We got a sneak peek of something HUGE for Radion lighting!!

[Ryanbrs]

You must have an excellent Crystal ball their guy. I for one can't wait to get my hands on one of those fringe products. All it takes is some results and some buzz in this hobby and the next thing you know all the sheeples are running a Coral Care.
Really though, who gives a flying f how many of anything sells? All I care about is getting what I want when I want it at the best price. What sells or doesn't isn't any of the consumer's business.
Based on B R S review of the Coral Care, it basically is a perfect light or near it. The weight thing is a non issue, make a sick looking 80/20 hanger for it. Done. The application for it can be updated but even that is nothing compared to the quality and benefits.
You guys keep paying to be Ecotech's beta testers and provide their R&D funding for them. It's working great for THEM so far.

The only way LED's are going to replace the highly diffused lighting of T5's and large reflector halides is with a highly diffused solution, end of story. Saying it that way makes it almost painfully obvious. Now that the community recognizes that, knows what they want and there is significant demand, one can only hope one of the manufacturers is going to be brave enough to invest in the future. IMHO this is an evolutionary leap and there will be a critical mass of very quick adopters the moment anyone steps up.

It's approaching a year since we tested the coral care and I still have the same basic thoughts about that specific product. It's far from perfect but close to awesome performance.

• Large diffused pannels or fixtures are the future and the end game of a fairly long performance journey for wall to wall SPS reefers. While I am sure some people disagree I personally think this almost indisputable.
• I wish they had slightly more focus on the 400-420 violet range which really seems to bring out some of the color "pop" everyone wants.
• I really appreciate the approach of locking the light down only to spectrum blends that produce results and allowing subtle tweaks to color representation. Maybe allow for an advanced "slider" mode which has a clear warning. "You are now entering trail blazer mode. We wish you the best of luck. Please send us pics of your results, good and bad"
• Plugging a light into a "PC" as the only means of controllability is a ridiculous standard and might have been acceptable a decade ago. Some people will still be ok with that but it is a rapidly decreasing number.
• The repurposed warehouse form factor is a great way to test the market or concept but the market leader will never be that form factor.

As to the industry using reefers as beta testers and funders of R&D. This is absolutely 100% true but it is not as nefarious as it sounds. More or less the manufacturers of pumps, lights, additive systems, skimmers, ect.. all attempt to build the most marketable product they can based on the knowledge and budgets available at the time. Supportive of that, the reefing community is insanely engaged in exploring potential advancements as well as new theories and approches. The reefing community will always be 100x more effective at identifying the best approaches than a manufacturer with a small beta team can ever be. So the manufacturer's do their best but the community's collective will always produce the most rapid and best results. IMHO, in the long run, the most successful manufacturers will always be those that are the most engaged in working with the reefing community to constantly explore the advancements they identify.

 

[pecan2phat]

I still cannot get a clear and concise answer from Ecotech on why they cannot design the XR30's cooling fan to shut down when the heat sink is totally cool like the XR15s but the diffusers do look interesting especially if you have a canopy-less setup and a tall stand. Besides the diffusion properties, it'll help my retinas also.

 

[Flippers4pups]

I run an evening program using the fewest active LEDs possible for increased dimming capability.

The whites and blues are a no go because each puck has 3 LEDs of each and even at 2% it's too much light for progressive dimming.

The reds, greens and UVs however have 1 led per puck.

This allows me to do a nice step off program.

30 min w UV, Red and Green at 3%, then the Reds drop leaving a very attractive green and UV at 3%, then just UV only but at 6 %, then slowly down to zero which overlaps with my Neptune APEX lunar stim module that is programmed to mimic true moon cycles.

Also during sun rise and sun set in the real world, you get a very yellow light from the sun due to atmospheric blockage and the angle.

I can mimic that w a 30 min fade in and out for morning and evening going all the way to a 5k if I want to...

Also during the day I actually cut the Reds and greens completly off as some research shows those can actually be counter productive...though I use them for effects and intermittently during the day studies show they actually encourage nuisance algae growth...dont want them on continuous during peak intensity hours.

And some times in the evenings, I like to run straight blues for about 30 minutes just after the yellow cycle but before the decreasing led fade to lunar.

.......regret asking? LoL

This is completely aesthetics for the end user. Not needed.

 

[Newb73]

This is completely aesthetics for the end user. Not needed.

Be that as it may, it's still a program designed to replicate in every way possible, real life conditions for the inhabitants.

 

[Flippers4pups]

Be that as it may, it's still a program designed to replicate in every way possible, real life conditions for the inhabitants.

Ramping and dimming, okay, agreed.

 

[XNavyDiver]

Is anyone using the AB+ with gen3 with Apex. I would really like to see the curve for that.

I think if you go into your light in Fusion, then to "schemes", you will see a tab labeled "Discover". Go into that and look around for a scheme that fits your criteria and download it. That's what I did and I found a scheme someone uploaded for a 100 gal tank with the AB+ settings. I had to make adjustments for the intensity though, as they were set way to high for the height of my tank.

 

[XNavyDiver]

This is a 3d printed prototype, not the finished product.

Thanks for that! I was watching and wondering if they were going to put something out for the XR30 folks as well.

