Radion G5 Rant. $900?

[TheKylersFire]

The iPhone of lighting.

No the iPhone is user friendly... my Radions have more connection issues, syncing issues, and problems then anyone should deal with. If I were to do it over again give me kessils or AIs

 

[AquaholicAquariums]

Are Radions great lights, yes they are.

At first I was on the same wagon, but then I really started to think about things. Yes it is expensive and it is probably more than they could cost. But its all relative this can't be compared to a phone there just to play devils advocate. There is much to consider not just the price of the light and how much will be made. What are the cost's of the business, there's R&D, marketing, production, rent, salaries, healthcare cost's, workers comp, insurance, tariff's and probably more that i am missing. There are millions of people that have a iPhone not all those people have a reef tank. Yes black boxes work as well as other lights but there are clearly differences in black boxes and radions the build quality is not the same and it comes down to how much you are willing to spend for innovation and quality. Black boxes have not changed by much since they first came out yet radions have gone through generations each time getting a little better, and you have to replace the black boxes every year or two unless you replace the diodes because they do degrade you cant expect top quality for something that cost 1/4 of all other brands.
Unlike a phone most reefers are happy with the Generation that hey have if you have g4's you will most likely wont upgrade for a few years unless your one of those people that have to have the latest and greatest. So as a company how many can you expect to sell and for how much so you can keep the doors open and create new items and pay the employees, bills, and taxes.
Now lets compare that to the current state of things. A reef tank is something that you can live with out so you cant compare it to rent or food. But how much do you spend in entertainment, how much do you subscribe to netflix, hulu, amazon prime, cable, disney + if you have all of that you are close to if not over 200 a month every month. how much do you sped going out to eat, or movies, if you think about it not that much after you add up all you spend on things you don't have to spend on.
I was helping a friend with developing a product that cost a couple of dollars to make, after all said and done it would cost more to make that what he could sell it for there are alot of hidden costs that we dont think about. I have had black boxes, t5's, and hydras. lets compare the black boxes worked great for a while until one almost caught on fire so there's who would i hold responsible? so i switched to t5's. Those were great a couple of hundred bucks for a fixture on amazon, ran for a few years so it cost me a around 300+ in bulbs not to mention the extra power consumption. So i probable spent close to the same mount of money by the time i need to replace the fixtures. Its just more money upfront. Now the growth was better with t5's but the colors are more amazing in led so a little bit of a trade there.

Now the price of corals is out of control that i can agree to that is why i sell my frags for almost nothing or give them away.
But like others have said its all to what you are willing to pay.

Now imagine that on the scale of Apple lol..... Aslong as Fanboys are willing to call people that complain about the price poor they will continue to sell the house per light. I Don’t blame them I would do the same if I’m making 500% profit per light and people are fighting for me Like I’m some type of god

 

[me & my baby]

It’s simply we all know led grow coral, there is plenty of threads where even the cheap black box leds have beautiful tanks . They can not sell
Them for this price unless people pay for it . As longs as they are selling the price will stay . So don’t buy it quit complaining. It is really that simply , you don’t have to have a radion to have a nice tank . Just like most people don’t have a Porsche or a Lamborghini just to drive to work . They buy what they can afford at it gets there where they got to go .

 

[Joesig]

I also think you miss the point but in a different way. This hobby is full of companies that are trying to convince you that you need the latest 2020 model if you want to succeed. They constantly come up with new tweaks or changes in the way something is designed just to pull in the equipment junkies who will then go out and disseminate information like "oh yeah this one is so much better than the last one".

It's like the DC skimmer marketing. "Oh yeah this skimmer pulls out so much more gunk than my older AC skimmer". OK well show me some data on that because every year they pull out more gunk than the year before yet my 15 year old ASM G3 skimmer seems to be pulling out the same amount of gunk as my friends 2019 DC skimmer.

Some of the best tanks I have seen are running halides or T5's or even 5 year old LEDs. It seems to me that just about anything can work very well, if you know how to use it right.

Thats true but that applies to every company that makes anything. And if you want to do the research to see if it is worth it in spending the money on a new skimmer or not thats a personal choice. I mean if money was no object threads like this would probably not exit.

 

[zoomonster]

I'm definitely not one to hop on the latest and greatest but the G5's could not have happened at a more opportune time for me. When I started this tank I was still skeptical of LED's and went with a Hamilton MH/T5 fixture which had its issues mostly with heat, too much amp draw and electric cost. So I eventually laid out probably $2200 for 5 Kessil A360WE's with goosenecks when they came out. I had started with 3 but soon realized it was going to need 5. So right after the 2 year warranty mark they started dying until I was down to one and put my MH/T5 back up. Fortunately it was winter and I worked around other issues. I was considering what I should have done from the start and that is Radions. I was considering buying G4's and balked a few months and lo and behold the G5's appeared. I could have jumped on some closeout G4's but it appeared they finally got it right with the G5. A lot of dang money for lights but they really did get it right this time. The 3 G5 pro's I got easily cover my 6ft tank with better coverage, lumens, lack of shadow or disco and a very subtle shimmer better than my old MH/T5 or the Kessils. Plus the moonlight is probably the best i have seen. At least IMO you won't ever need a diffuser for these.

Don't like the lack of Apex compatibility and Moebius needs a lot of work but still they were up and running on AB+ in fairly short work after some initial bluetooth connectivity issues and the tank looks the best it ever has. For once I actually feel like I got what I paid for although the price was a bit excessive at 839.99 each. Of course the RMS arms started at $138 but they dropped the price and I got a refund of close to $90 from BRS.

 

[robbyg]

I love how this AB+ setting has become a new marketing tool.

 

[ppatches24]

I love how this AB+ setting has become a new marketing tool.

If it is the correct spectrum I don't have an issue with it being turned into a marketing tool. It's funny though. I think its a standard in a sea of no standards? Idk just my thoughts.

 

[zoomonster]

I love how this AB+ setting has become a new marketing tool.

Well they have a number of templates from Coral Labs, others and I suspect more will get added. Considering the number of people that have killed stuff trying to program the earlier models it lends itself to simplicity with proven settings. Set your run times, select a template, set acclimate or not and off and running. Then if you want more you have a working start point to tweak from. It is certainly an improvement they can market.

 

[TMC1313]

I've never run radions, but am curious as to what the AB+ setting actually is. What I'm asking specifically is what are the individual color percentages that make up the AB+ settings. Correct me if I'm wrong, did ecotech originally make this setting to mimic the Gold standard (at that time and arguably still) 20K Radium bulb? I know photos aren't the best to judge, but when I see photos of AB+ settings, they look much bluer than a photo of a 20K radium. FYI, I now use all LED on my reef, just being curious in knowing what the AB+ settings actually are. I guess I really need to see one in person.

 

[User1]

I've never run radions, but am curious as to what the AB+ setting actually is. What I'm asking specifically is what are the individual color percentages that make up the AB+ settings. Correct me if I'm wrong, did ecotech originally make this setting to mimic the Gold standard (at that time and arguably still) 20K Radium bulb? I know photos aren't the best to judge, but when I see photos of AB+ settings, they look much bluer than a photo of a 20K radium. FYI, I now use all LED on my reef, just being curious in knowing what the AB+ settings actually are. I guess I really need to see one in person.

Search on Coral Lab and Ecotech Marine. Here is a sample for you that talks about it and the SPS side of it.

https://ecotechmarine.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/ReefWholesale_CoralLab.pdf

 

[TMC1313]

Perfect! Thanks
Explains everything I was asking.