Nice review of the color difference in Ecotech Gen 5 Radion Pro & Blue

[CaptainOver]

Okay recieved the final update from ecotech about this and they asked for proof of purchase for exchange.

I purchased one xr15 blue from MD to see if the problem was going to happen again. The xr15 was packaged way better then the xr30s and it does not have the popping issue my 30s do. I believe the poor packaging was the cause of the popping. I'm assuming the lens got smacked up in transit but it could totally be just the torqued bolts.

I also want to note that the xr15 fan is much quieter and turns on less. With the three lights over my tank I was able to turn the intensity down substantially and the fans almost never kick on.

Good to hear about the popping sounds.
As for the fans, I have 1 XR30 and 2 XR15's on my tank and the XR30's fan kicks in a bit before the XR15's, but eventually the XR15's kick in also (all running at 45% or so). And my XR15 is also quieter than the XR30 as well, I'd like to swap my xr30 for another xr15 if this continues to be the case.
It seems like there is very little difference in the fan speed between the lights being at 45% and 100%, so maybe there is something going wrong on the fan controller?

 

[maharsreef]

Okay recieved the final update from ecotech about this and they asked for proof of purchase for exchange.

I purchased one xr15 blue from MD to see if the problem was going to happen again. The xr15 was packaged way better then the xr30s and it does not have the popping issue my 30s do. I believe the poor packaging was the cause of the popping. I'm assuming the lens got smacked up in transit but it could totally be just the torqued bolts.

I also want to note that the xr15 fan is much quieter and turns on less. With the three lights over my tank I was able to turn the intensity down substantially and the fans almost never kick on.

My lights pop when turning on. I thought it was normal...lol. should I be contacting Ecotech?

 

[zoomonster]

I struggled with that question but went with G5 pro for more flexibility and white light. I've played around a bit but really just running AB+ on the Pro and couldn't ask for better color. Very blue but not too blue. In the sunup and sundown ramp the blue is actually quite bluer than the Kessil A360WE all blue. Easily better than blue T5's or anything 10-20k halide. Looking at the blue I just thought it would be too blue without quite the spectrum options of the Pro. And BTW as far as that OP side by side picture I have to doubt they were both on same settings let alone both on AB+.

BTW even the pro is blue enough that it blanks out fish colors at least during early/late ramp with AB+.

 

[HolySmoke]

My lights pop when turning on. I thought it was normal...lol. should I be contacting Ecotech?

Mine were popping nearly 100x a day between the two lights. You may be hearing the dimmable driver possibly. I'm also hoping the fans will be a little bit quieter bc one of my two lights must have taken a beating in transit.

@zoomonster I would say the g5 blue would be a better fit since you are running the AB+ anyway. I would imagine you couldnt tell the fixtures apart running AB+ on both of them. With the blue you will be getting better coverage if I'm not mistaken. Wirh cyan and lime at 100 the light is perfect in my opinion for midday and isn't too blue unless you like your tank like Sanjay. However with the frequency/noise of the fans running, the Blues arent as much of a no brainer as I originally thought and maybe you made a good decision buying the pro. I say this because there is too much heat from all those blue diodes and not enough heatsink. This was a design choice im assuming so they didnt look like huge black box Chinese LEDs. Also cost of heatsink, margains, weight, shipping costs. They could have spread the LEDs out to help with heat but that would have sacrificed color mixing. I think if the heatsinks were heating up they should use "cloud coverage" to cool them off more. We can actually program the lights to do this if we are right on the threshold of fan and no fan.

To anybody thinking about buying G5s:

Basically the way I see it you can add more lights and lower intensity if you want silent lights (passively cooled) or you can deal with the noise while running fewer lights with very impressive coverage. They probably wanted to cater to coral farms with the powerful fan and high intensity and display tanks with the assumption people will pony up more money to keep there tanks silent.

