This is a update to my original review after two weeks of use.
So I had been thinking about going to a hybrid t5/led route with my G4s, and then I saw the announcement for G5s. After some thinking and number crunching, I ended up biting the bullet for the new G5s to replace G4s hoping that the spread of the light in the G5s will be similar to G4 with T5s.
These are some thoughts after two weeks of use. Overall still more negative than positive. Ecotech still hasn't changed anything and it doesn't look like things will change anytime soon with the craziness that is going on in the world.
Pros:
Overall, I still regret upgrading to G5s, at least this early on. It does not feel like a finished product and definitely does not feel like an Ecotech product. I've been using Ecotech products for almost 10 years now and this is the first time where I've encountered so many issues trying to set something up. I've said it before and I'll say it again. It doesn't matter how good hardware is if the software used to control the hardware is trash. Maybe Ecotech will get it together and fix a lot of this, but regardless, this two week impression is still pretty bad for me personally.
TLDR - Mobius is still trash. Don't buy G5s right now unless you want to beta test them for Ecotech.
So I had been thinking about going to a hybrid t5/led route with my G4s, and then I saw the announcement for G5s. After some thinking and number crunching, I ended up biting the bullet for the new G5s to replace G4s hoping that the spread of the light in the G5s will be similar to G4 with T5s.
These are some thoughts after two weeks of use. Overall still more negative than positive. Ecotech still hasn't changed anything and it doesn't look like things will change anytime soon with the craziness that is going on in the world.
Pros:
- Amazing light spread. I no longer feel the need to add T5s so it did address the main issue to why I did the upgrade.
- Less disco than G4 without diffuser
- Moonlights are AMAZING. This is something I did not know that I needed in my life. It has added a few more viewing hours to my tank, and a moonlit tank is an amazing background in the living room while watching movies or just hanging out. My only complaints of the moonlights is it seems to highlight the disco effect more probably because it's only a few LEDs that are on. I think once I get a diffuser, it will resolve most if not all of this.
- Radion BLUE....doesn't look blue? Using the AB+ template (all channels at 100%), the lights don't look anything like AB+ on radion G4s hooked up to WXM. There is way more white with a weird green tint (I know there are new green LEDs on radion blues, but I thought they would have blended them in better.) It looks more like metal halides than AB+. Corals have kind of that washed out color and less pop. Personally, I like a bluer look on G4s, however, if this 'new' spectrum has better colors/growth long term then I'd be okay with the new color. After using it for two weeks, the color is starting to grow on me. Yes, the corals don't pop as much during the day, but I feel like the colors of my fish are better and overall the tank looks more natural now.
- I think that this is probably the BIGGEST takeaway from this review. These new radion blues do NOT look like original AB+. After playing around with spectrums, I believe this is due to the new lime/cyan LEDs. If you turn these two down, the spectrum starts to look a lot more like the original AB+. I don't think this is necessarily a good or bad thing which is why I still have this in neutral. If you really like the blue color of AB+ on prior generations, I would avoid getting a radion blue and just go with a pro unless you mount really high and need the extra PAR from radion blues. You should be able to get the exact same look of AB+ on the radion pro because it does not have lime/cyan LEDs. With that said, alk consumption and overall coral health for me with this new AB+ is currently the same as when I had G4 AB+. If you want 'AB+ results', but dislike the heavy blue color associated with AB+...then this may be the perfect light for you.
- Mobius is STILL absolute trash. Not a single update since the initial update from when the lights were released. It honestly does not feel like a finished product. I did not use reeflink/ecosmart live previously, so maybe its always been bad. To be frank, it is to the point of turning me off completely from buying ecotech products in the future if they don't fix this. PSA to all who don't know....you can ONLY connect to the lights through bluetooth and there is no option as of now to connect through wifi. Bluetooth is finicky, constantly crashing, and prob only works 20% of the time. If you have multiple lights, good luck trying to get them to all connect and synced at the same time. I am using a iphoneX/ipad pro to connect and both have the same issues. Mobius is also extremely laggy. Each page can take up to 15-20 seconds to load. When you adjust settings, you can't save it half the time because the app lags out and crashes. Ecotech, your hardware is only as good as your software.
