Ecotech Marine’s Radion XR30w wins the 2011 Reef Builders LED showdown

[Nano]

Originally Posted by MarkoD

I've never seen it pick at any polyps. But even if it did, why would he only go for the ones under the radions?

Before the radion, these same zoas were under the ai and open all day.

And how do you figure that 12 watts of red LEDs are beneficial to corals?

This weekend I'm going to try this out. I'm gonna have the reds on only, for the first 5 hours of the day. And I'll take a time lapse video of a zoa frag to see if it'll even react (open,close,twitch) at the red light

that'll be a very interesting video! I love time lapse haha.

[Aqua-Digital]

Originally Posted by MarkoD

Before the radion, these same zoas were under the ai and open all day.

As I said above the Radion is double the power and full spectrum totally different beast. I loved my Ai's at full bore, the radion is way brighter at 130w vs 70w i run one radion now where as before i was running two ai's

[fishytime]

Originally Posted by MarkoD

I've never seen it pick at any polyps. But even if it did, why would he only go for the ones under the radions?

Before the radion, these same zoas were under the ai and open all day.

And how do you figure that 12 watts of red LEDs are beneficial to corals?

This weekend I'm going to try this out. I'm gonna have the reds on only, for the first 5 hours of the day. And I'll take a time lapse video of a zoa frag to see if it'll even react (open,close,twitch) at the red light

I never said that running all red would give great results, or be the miracle coral growth formula (in fact it wont).....but you said that. the red and green LEDs were useless, which they arent.....the red spectum gets filtered out of the water very quickly so deeper water corals tend to not take to red very well, but shallower water corals will benefit from lower color temperatures....the radion provides probably the closest to full spectrum lighting as wee can get atm

[MarkoD]

Originally Posted by fishytime

I never said that running all red would give great results, or be the miracle coral growth formula (in fact it wont).....but you said that. the red and green LEDs were useless, which they arent.....the red spectum gets filtered out of the water very quickly so deeper water corals tend to not take to red very well, but shallower water corals will benefit from lower color temperatures....the radion provides probably the closest to full spectrum lighting as wee can get atm

Thats exactly what I've read. Sea water partials absorb red and green light.

So how deep do you figure red light from 12 watts of led will penetrate?

I just want to see if a coral will recognize the fact that light is available

[unclesalty]

Originally Posted by Aqua-Digital

As I said above the Radion is double the power and full spectrum totally different beast. I loved my Ai's at full bore, the radion is way brighter at 130w vs 70w i run one radion now where as before i was running two ai's

This is why the Radion was a no brainer choice for me as the price works out to be close to the same by the time you buy 2 AI's. Also no wires, nicer looking, better spectrum and better programming and features. The Radion still has some bugs to be worked out and things added to software but I'd live with them the way they are right now, no problem whatsoever!

[MarkoD]

Originally Posted by unclesalty

This is why the Radion was a no brainer choice for me as the price works out to be close to the same by the time you buy 2 AI's. Also no wires, nicer looking, better spectrum and better programming and features. The Radion still has some bugs to be worked out and things added to software but I'd live with them the way they are right now, no problem whatsoever!

there is no way that 1 light source can be better than 2 light sources.

with 2 AI sols i can light a coral from 2 directions with 140 watts of power and you can only light it from 1 direction.

and with this:

• 8x Cree XP-G Cool White LEDs run at 5W each
• 8x Cree XP-E Blue LEDs run at 3W each
• 10x Cree XP-E Royal Blue LEDs run at 3W each
• 4x Cree XP-E Green LEDs run at 3W each
• 4x Osram Oslon SSL Hyper Red LEDs run at 3W each

when added up, radions are only 118 watts. and when you subtract the 12 watts of red and 12 watts of green (which are not proven yet to make any kind of difference to coral growth) you're only at 94 watts of proven coral growing power.

even if red and green are beneficial to corals, the penetration and usable light at a reasonable depth would be almost nothing

[MarkoD]

they also both advertise full spectrum.

sol



radion

[gregzz4]

Originally Posted by lastlight

With all the politics between paid reviews, blogs, manufacturers... you name it... I'm 100% convinced that the most useful thing to us are each others personal experiences with all of thiss tuff.

Hear Hear

[unclesalty]

Originally Posted by MarkoD

there is no way that 1 light source can be better than 2 light sources.

with 2 AI sols i can light a coral from 2 directions with 140 watts of power and you can only light it from 1 direction.

and with this:

• 8x Cree XP-G Cool White LEDs run at 5W each
• 8x Cree XP-E Blue LEDs run at 3W each
• 10x Cree XP-E Royal Blue LEDs run at 3W each
• 4x Cree XP-E Green LEDs run at 3W each
• 4x Osram Oslon SSL Hyper Red LEDs run at 3W each

when added up, radions are only 118 watts. and when you subtract the 12 watts of red and 12 watts of green (which are not proven yet to make any kind of difference to coral growth) you're only at 94 watts of proven coral growing power.

even if red and green are beneficial to corals, the penetration and usable light at a reasonable depth would be almost nothing

No way was 2 AI's enough for my 120g for my liking from what I saw. IMO 3 or 4 AI's for sure would of been enough. 2 Radions look awesome!

[MarkoD]

Originally Posted by unclesalty

No way was 2 AI's enough for my 120g for my liking from what I saw. IMO 3 or 4 AI's for sure would of been enough. 2 Radions look awesome!

Yeah so if you're comparing price. You can get 2 ai for 1 radion.

And with 2 ai you'd get better spread and more power and "larger" light source with less shadow. So on a 120 gallon you'd run 4

You'd sacrifice the red and green tho