I added one xr15 and had to drop my intensity from 55% to 38%. Couple sps where lightening up on me. Now everything is coloring up beautifully. PE hasn't been this good since I was running an 8 bulb ati with g2 radions running blue channels only.

 

[HolySmoke]

The problem I am having when I try that only one of my three light take the change, they are not communicating with each other.

This happened to me. It is one of two things. If you slide your finger up in mobius while on the schedule graph it will show all your devices. Make sure all your lights are selected. The same goes for when you are editing scenes. If that doesnt fix it then a force closing and relaunching the app will.

 

[CaptainOver]

This happened to me. It is one of two things. If you slide your finger up in mobius while on the schedule graph it will show all your devices. Make sure all your lights are selected. The same goes for when you are editing scenes. If that doesnt fix it then a force closing and relaunching the app will.

Was that on Android or iOS, as I don't get anything when I swipe up on that page. It seems that the iOS apps are different...Android seems to be missing some features that iOS has. I wish they went the PWA or Xamarin app route so that features were equal between the platforms.
Problems I've seen with the Android app:
- Sliding up on the graph page to show devices does nothing.
- There is no moonlight setting that I can find (the screenshots I've seen from iOS has a moon icon for the schedule points, but not on Android). I have to create a "night" point then adjust the overall intensity, but can't adjust the individual lights.
- There is no "max fan" setting for the lights on the advanced device settings.
- The app doesn't handle text scaling for different screen sizes correctly so I am constantly seeing text being cropped.
- The "back" button takes you out of the app instead of going back in the app...have to use the tiny back button at the top of the page.
- Rotating the app loses the point settings you were working on.

 

[HolySmoke]

Was that on Android or iOS, as I don't get anything when I swipe up on that page. It seems that the iOS apps are different...Android seems to be missing some features that iOS has. I wish they went the PWA or Xamarin app route so that features were equal between the platforms.
Problems I've seen with the Android app:
- Sliding up on the graph page to show devices does nothing.
- There is no moonlight setting that I can find (the screenshots I've seen from iOS has a moon icon for the schedule points, but not on Android). I have to create a "night" point then adjust the overall intensity, but can't adjust the individual lights.
- There is no "max fan" setting for the lights on the advanced device settings.
- The app doesn't handle text scaling for different screen sizes correctly so I am constantly seeing text being cropped.
- The "back" button takes you out of the app instead of going back in the app...have to use the tiny back button at the top of the page.
- Rotating the app loses the point settings you were working on.

I am on android. No crapple products for me. Try going into a point on schedule and then sliding up.

I didnt read your whole post because just found out my stepdad tested positive for Coronavirus. I picked up his car from the hospital yesterday (before knowing) and although I wiped it down really good as a precaution I am most likely infected.
**** is getting real so my lights and tank are the last thing on my mind right now. Wish us luck

 

[Cuong]

Holy Smoke!!!! All kidding aside, good luck...

 

[dadnjesse]

The Ecotech support suggested I use three different tank set ups to control the three lights separably. So for now thats what I'm doing

 

[Bpb]

The Ecotech support suggested I use three different tank set ups to control the three lights separably. So for now thats what I'm doing

That’s inconvenient. It sounds like they’re being bombarded with growing pain issues. Kudos to all you trailblazers sucking it up and dealing with the lousy experience to get issues fixed at the source. I mean that serious despite it sounding sarcastic

 

[Dan Watson]

What do ppl recommend I don’t really know what to get . I was going to go with the pro if it can do both and I would like a little more whites I think

i prefer the pro for broad spectrum in a mixed reef with strictly LED lighting. The blue will do well too but I wouldnt trust it to raise some of my more difficult sps like long tentacle favia or some of my acros.