- I'm still currently having a ton of issues with mobius. I've been slowly ramping my intensity up and every time I change the settings, something else screws up. Currently I can't get my lights to sync on the same schedule. Yes, you heard it right. My lights that I paid $800+ each are currently on different schedules. I have given up at this point. Fortunately they are only a few seconds apart, but it is incredibly frustrating trying to program these lights with the biggest point of sale software imaginable. You will save settings and it will only update one light but it doesn't pop an error message or anything. You literally would not know unless you tested the PAR or if the lights actually turned on at different times. This is completely UNACCEPTABLE and I'm sure will be a deal breaker for some.
- The only light at the end of the tunnel right now is I will be at my target intensity for the PAR that I'm aiming for in a few weeks. If a miracle happens and I'm actually able to sync my lights to the same settings... (so crazy that I even have to say that), then I will won't have to use this garbage app until I need to change something again.
- Yes, the lights make popping sounds. To be honest, I didn't know what the heck this sound was at first. I thought it was my pistol shrimp going crazy doing drive-bys or something but quickly realized that it wasn't coming from the rock work but instead from the lights above. Only time will tell if this popping is actually detrimental to the lights. I'll be honest, I am a little worried that 2-3 years down the line the plastic panel over the LEDs will crack because I'm assuming that is where all the noise is coming from.
- Fan is loud - very loud. I usually keep my living room at around 70F and the threshold for the fans seem to be about 40% intensity for me. If the intensity is below 40%, the fan rarely kicks on. Once it goes above 40%, it will start turning off and on. Unfortunately for me, I do ramp past 40%. The best way to describe the sound is it sounds like a high end graphics card fan cranked to 100%. You can definitely hear it in the room and I've already had multiple people who don't know anything about reef lights comment that the fans are loud and distracting. I think its pretty ironic that Ecotech made a big deal that 'other fans are inferior' so they made their own fan. Uh, your fan sucks. It looks great, but who cares what they look like if they don't work better than previous generations. Even with they loud sound, they obviously aren't cooling enough because my lights are still popping, lol. I have no idea if this is possible, but I'm hoping this fan issue can be fixed with software down the road. Right now they just seem to be at 0 or 100%. There is no in between.
- Do NOT mount the lights on your tank until AFTER you finish setting everything up. You will thank me later. When you first boot the light up, it will go full 100% blast. After panicking and immediately hitting the power off on the lights, it went back to full blast multiple times during the configuration. When you try to adjust the lights, it will 'demo' the changes live. I kind of understand the rationale behind this, but I wish ecotech would put an option to turn this off. I much rather have the apex way of doing this where you adjust all your settings and then 'save' your settings. After saving the settings, a demo would be appropriate, but not while you are dialing in things. Between mobius screwing up and crashing every few minutes, me trying to dial in my settings, and the lights being a completely different color from G4s, I manage to royally **** off all of my corals to the point where they have not consumed any alk in a day. After a few days, my alk consumption did go back to being the same as it was before.
- Poor packaging and poor instructions. The inside of the box does not 'feel' like it is housing a $800+ light. The cardboard feels thinner than lights in the past. The light inside of the box is poorly protected and I've seen other people receiving brand new xr30s with cracked lenses. Mine wasn't cracked but two of the screws in one of the lights were not screwed in and was just rolling around in the box... The instructions that come with this thing is borderline useless and between the terrible instruction manual and mobius being such a piece of crap, I really wanted to throw these lights in the trash initially. I think ecotech is trying to go the minimalist route like Apple with their packaging and instructions. IF mobius wasn't the terrible point of sale that it is, then I could understand the poor instruction manual. But the fact is mobius in its current form is terrible.
- Light still has disco effect, especially OUTSIDE of the tank. Yes, G5s have much less disco than G4s. However, they do NOT have less disco than G4s w/ diffusers. I would say the disco effect on the G5s is more of an issue outside of the tank on the walls and floors of the room than inside the tank. The disco on the inside is minimal, but still not quite where it should be at imo. I plan on buying diffusers when they become available because the disco and rainbows appearing on the walls and floors outside of the tank is super annoying to me.
Overall, I still regret upgrading to G5s, at least this early on. It does not feel like a finished product and definitely does not feel like an Ecotech product. I've been using Ecotech products for almost 10 years now and this is the first time where I've encountered so many issues trying to set something up. I've said it before and I'll say it again. It doesn't matter how good hardware is if the software used to control the hardware is trash. Maybe Ecotech will get it together and fix a lot of this, but regardless, this two week impression is still pretty bad for me personally.
TLDR - Mobius is still trash. Don't buy G5s right now unless you want to beta test them for Ecotech.
