radions or SB reef lights?

BoomCorals · May 11, 2017

FL-Reefer-addict352 said:
With that said I guess I like bells and whistles lol

So do I. In this case though I could use the money for other things. If that makes sense.

FL-Reefer-addict352 · May 11, 2017

F3honda4me said:
So do I. In this case though I could use the money for other things. If that makes sense.

100%

Reeflogic · May 13, 2017

Just came across this thread, did you get your SB's set up? I'm kicking around the idea of swapping out my Kessil 360's for SB's or Radions. Would love to hear what your thoughts are. I'm more concerned about the color output and coral colors, which I have never really cared for with my Kessils. Thanks!

BoomCorals · May 13, 2017

Reeflogic said:
Just came across this thread, did you get your SB's set up? I'm kicking around the idea of swapping out my Kessil 360's for SB's or Radions. Would love to hear what your thoughts are. I'm more concerned about the color output and coral colors, which I have never really cared for with my Kessils. Thanks!

Got them today. So far looks good. I am able to replicate similar color to what I had on my radions. But the wifi setup isn't working. Waiting for a call back from SBreef to figure it out. I had 6 radions over my 180 for the spread. The SBreef spread is better but I might still need to get 3 more.

Reeflogic · May 13, 2017

Thanks for the quick response! Hopefully, you get that figured out soon. Keep us posted!

BoomCorals · May 14, 2017

PE on my acros as better with the SBreef than the radions. But it's getting frustrating because the lights aren't working on the wifi.

Haven't heard back from SN reef yet. Not going to buy the additional 3 lights until these are fixed.

domination2580 · May 14, 2017

F3honda4me said:
PE on my acros as better with the SBreef than the radions. But it's getting frustrating because the lights aren't working on the wifi. Haven't heard back from SN reef yet. Not going to buy the additional 3 lights until these are fixed.

I have had an reef lights for about 2 years now. My colors are amazing and my growth is remarkable....ive had to drag my green stylophora 3 times in the past 2 months...

Holy_makerel · May 14, 2017

The wifi isn't working on all 3? I've got the same light and mine hooked right up. Have you checked out the youtube inst vids?

happyhourhero · May 14, 2017

F3honda4me said:
PE on my acros as better with the SBreef than the radions. But it's getting frustrating because the lights aren't working on the wifi. Haven't heard back from SN reef yet. Not going to buy the additional 3 lights until these are fixed.

i know they are in the process of moving one store to another store so their response might not be too awesome. I would call again until I got Mike on the phone.

BoomCorals · May 14, 2017

Holy_makerel said:
The wifi isn't working on all 3? I've got the same light and mine hooked right up. Have you checked out the youtube inst vids?

I've watched the vids. The wifi works fine for one light at a time. The problem is that all 3 appear to have the same MAC address, so when they connect to my router, they boot each other off. So, I can only connect to one at a time on my router. And it's totally random since they will continue to boot each other off. I can literally be in the middle of changing settings and suddenly im controlling a different light. Super frustrating. I also tried creating a network on my router with the SSID embedsky with no password, and with the 430273021 password as someone else suggested in another thread.

Also not to mention, but his video is out of date. The app is not the same as what he has in his video.

BoomCorals · May 14, 2017

To elaborate further, in the video above, starting at 3:15 into the video, you connect to embedsky with the password. This is with a unit in slow flash AP mode. So I connect to the "wifi network" of the light, and go into the app and go to search devices and there it is. I click the button to add it and I rename it, for example "left" because it's my left side light. All good I can control it, etc and so on. So, I turn the light off, so I can turn on my "middle" light and connect to that embedsky wifi network. But the problem is, when I do, it thinks this is the first unit! It doesn't give me a "new" unit with a different name that I can "add" and then rename. It thinks it's the first light. This is the same for all 3 of my lights.

Going to his "router" video, as explained, all 3 connect to my router with the same MAC address and thus boot each other off. This is also likely why it works as above with the first video, because the app and my phone think it's the same device since it has the same MAC on all 3 lights.

To be honest I don't think this is fixable without totally replacing the lights.

FL-Reefer-addict352 · May 14, 2017

I hope you get this figure out or they fix the issue for you

BoomCorals · May 14, 2017

Mike called me I was correct. It's a known issue they had where the MAC addresses were sent out the same on a bunch of units. He has to send me a new wifi module for two of them which I can swap out myself. Glad he knew what was going on right away!

BoomCorals · May 14, 2017

I also ordered 3 more lights while I'm at it, which he's going to have shipped from overseas since he knows those are fixed already. Going to run 6 of these over my 180, as I am going to pack this tank full of SPS.

Eric Tang · May 19, 2017

F3honda4me said:
I do agree that the coverage is not as good as I had hoped. The new lens design is definitely superior over the previous models. But even with 6 of these over a 6'x2'x2' tank, there are shading issues which is why I even started looking into this in the first place. I get less shading with my single mars box over my 20 Long frag tank. It's just hard to walk away from radions because I've used them for 8 years and it "feels" like they should perform better?

you should give us a try with shading. As with any LED (not specific to any brands), shading is always a problem due to lens. LED must have a lens for good penetration but at the same time restricts the spread. What we do is that the angle is auto changing over the course of the day giving a slightly different angle to reduce shadowing and allow lights to reach under overhangs and underneath overgrown corals on the top layer.

There will be a promotion soon for these lights, check us out on our website, Facebook page.

Happy reefing!

Murica · May 19, 2017

What sb light would people recommend? 6 x2x30 inches

FL-Reefer-addict352 · May 19, 2017

FOCUSTRONIC said:
you should give us a try with shading. As with any LED (not specific to any brands), shading is always a problem due to lens. LED must have a lens for good penetration but at the same time restricts the spread. What we do is that the angle is auto changing over the course of the day giving a slightly different angle to reduce shadowing and allow lights to reach under overhangs and underneath overgrown corals on the top layer.

There will be a promotion soon for these lights, check us out on our website, Facebook page.

Happy reefing!

I have 2 xr15 gen4 over a 57edge rimless with practically no Shading except for in caves

Eric Tang · May 19, 2017

FL-Reefer-addict352 said:
I have 2 xr15 gen4 over a 57edge rimless with practically no Shading except for in caves

that's nice to know. maybe it would be a different story when corals grow larger but it all depends on coral placement

RobertP · May 19, 2017

I bought the 16" basic sb reef lights and with a little extra wiring they are working with my apex. I dont regret paying far less than the radions I was planning.