2 radion rx30 pros on a 2x2x2 cube

[mcarroll]

Comments are in-line... I haven't seen Sanjay say anything about anyone but Ecotech since the end of the metal halide days.....seems like he must be a representative for them for quite a while now. (His multi-vendor halide tests were instrumental to my first setup.)

 

[gus6464]

You know who was the first aquarium manufacturer with a "hei" optic? Kessil. This is nothing new. Carclo has had off the shelf dome optics for a couple of years now. Ecotech invented nothing but people sure eat it all up.

 

[Wilsoni]

You know who was the first aquarium manufacturer with a "hei" optic? Kessil. This is nothing new. Carclo has had off the shelf dome optics for a couple of years now. Ecotech invented nothing but people sure eat it all up.

Yes, Kessil uses their "Hybrid Optics" design which is similar in the way it spreads the light but the main difference is that Kessil uses a single lens to amplify their Dense Matrix chip whereas Radion HEI optics provide individual (globe) lens for each diode.

Out of curiosity, on a large scale if you were to group say 23 Kessils closely together, each with a Dense Matrix chip that consisted of a single color diode per fixture, would you have something equivalent to the Radion HEI optics design? In addition would this mega fixture still provide the Kessil shimmer at that point?

 

[gus6464]

A dome is a dome is a dome. Big dome, little dome, medium dome. Real advancement towards a more halide like look and spread is the dome on reflector which is on the ap700.

But if you want to compare single diode type optic units the Philips Coralcare destroys the Radion. You get twice as many LEDs but also higher quality diodes with 100% Lumiled sourced. Add to that the best violet led on the planet that is the Luxeon UV.

A Radion is a decent set of parts housed in a pretty package. Cree leds are decent diodes for bottom dollar and nothing more. Ecotech doesn't even have the decency to include a quality power supply that is IPxx rated.

 

[Wilsoni]

Okay so let's agree on the fact that Kessil is in a league of its own. Undoubtedly.

As for Philips Coral Care, I'm not sure the term (destroys) is entirely accurate because again, I believe it's in a league of its own as well. There isn't enough testing and real time comparison data to support that claim.

I take it that you're not a Radion fan, which is totally fine... but I'm not entirely sure where we're going with this.

I'd love to hear your view on which LED fixture is the best and why.

 

[spscubed]

OK so I didn't expect to wake up to all of this.
So someone mentioned that I would have to ramp the LEDs down to about 30% which is actually one of the things I want to do. I've done the hood look on many of my tanks in the past I've even done the hanging hood which usually looks nice but I wanted something different. I have two chairs on both sides of the tank and when you look up the bright light is not so pleasant so cutting both of those light sources by half will definitely be more pleasant to the wondering eye.
As for the G4 I have two things against it for my needs in terms of an individual light. Number one it's still only going to have direction from two sources instead of four which I would prefer so no matter how good the lenses are the side of a coral that's opposite is not gonna look as good.
Now for my biggest peeve against the G4 is that if you stand eye level with it The lenses per true downward and the light is in your eyes in an annoying way. I work alongside gaffers all day on set and for the life of me I can't understand why eco-tech didn't just skirt the side of it so that you wouldn't have this issue.
I've been around quite a few tanks now that have tightly packed Radion G3's and they all look amazing sure you don't get the same shimmer that you get out of kessels however I definitely don't think I would like the look of four gooseneck kessels hanging above my tank. Maybe my next tank I'll build another floating light hood and hang everything from above. But as for now I'm trying to make everything look nice on the outside of the tank as well.

 

[gus6464]

Okay so let's agree on the fact that Kessil is in a league of its own. Undoubtedly.

As for Philips Coral Care, I'm not sure the term (destroys) is entirely accurate because again, I believe it's in a league of its own as well. There isn't enough testing and real time comparison data to support that claim.

I take it that you're not a Radion fan, which is totally fine... but I'm not entirely sure where we're going with this.

I'd love to hear your view on which LED fixture is the best and why.

I wouldn't say there is a best out of everything best LED out there because in the market there are currently different design philosophies. I house LEDs in two categories:

Metal Halide type
T5 type

Metal halide type of course if your point source type with puck design like most out there. T5 type is multi diodes spread over a large area with diffusion. If there is one thing that is obsolete and looks like absolute crap is the multi diode over large area approach but with optics instead of reflectors. Stuff like mars aqua, orphek atlantic previous versions, reefbreeders, etc. falls under this. Proper implementations of this type is stuff like the GHL Mitras, Philips Coralcare, giesemann vervve, etc as they use reflectors on the individual diodes vs optics so there is not much color banding. That being said what I think is the best of these two types are:

MH type - AP700
T5 type - Philips CoralCare and Sicce AM466

Then I give special shout out to Dave at nanobox reef for having bar none the best color rendition out of any puck type unit out there. His diode binning is second to none as he is very particular which luxeon bin is on his pucks. If his puck could be mounted with a large reflector I would take it over the AP700 all day.

What do I run? This is my new light. Waiting on stain on floating canopy to dry but here is a pic of the mockup.

Spoiler

I'm going to run it old school style with all ATI True Actinic bulbs and the AP700 on bluest setting with 60% Green and 20% red. So AP700 will act like a metal halide with the actinic supplement which people ran for ages.

 

[spscubed]

Spoiler

I'm going to run it old school style with all ATI True Actinic bulbs and the AP700 on bluest setting with 60% Green and 20% red. So AP700 will act like a metal halide with the actinic supplement which people ran for ages.[/QUOTE]

Is this a cube tank?

 

[gus6464]

Tank is 24x24x16. Canopy is 25x22x10 but it's attached to wall via full motion TV wall mount. I don't like light spill. I just realized my tank dims are very close to yours haha.

 

[Hysa]

1 Radion G4 pro will do the job.

 

[G-reef]

I got 2 G4 xr15 pros on a 36' x 20 x 20 tank and its WAY to much.
Lights at 30% in pic.

 

[gus6464]

It's about coverage not intensity.

 

[serkel]

I have a Deep blue 60 cube and I add 4 t5 with my radion G2 pro running at 60%. The light is 12" from the water and my sps are about 6" from the water line. I'm getting great color and ok growth. But always want our corals to grow faster right.