 

[tdileo]

Id like to see some pics. I've seen many radios lit tanks and I'd be impressed if I saw those results from your fixtures.

My tank isn't even 6 months old yet. There isn't much growth to show, but I have probably 7" of monti caps, 7" of monti setosa and a few flower anemones. I've also got a lot of monti spongeodes but have fragged them multiple times because they grow rather quickly

 

[hart24601]

Where did you find the panel for reef breeders? did you notice a big difference? im currently using a v2 photon with a t5 bulb on each side

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B000B75TTE/ref=ya_st_dp_summary?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Yes I noticed a nice change in color blending. It's not expensive so fun to play with. I run a 24" and a 16" v2 over a 60 cube so the surface is already 100% covered in led. (corner overflow so that's why not 2 24" units).

 

[Broadfield]

1) My hyrda 52s have no such effects.

It's either the lights or the fact that I have lots of surface agitation....perhaps a bit of both.

2) Ecotech is loosing me as a customer by cutting their products out of Being compatible with Apex fusion.

The Vectras aren't, and the hydra HDs aren't. I doubt these next gen Rations will be.

Sorry ecotech, i like your products but I'm not fragmenting my control...you declared war with the wrong product line.....

Neptune announced yesterday that the Hydra HD's will be able to be controlled VERY soon.

 

[Newb73]

Neptune announced yesterday that the Hydra HD's will be able to be controlled VERY soon.

Nice!!!! Will make a nice drop in fix if one of my 52s burns out then.

 

[reeferfoxx]

Adding a diffuser will fix the obvious disco issue for those that don't like it. However, it would render the wide angle lens useless. Also, with the loss of penetration, you would have to increase intensity or lower the fixture while reducing spread. With an increase of intensity, you would have more heat generated thus compromising the life expectancy of that fixture at the same time. I would also like to know why there is so much customization of spectrum? Really, the proven spectrum(AB+) is what most people use anyway, so the selling point there seems to be lost?

 

[N4sty T4te]

I do feel that this is a stop gap response from Ecotech to address the disco ball effect that has been a known issue for Radions. What it doesn't address is the shadowing issue from puck style lighting. That's why I really think (and this is a complete guess BTW) that the next iteration of the Radions will see more of a panel like fixture, with diodes spread along the entire panel and using diffusers... similar to the CoralCare. After all, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.

This does address shadowing by creating a larger light source. Albeit not entirely.

 

[Donovan Joannes]

A properly spaced LED bulbs won't create a disco effects. I am not seeing any disco effects on mine, and I am using more colored LED in this fixture. I have pink, deep red, amber, green, royal blue, cool blue, 6500k white, cool daylight and purple.

 

[Flippers4pups]

My three modded Mars aquas with the lenses pulled and 13" above water line have no "disco" effect and cover the entire sand bed. No shadowing what so ever.

Like I said, the next advancement for ecotech will be diodes spread out over the entire surface of the fixture. Puck designs across the board will disappear soon. Large length led fixtures covering a tanks length will become the norm before long. Sb reeflights new ultra is proof of things to come. Coverage problems will be a thing of the past.

 

[GoVols]

Regarding post #1

(LOL)
Finally... Somebodies going to do a Philip's "CoralCare" knock off, for the reefer's, in the USA


.

 

[reeferfoxx]

Regarding post #1

(LOL)
Finally... Somebodies going to do a Philip's "CoralCare" knock off, for the reefer's, in the USA


.

I went ahead and revisited the Philips CoralCare BRS investigates video; aside from the diffuser, I really hope nobody emulates that design. Now, if we could get a better "middle of road" between the Orphek V4 and Chinese black box, we might have a real game changer.

 

[Flippers4pups]

I went ahead and revisited the Philips CoralCare BRS investigates video; aside from the diffuser, I really hope nobody emulates that design. Now, if we could get a better "middle of road" between the Orphek V4 and Chinese black box, we might have a real game changer.

Have you seen the sb reeflights "ultra"?

 

[reeferfoxx]

Have you seen the sb reeflights "ultra"?

Yeah. That price tag though ;Facepalm

 

[N4sty T4te]

Ok here is my take in bullet points.

1. Ecotech's biggest selling point from my understanding is it's lenses and color mixing. Literally any light source with adjustable LED's in the same color spectrum that is diffused will be the same. So there goes their competitive edge.

2. You can buy a 1 stop diffusion gel for photography that is completely color neutral in 12"x12" for about $3. Which is exactly what this is. Here's a link to a kit where you can get 12 different ones to experiment with for $20. https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1016184-REG/colourlite_mafp_211_diffusion_filter_pack.html So when this costs $100 dollars you can rest assured it's a ripoff. It should cost $25 tops and even then its as stretch.

3. If Ecotech wants to solve their disco ball issue and get the T5 effect and "Change the game" then they should build a fixture like a T5 + LED combo using all LED's and have strips of diffusion similar to this that act as if they were the T5 bulbs.

Again, absolutely nothing about this is revolutionary. People have been diffusing light for hundreds of years. You can literally build something that is completely identical to this for less than $10 in 15 mins. Don't get me wrong, Ecotech makes an AMAZING light. I'm just certainly not wowed that they discovered diffusion mixes light more effectively than multiple wide angle lenses.