Radion owners speak up..
 

Okay lets hear from the people that own them. There has to be a bunch of you out there!! What do you have to say, good, bad? meets expectations or left a little dissappointed. No arm chair experts, if you didn't shell out the cash hold your comments please. Will be interesting to see how quiet this thread may or may not be.

Just a link
 

Here is a link to Radion for anyone that was just wondering what RADION was and what they are talking about. At least I think...Please correct me if I'm wrong.

http://ecotechmarine.com/products/radion/

Thanks, but what I was shooting for was first hand reviews from people that have purchased the light.

Wonder how many here have purchased yet, since all the vendors just received stock. Might take a few more days for shipping, etc..

Could be, I saw a pic of a stack of them that I assumed were in a store either in Calgary or Edmonton and also assumed a good amount would have been pre-sold, could be wrong on both accounts. A couple of people seem to have them on this site. Just a bit interesting that there are no "Wow factor" posts from them.

Jeff, you can check mine out in person next week as my tracking number was emailed to me today so it won't be long now!! Also bought a PAR meter to do some LED testing. Also I ended up getting the 4 Radions for even cheaper than what I told you earlier through a different company! If the spread is as good as Ecotech say it is, I will have 1 extra fixture for sale. If I don't like them I will have 4 for sale and buy some more AI Sol blues and call it a done deal!

Sounds good, let me know when you have them powered up! Still need first hand reviews don't be shy, people are waiting to hear if the product met the hype for you!

Sounds good Jeff. I will also have to buy a piece of flat bar to bolt them all to and I have 2 of the premium hanging kits ordered also to attach to each end. Hopefully they are worth the wait as I have been waiting a few months for these! One bad thing is I recently switch to a Mac computer so no adanced settings will be availble for now I've heard owning a Mac

Soon to make a decision of whether to go with Radion or AI Sol Blues so I'm tagging along:drinking:

By the way, any suggestions in how to hang these up to the ceiling with the wiring kit? Do I need two or three radion over a 4 ft long tank ( either 90 (48x18x24 or 120 gallon 48x24x24) and the same if I were to go AI Sols?

Bootcamp or Parallels are but two ways to get past that...

BLANK

Well I bought two of them, First i have to figure out how I'm going to mount them over the tank, I have some idea's I'm going to play around with on Sunday. I'm also running three other LED units, a Pacsun Black Python 200W which will be replaced by the ecotech's since I have to send this unit back to Poland for warranty reasons..., a 180w Reeftech Prometheous and a EcoXotic 24" fixture, so it will be nice to compare between the three units...so far the Ecotech are the most aesthetically pleasing and i'm really looking forward to the different colors the Ecotech has to offer.

All my computers are macs aswell but I bought a cheap Toshiba a while back just to use for the Aquarium stuff, you can get one for less than $300 new, or finding a used one for less shouldn't be too hard.

Dude, your are crazy, I can't believe you got all 4 fixtures... must too be nice to have money.:mrgreen:
one question, pacsun compare to reeftech. which one do you prefer and which one gets better results as far as coral growth and color? ultimately which one do you like it better.
Thanks for the feed back.

Can't really compare the two in this respect as the pacsun is over the SPS tank and the Reeftech is over a softy tank...the SPS tank was growing like crazy until I started to have issues with the pacsun about a month ago, since then things have really gone down hill quickly...So I'm hoping to turn things around with the Ecotech units over this tank >Crossing fingers< Other than that I think the pacsun and reeftech are pretty much the same in most repects except for software, the reeftech software was a huge let down, they may have sorted it out now but I've been running them with the 1.2 beta SW since i recieved them as the production software never worked for me.

the radions cover 24"x24" each, so 2 would be fine for a 4 footer. Here is a very good preview/alot of info and a look at how the after market hanging kit will look in use.

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/blog...radion-preview

Since my tank is in basement I think thats what I will do is buy a cheap used laptop.

You mac guys check out:
https://www.virtualbox.org/

Lets you boot up a windows XP inside of a screen on your mac. I did it on my old XP to boot a Linux. Worked great. Might let you install and run the radion software. You can find XP's around for free....

Buying the laptop is a good idea too. I just got this one for $350 refurbished from besybuy. Runs great, even plays new video games pretty well. I was shocked.

http://www.bestbuy.ca/en-CA/product/...44b926890aen02

Thanks for the info with different options!

Radion
 

---------------

I purchased two Radion fixtures from Concept Aquatics. Thank you Dave and Brad.

I have hanged them from the ceiling temporarily, with rope.

My tank is 4feet long, but it’s 38” wide, and shallow: 22”. The water column, however, sand excluded, is only 18”.

Initially, I experimented hanging the Radions 6 inches away from the water surface, but I got an unlit portion in the middle of the tank, and marked shadows.

At 12” from the water (see pics) the shadows disappear and the tank appears more homogeneously lit.

I used the spectral plots reported in Advanced Aquarist by Sanjai Joshi for Iwasaki and Radium 250W bulbs to guide me in programming spectral peaks and lows for the Radion. I followed Riddle’s work to manage the red part of the spectrum.

The measurements below were taken at noon, when I programmed the fixture to display the highest relative intensity.

Average PAR measurements (Apogee) on the mid to upper reef (12 measurements) is 305; range: 170-455.

Note on expectations:

The tank appears dimmer than it did under MH / Compact combo, even though PAR measurements are on par.

The reds, pinks, and blues appear washed; mute, a little bland.

