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

Lousybreed · Feb 26, 2020

HolySmoke said:
I totally agree with you @Lousybreed. Whenever I was running 6 bulb or more one of them was a tried and true Ge 6500k. You honestly cant beat the growth you get from those bulbs. I bought the blues strictly for dollar per watt. If I need more white spectrum I'm gonna add one orphek or2 Day Reef bar or I might put one xr15 g4 pro between my two gen 5 xr30 blue. Today I had my two lights and didnt have the new slides until about 15 min ago. I drilled a bunch of holes in the old slides to minimize area blocking fans. Although it wasnt quiet it did the trick.

These gen 5s light up my tank like a christmas tree and right next to a g4 pro running ab+ I cant tell the spectrum apart. IMO that makes buying the blue even more of a no brainer if you are mixing in new g5s with g4s on a big tank and are already running ab+. If the pro had some lime and cyan and I few less whites I would have went for that for the flexibility.

It’s awesome that you got one of the gen 5’s! I know deep down I am going to supplement my halides with the G5 blues....best of both worlds!!!

HolySmoke · Feb 27, 2020

Yea it only made sense to do it honestly. recouped most of my money and now 2 xr30 are lighting up my 48 x 36 x20 tank with ease. I hated having 6 xr 15s over my tank.

I cant get over how bright the lower couple inches of my tank are. It looks like I have an 8 bulb over my tank. I also want to say that the cyan and lime at 100 really whitens up the light a perfect amount IMO. It is definitely not too blue in my eyes but it def isn't super white if that is what you are looking for. The cyan and lime also give you that nice windex tasteful blue instead of the gaudy overpowering violet near uv purple that I hate.

I really am super happy with how my tank looks and dont regret getting the blues instead of the Pros at all. It's amazing how just a couple diodes can really change the whole spectrum of the light in the tank. I was worried there weren't enough white diodes but the lime and cyan def pick up the slack.

I will post some pictures tomorrow even though my tank is in shambles and my basement Is mid renovation right next to the tank. I have a 5' x 5' x 80" grow tent covering my whole tank from dust and such.

AJsReef · Feb 27, 2020

Checked PAR on my tank with 3x diffused Gen4 Pros today and wasn’t thrilled with the results. Running AB+ I’m getting about 300 PAR at 100% exactly in the middle with a lot of the area in the low 200s. I truly find AB+ to be a nice medium in the living room that’s not “too blue” keeping the wife happy. Decided to roll the dice and purchase Gen5 blues. Since 3 units is pushing it with Gen4s on a 72” I’m excited to see the results with these.May as well do the comparison now before rebooting my SPS.

HolySmoke · Feb 27, 2020

I'm in the same boat about to do a reboot and starting with all frags. Good time to see what the lights are truly capable of. I Was gonna go all ati but the challenge of having a successful LED exlusive sps tank has gotten me again. I'm hoping the growth catches up to t5 and mh. We all know radions can color up acros. I'm contemplating running half my tank v4 orphek the other half g5 blue and doing a head to head. Same frags, glued at the same time and identical flow on each side. I bet the orphek would win but radions are just worry free. In the 30 I have owned since 2011 not a single problem except when I melted my TIR lenses and the carpet at my parents house but that was my boo boo.

AJsReef · Feb 27, 2020

I’m most curious about the true spread. One fear I’ve held with Radions is there’s basically two long term paths people seem to take to remove shadowing issues. Either they go crazy adding Radions or supplement with T5. Starting from frags won’t be an issue for some time but curious to see with these G5’s. I may add a 4th from the get go depending on par readings. I’d like to see 250 on the sides and 350 middle at 15” or so depth where I intend on starting my frags

HolySmoke · Feb 27, 2020

The gen 5 has those numbers you are looking for. Mr saltwater tank put out a video on par on one of his clients 500 gallon 10' long tank and he has them mounted 3" higher then recommended. I can tell you from looking at my tank that shading will not be an issue with these lights. Look at metal hailed tanks with the best reflectors money can buy and you will see lots of shading. It's the nature of the beast when you have rocks and huge sps colonies and point source lighting.

If you need more lights down the road you can add them. If you have good coral placement which these lights totally allow, it should be a non issue.

I'm finally gonna peg my sps. Been saying I'm gonna do this for years but never have done it. Drill out all the rock with a 1/4" sds bit and hammer drill. Glue frags to rodi hard tubing and as they grow out you can move them all around to adjust par or if they are encroaching eachother.

I hear what you are saying about frags arent going to show the lights shortcomings but I disagree. I want much better growth from the jump compared to t5 or MH. Huge colonies dont grow slow even with LEDs

AJsReef · Feb 27, 2020

Love the idea of drilling rock work for frags with a 1/4” bit! Have you found it easy to attach frags to 1/4” tubing? I’m at an empty scape right now with frags planned to be on the way in a few weeks (healing currently) so now is the time to move on the idea

Any examples?

