Radion vs Ai hd

[phil bevilacqua]

Are the Radion is that much better at their worst twice the money… I understand the terminology you get what you pay for… But on this for him I have seen some amazing tanks with cheap black box bulbs, T5, halide, radiance, and the aiHD’s..... just curious if somebody has some insight on why they are twice as much? Are they twice is good? Do they last twice as long? Do they offered twice as much par and spectrum ? Anyways was looking at adding one to my current set up and just can’t bring myself to spend twice as much .... so I’m wondering if you can tell me. Lol. Ty all

 

[ocboat]

I'm not sure how they are twice as much?
Radion XR30 G4 Pro $799.00 vs AI Hydra 52 HD $599.00
Radion XR15 G4 Pro $399.00 vs AI Hydra 26 HD $349.00

 

[phil bevilacqua]

I'm not sure how they are twice as much?
Radion XR30 G4 Pro $799.00 vs AI Hydra 52 HD $599.00
Radion XR15 G4 Pro $399.00 vs AI Hydra 26 HD $349.00

I’m looking at the singles. Ai prime hd 199 and xr15 399... guess I should have said what light. I’m looking to add for fill on the edges of my tank

 

[Ento-Reefer]

I'm not sure how they are twice as much?
Radion XR30 G4 Pro $799.00 vs AI Hydra 52 HD $599.00
Radion XR15 G4 Pro $399.00 vs AI Hydra 26 HD $349.00

I think you have to buy a reef link or something to control the Radion though? That adds $100 to the price. I am very happy with my AI hydra hd 26.

 

[ADAM]

Had the Hydra 26hds and switched to Radion XR15s for the coloration. Radions seem to get just a bit more out of polyps, particularly Zoa and Paly. Cant really compare the Prime and XR15 though, the XR15 is a much stronger light.

Check the graphing on AquaIlluminations Site http://www.aquaillumination.com/science/par.html , you can select different lights from major brands of LEDs and compare side by side data. The XR15 Radions have 50% more Peak Par and nearly double the average Par for the measured coverage area. The 26HD would be a better option in comparison. Even with two Ai Primes the available PAR output isn't going to be as high, if you have a fairly shallow tank that you would like to get more coverage area then two primes may be best for your needs.

 

[ADAM]

I think you have to buy a reef link or something to control the Radion though? That adds $100 to the price. I am very happy with my AI hydra hd 26.

To control wirelessly, yes. You get a cable with the Radions to plug into you computer for connection and setup without a Reeflink. If you wanted to change the program afterwards, you'd plug the cable back into the light and make your changes. With multiple Radions it'd be worth purchasing the Reeflink for sure.

 

[phil bevilacqua]

That’s my prob. Not comparing apples to apples Thanks guys

 

[nano reef]

Are the Radion is that much better at their worst twice the money… I understand the terminology you get what you pay for… But on this for him I have seen some amazing tanks with cheap black box bulbs, T5, halide, radiance, and the aiHD’s..... just curious if somebody has some insight on why they are twice as much? Are they twice is good? Do they last twice as long? Do they offered twice as much par and spectrum ? Anyways was looking at adding one to my current set up and just can’t bring myself to spend twice as much .... so I’m wondering if you can tell me. Lol. Ty all

More like 4 maybe 6 xs as much. I see 165 watts for 99.00 all the time! Does make ya wonder. If I go black box it will be the step up like th ocean revive or noopsyche

 

[oreo54]

I’m looking at the singles. Ai prime hd 199 and xr15 399... guess I should have said what light. I’m looking to add for fill on the edges of my tank

Simplist answer is one 2x the wattage of another.
Then you can argue spectrum and IF they run the diodes w/ the same efficiency..
How well they integrate w/ what you already have.ect.

 

[nano reef]

Had the Hydra 26hds and switched to Radion XR15s for the coloration. Radions seem to get just a bit more out of polyps, particularly Zoa and Paly. Cant really compare the Prime and XR15 though, the XR15 is a much stronger light.