Glitter lines do compare to MH’s.

Software does not include natural mode; only artificial. I experienced problems with launching speed. Overall, the interface feels underdeveloped, not as user friendly as it could be.

I think it still has a nice look tho hopefully they can improve on these before I buy them I will set up an average 55 tank would one fixture be enough with 2 screw in par38 bulbs on either side ??

I was hoping to use the natural mode too but I also noticed its not in the software. Setting up color, %, and intesity and at what time, seems like it might take a little while to set up. Still waiting for my hanging kits but I do have a tracking number for them so early next week they will be here. They seem way brighter lights than my (3 weeks old)AI Sol Blue module- by far! Jeremy at Premium Aquatics thinks the opposite at his first glance??? Once I get my hanging kits I will test them with par readings side by side in my 120gal.

In regards to software, Ecotech have said from day 1 that the software will be first released with not all functionality available but will swiftly work to adding more features as swiftly as possible

Radion Software
Unlock the full potential of the Radion XR30w with the EcoSmart Configuration Utility. Connect to a Windows PC and create customized lighting periods with fully adjustable spectrum and intensity. Opt in grouping and weather features are also enabled.

Check back frequently for new software and firmware releases that will add new controllabilty and functionality to your Radion fixture.

http://ecotechmarine.com/products/radion/

Units out there - we have now personally distributed a total of 56 units into Canada so I am sure within the next month there will be plenty written about ;)

Tagging along, if I keep cooking ballasts then I'll be looking to upgrade to some other form of lighting.

Well so far, I have both units hung from one of the ugliest contraptions I have ever made...but it works.

I had a hard time getting the software to recognize both lights, had to reset the lights to factory default a couple time to make both visible, Now they look like they are working via SW, but #2 seems to be on a different time sequence as they both work together to a point but every morning I get up #2 is on long before #1…The SW is still buggy, I’ve programmed a couple project but the SW is having issues saving or loading to programs. Tonight I think I’m going to reload the SW and see if that gets me better results.

The Lightening storm effect is kewl :smile:

I had this same problem, what you need to do is when you are Programming ensure that you click on the "group" tab on the left where both of your units are listed. I was accidentally programming both lights to do two different things before I figured out what was going on.

kewl, I'll make sure I check that tonight:tea:

Make sure you download R3 software now available and also as above check your grouping seems you are running them independantly.

How far above a 30" tank can the lights be mounted and still remain effective to the bottom of the tank?

depends on the depth of the tank, the recommendation is 8" above for a 24" tank surface area.

If you dont have SPS on the floor then you can see how one goes.

I've been using 1.3 since it was released on Nov.4th and I'll check the grouping tonight...

Bingo, that's exactly what I was doing...all go now, thanks :biggrin:


Discovered something else tonight, storm mode turns my Scopas into a real bizatch, chases everyone around and then goes back to her normal docile self when it ends.

+1 on the multi programing, my zoas are not too excited at the moment but time will tell.

havent programmed any storms into my lighting schedule, however one cool thing I have done was made an violet sunset type of lighting before my deep blues come on. Some corals looks absolutely amazing and all my fish take on a whole new vibrant look!

here's a quick video of the storm mode...


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DmUQLH2M9Io

Why in storm mode does it get brighter? can that be reprogrammed I would like a more realistic storm without the yellow color. It should go dark and light bright white as it does not get brighter and flash....

same effect here I'm noticing (and this is the guy who is featured in all the radion photos in the press releases):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a0FEK_xmovI

In the software it looks like you can custom program the storm anyway you would like, In the posted YouTube video I simply (read: lazy) used the factory imbedded storm program ...when I have more time I'll program my own storm that is less bright, maybe at 5% of 18k ish.

My little Review

Late last night I finally got to set one unit up on our home 24" cube! After taking down the Pacific Sun 160w Black Python.

If you have been following my tank build thread I have gone from Ai through Pacific sun and now onto the Radion.

The first impression is how light the unit is, the construction is what i would expect from an Ipad, tight solid and very well crafted, everything fits well together and a great deal of attention has gone into the eye candy touch.

Onto functionality, the software is a breeze, it took me a bit longer as I am the typical alpha male when it comes to a set of destructions,

1. Open box.
2. Stand back and be smug
3. Find recycling
4. file instructions under the empty cereal packet from this morning

So please dont do this, I would have hit the sack at 11pm not midnight if I had bothered to read them, that being said it is not rocket science you just need to (no really) know the order of plugging in the USB.

Light rendition - WOW!! Hands down Ecotech have this licked! I have played with enough little glowing diode devices now to know what is and what is not and the Radion hits the spot, I found colours in my leopard wrasse that I did not know existed. My corals now pop.

I initially set up the lamp to 14K but for me being the true UK reef keeper where we like a more natural look, I found this a bit too blue so opted for 12K and still thinking of going down further to 10K, this is one cool factor with the Radion, having ore set K ratings.

I am also able to run mine at full bore 100%, this is due to my corals used to basking under 160w for the last 6 months, however the 130w of the Radion is no less bright as they run the XPG's at full 5w.

Here is a little home movie of me at home

http://youtu.be/uq0fvpKyDDg

Finally my hanging kit arrived yesterday and I got 2 of mine hung on my 120. I have to agree with you on the awesome look of the corals and fish! Also super low power usage compared to my Halide fixture. Definately keeping and going with the Radions and selling my Halide fixture and the AI fixture