 

[Graffiti Spot]

How does each new version of these lights have a whole new set of issues that need to be fixed? I would think by now this company knows what their product needs to perform like and it should be good to go out of the box from day one. This is one of the main reasons I won’t put led fixtures over my tank. Too many parts to cause issues and it seems even after years there are still issues with a decent number of the fixtures.
I have been curious about led for a long time but still to this date no one has put out a fixture that interests me 100%. Either they are too expensive, not enough tech support, not setup how I would want them, not the right number of diodes or not the right layout of the diodes. If things keep going the same way I don’t ever see myself buying a fixture.

 

[zoomonster]

I was reading back through and a few comments on posts
1) Totally agree no crapple products for me either lol
2) Agree that for the price the Pro is the best option where you can have full spectrum and have AB+. They should have priced the blue like the old non pro. If anything they are having growing pains with the blue model in regards to the added blue and cooling. Pro concept is proven and blue is new.
3) Mine have been in operation since 2/28 without issue. I heard a little rattle on one light fan when first started up but been fine since. I don't have cracking, popping or any other issues with hardware.
4) Again I will say not happy with the leaning or sagging RMS mounts but I will make them work.
5) I still believe these are the start of designs that will finally be the nail in the coffin for lighting like MH and T5 even if they are still somewhat cost prohibitive. They really got it right on par, coverage, disco and optics. I truly like the not in your face light like with the G4.
6) While I am quite happy with the hardware Mobius and the isolation from Apex and Reeflink is another story. Now as long as you want a quick no tinker setup it works fine albeit from a cell phone only. I forget the exact initial sequence but I created a tank, it saw my 3 lights and grouped them, got the lighting screen, set the run time and hit edit and selected AB+ and off and running. After rummaging around I turned on moon, smart fan and left acclimation off (coming from MH/T5). Aside from that simple sequence its a piece of crap. Just a few points in that regard. Main screen doesn't show thunderstorm or cloud cover scenes which show up in edit but are apparently non functional. After playing around thunderstorm disappeared from the edit screen. The lighting edit function is absolutely horrible and counter intuitive. After many attempts and resets experimenting I did manage to change the night time ramp and starting power to kind of do what I wanted it too. Parameters of the default schedule are easy to change but not so much if you want to customize the times other than day start/end. Being able to actually just drag the points would have been a huge improvement. It does appear you can turn thunderstorm/cloud on in the schedule point edit but for a fixed %, every day of the week.

Overall I think they did a great job on the pro hardware but I expect like any product, especially new, they are going to a have a defect %. From what I have seen it looks like some of their component suppliers have quality issues and the defect % needs to go down. There again all part of adopting a new product. I consider myself lucky because I have been on the receiving end of new product defects more than once. Now if they just get their act together on control/configuration.

 

[RedReefer777]

I am considering a gen five 15, it will be pro not blue, I like a more normal look.

I have the xr 15 blue, the blue your seeing in these pictures is the ramp down not the ab+ spectrum throughout the day wich looks exactly like the ab+ spectrum we have all come to love.

 

[Camaro Show Corals]

i prefer the pro for broad spectrum in a mixed reef with strictly LED lighting. The blue will do well too but I wouldnt trust it to raise some of my more difficult sps like long tentacle favia or some of my acros.

Using the pros as well and sps are loving it! So are zoas and shrooms.

 

[Bob Escher]

So they do not and will not work with APEX?

 

[Sisterlimonpot]

So they do not and will not work with APEX?

Not at the moment, but anything is possible...

 

[Cuong]

Mobius works perfectly fine now. Had it's hiccups at the beginning but connectivity has been fixed with the newer firmware. Having apex control it is kinda obsolete therefore. I've got the xr15 blue on a frag tank, and the xr30 blue on my display. Both are running tandem with t5s.

 

[Bob Escher]

Not at the moment, but anything is possible...

Thanks

 

[Reefkter]

I have the xr 15 blue, the blue your seeing in these pictures is the ramp down not the ab+ spectrum throughout the day wich looks exactly like the ab+ spectrum we have all come to love.

Are you speaking about the thread beginning pictures?
Have you a picture of blu during the day?