing the entire thing, not just a 40 dollar bulb. Once they're out of warranty, they're also much harder to get parts for because the world will have moved on, and any used parts you get that work with the units you already have will be coming from units that are just as old as yours and likely to be susceptible to the same problems as yours.

I wouldn't light a big tank with Radions, or any modular LED system again. It cost more than my first car to buy my lights, and three years later I'm running out of options that don't involve spending another 7 grand if I want to keep the lighting over my tank both LED and consistent. They work fine for a smaller tank where you only have one or two units to worry about, but for a bigger system I'd probably either go back to halides or try out a T5 unit that covers the whole tank with a single unit.

Moral of the story - on a big tank, the cost 'savings' of running LEDs in terms of electricity absolutely DO NOT over-come the replacement costs of the units as they start to fail once your warranty expires. And I promise you they'll fail.