Check the graphing on AquaIlluminations Site http://www.aquaillumination.com/science/par.html , you can select different lights from major brands of LEDs and compare side by side data. The XR15 Radions have 50% more Peak Par and nearly double the average Par for the measured coverage area. The 26HD would be a better option in comparison. Even with two Ai Primes the available PAR output isn't going to be as high, if you have a fairly shallow tank that you would like to get more coverage area then two primes may be best for your needs.

nice to hear from someone who has had the hydra 32 and radion 15! Which generation radions though? I guess the g5 are way better, i know defiently better spread! Do they use the same leds? I think Radions uses hci or something like that. The reason I put hydra back in the game is I saw some good prices if I were to win the bid that is! There is noway I would go with hydra paying regular retail! I like the smaller size and comparing 15's to 32 hydra is only 50 bucks cheaper but if you go with the bigger 64 than hydra is way cheaper! By 200 bucks! Dosnt make sense how they discount if you double the size for hydra but not for radion! My question i like to ask since you have had both is which gives more color pop? The 15 or the 32? Also Do you really have to mount the hydra at least 12 inches tall? Actually brs recomended 14 for the 32! Couldn't I just put the few sps in center where the par would be higher and mount about 8or9 inches?? Thanks for any info you can give

 

[ADAM]

nice to hear from someone who has had the hydra 32 and radion 15! Which generation radions though? I guess the g5 are way better, i know defiently better spread! Do they use the same leds? I think Radions uses hci or something like that. The reason I put hydra back in the game is I saw some good prices if I were to win the bid that is! There is noway I would go with hydra paying regular retail! I like the smaller size and comparing 15's to 32 hydra is only 50 bucks cheaper but if you go with the bigger 64 than hydra is way cheaper! By 200 bucks! Dosnt make sense how they discount if you double the size for hydra but not for radion! My question i like to ask since you have had both is which gives more color pop? The 15 or the 32? Also Do you really have to mount the hydra at least 12 inches tall? Actually brs recomended 14 for the 32! Couldn't I just put the few sps in center where the par would be higher and mount about 8or9 inches?? Thanks for any info you can give

At the time of this thread “Jan 2019” I had used the 26HD and went to Gen4 XR15s. Seemingly most of the colors got better, but you would have to remember the corals will take time to adjust to the change in lighting so the immediate difference will likely not be the case over time. The Radion/ AI difference in suggested mounting height is based on the average PAR over the coverage area. The AI having less spread is the reason to lift the light higher to even the light coverage. As you say you can have the light lower and focus more high light demand corals near the center point, however you can get the shadows from this same approach which in turn may cause the addition of another fixture. In the case of shadowing you may need to figure 3 AI vs only 2 radion.

If shadowing is major factor, which is for me, I would suggest a T5 fixture with the supplemental LED bars for a hybrid system. -I had the 2 AI, then on to 2 XR15, then to a 3rd XR15, and finally now I’ve added 2 Reefbrite XHO kits to 2 of the XR15s....
That being said I had the coverage I needed everywhere, but some shadowing here and there I felt I had to fill in due to more of the shape of the tank (92 corner) than lights.

Personally if I were going with AI again I would likely use 2- 16HD over 1- 32HD to give me more mounting flexibility for light direction. However talking about puck style lights, I couldn’t help but think another puck style fixture I see a lot of reefers using, and I may would consider, is the Noophsyce (sp?) K7 line.

The panel style layout of LEDs looks to be the way things are growing. Even Ecotech took that approach with their new light! Even the cheaper options like ReefBreeders and MarsAqua (black boxes) have great success with this style whereas the knock-off Kessil clone and other puck style lights never get traction in the market due to low performance.


All in all any of the light will work, you just have to find what fits in you system the best. BRS has done the work for you in a lot of the lights. If you only have 10” light height to work with the Radion or ReefBreeders may work best, however if you’re hanging them from the ceiling with “unlimited” height and like AI better then they’d be the one for you. *Note: The higher the light for left to right coverage, the more front to back coverage; so you may encounter more light spill in the room than desired especially if you aren’t using some sort of canopy. Say the tank is in your living room, open top/ no canopy, and the lights are 12-14” high are they going to be shining in your eyes when seated?

You can see where this get so complex to which is “better” or “worth it?”. What I found when selecting lights to be the easiest method of choosing was looking over the build threads and finding the tanks I liked best and keeping tabs on which lights were used. There’s many things other than lighting that go into a successful reef. However if you look at 30 build threads and found 20 systems that you would like to mimic the coloration of, and 16 of those tanks had brand X lights... why choose another brand based off any other info?