YankeeTankee · Feb 27, 2020

For those going Gen 5 + T5s, IMO it makes more sense to get the pros. Of course you can turn up or down the blues on the blue but most of us cannot switch out LED diodes, T5s allow you to completely change the bulb/look. In other words it makes sense for the light that cannot be changed to be neutral. I'll probably be going G5 Pros with blue plus.

HolySmoke · Feb 27, 2020

That's a good point and I agree.

HolySmoke · Feb 27, 2020

AJsReef said:
Love the idea of drilling rock work for frags with a 1/4” bit! Have you found it easy to attach frags to 1/4” tubing? I’m at an empty scape right now with frags planned to be on the way in a few weeks (healing currently) so now is the time to move on the idea Any examples?

I dk if I am allowed to post links so here is the info on YouTube. When pegging you need something between the coral and tubing. Preferably a 1" disk so the coral has some room to encrust.
You can also leave the tubing longer and then cut it down when the coral stops growing out.
There are also two threads from 2009 where I first saw it. Google "pegging sps"

PREVIEW
14:59
Mount coral frags securely.
YouTube · melevsreef
Jan 30, 2015

Jrod381 · Feb 27, 2020

I had the opportunity to see the g5 blue, over a tank. WOW! Definitely a great light, pictures do no justice. Really gives a nice color pop.

oreo54 · Feb 27, 2020

phillygeeks said:
Agreed, I noticed that off the bat and still don't understand it

Yea .. prob. not the greatest choice.. I suppose "pro" assumes one will futz w/ the spectrum more than the ab+ emulator "blue"as a plug and pray version..

reef3reef · Feb 28, 2020

Can anyone who has the light tell me where it is made (as printed on the box or light)?

HolySmoke · Feb 28, 2020

reef3reef said:
Can anyone who has the light tell me where it is made (as printed on the box or light)?

???? It's made in Pennsylvania

HolySmoke · Feb 28, 2020

oreo5457 said:
Yea .. prob. not the greatest choice.. I suppose "pro" assumes one will futz w/ the spectrum more than the ab+ emulator "blue"as a plug and pray version..

Oreo I have been reading a lot of your posts and you seem like an LED/lighting expert. I'm curious which light you would take between the two? I bought the blue and really love the light but never was a fan of ab+ ironically. I always ran radiant color modified graph.

oreo54 · Feb 28, 2020

HolySmoke said:
Oreo I have been reading a lot of your posts and you seem like an LED/lighting expert. I'm curious which light you would take between the two?

Any choice between the 2 is really strictly personal preference.
from a "critique" standpoint I'd just mention an odd (In my mind only..

) sort of choice in diodes between the 2..

Besides the overall power shift from blue centric to mixed..
Why shift the cyan/lime range to green?.. i.e blue have lime and cyan while the pro has "just green"..
A NIT to pick but for some the devil is in the details..didn't bother fixing pic orientations to match soo be aware left is right..

User1 · Feb 28, 2020

oreo5457 said:
Any choice between the 2 is really strictly personal preference.
from a "critique" standpoint I'd just mention an odd (In my mind only.. ) sort of choice in diodes between the 2..

Besides the overall power shift from blue centric to mixed..
Why shift the cyan/lime range to green?.. i.e blue have lime and cyan while the pro has "just green"..
A NIT to pick but for some the devil is in the details..didn't bother fixing pic orientations to match soo be aware left is right..

Could be aesthetics at base sale point. On the other hand my personal opinion is that the changes they made for the Pro will cater to those who use par meters or similar tools to dial in the spectrum. Kessil handled it a bit differently by opening up spectrum control via their controller using the same array. Makes sense to me.

I thought @Dana Riddle provided some good, actually great, information on the lime and green spectrums and coral growth (although I can't find it for the life of me...).

HolySmoke · Feb 28, 2020

Thanks for the response oreo! I agree with my limited knowledge on led diodes and spectrum from what I have read from Dana riddle. I know Dave from nano box uses lime and cyan and also my old rapidled kit over my biocube from approx 2011 uses lime, cyan, cool white, royal blue and near uv. My biocube looks beautiful with these lights and I can grow crazy acros under this light.
It is my coral qt tank out of jason fox playbook.

I am kinda perplexed as to why ecotech didnt add a couple more white (say 10 instead of 6), add lime, and cyan to replace green on the xr30 blue and call it the pro. It would allow for a little more flexibility in the white/blue tuning without sacrificing too much power loss. Aka running white at 75% instead of 100% for people that wanted to run the ab+ schedule.