Led decision

If you are wanting bells and whistles, go with radion. I have heard some really good things about them. I personally went with evergrow which is the fixture that reefbreeders sells. The reason I went with them is I have seen the product and it's performance. It's a great fixture and I would lump the quality in with the higher end fixtures. The only thing is it uses bridgelux leds which aren't quite as high powered as cree are. With this being said, I haven't regretted my decision for a minute. I'm not a wealthy guy and every time I spend a bunch of money on this hobby, I tend to second guess myself. I haven't second guessed myself one single time on this purchase.

 

I used a couple observations when buying my LEDs which are the RB. First, look at the for sale sections of different forums online and you'll find lots of radions being sold. These are leds that are supposed to last years longer than the chinese led. The only thing I can figure is buyers remorse. The other half to this is the cree vs bridgelux and 3w vs 2w leds. How many people are actually running their radions at 100 percent? Probably very few and far between. In fact there seem to be just as many people running the RB fixtures way under the potential out put to keep from burning corals. Whats the point of spending double or more on a fixture with more light output if the output isn't anymore usable than the cheaper fixture.

 

One advantage of buying more power then you need is you can turn it down and it will last longer and create less heat. I have done this many times and know the value of this and don't mind doing it.

I use to work in the home/car audio business and more power was almost always better. When you take a 500w amp and run it at half power it will out perform a 250w amp running full tilt. Running at full power almost always has a down side.

So my question still is if the radion is not worth it and I don't want a Reef Breeders fixture what's my option?

If those are my two choices I will buy the Radion and "over pay" for a sleeker fixture from a company that inspires more confidence.

 

Curt, I am running a "reefbreeders" fixture and running at 80% right now. Most people are buying a fixture that is just too much for their tank. It's sort of like running a 400 Watt MH over a 10 gallon nano. Even with my fixture, I have ramped it up over the past month, aclimating my corals to it. I plan on having both channels up to 100% in the next month and don't really anticipate any issues with it. People get their new fixtures, and just because they don't look as bright, feel that they can run them on 100% power and end up bleaching everything in their tank.

 

I ran both the Radion Pro and RB 32" side by side on my 125 gallon, took pictures, PAR numbers, and made comparisons. There's a thread on it. I ended up selling the Radion.

The RB light matched the Radion in PAR numbers when both were at 100%, and did it over a bigger section of tank. It also looked better, and was much easier to use. I had to hook a usb cable and laptop to the Radion to make changes, which were highly annoying to me. The Radion was also hot to the touch, while the RB light remained cool. Chinese or not, you don't need an engineering degree to figure out that the hotter unit has the possibility to be more prone to failure over time. There are many reports of fan failures on Gen1 Radions as well via various forums. Luckily, Ecotech has excellent customer service.

If you want a sleeker fixture, you could go with the Maxspect Razor or GHL Mitras. I went with RB because the price/performance ratio and ability to mod the leds are untouched by any other LED fixture on the market. You might love the Radion Pros, but just because it is more expensive, don't be tricked into thinking it offers better performance.

If you are still uncertain, I'd wait until a fixture really grabs your attention before buying one. There are still plenty of improvements that can be made to led lighting.

 

bhazard: was that a gen1 or gen2??

 

Neither it was the radion pro as he described.

 

I just purchased a vortech because one of the guys in my local reefclub works for ecotech and there customer service is A++++ ... Something to be said for service after the sale. I know a guy that owns my LFS and he scrapped all his Chinese lights for radons. I went back to t5's after using a Chinese style led for 6 months, I got way better color out of the t5's.

 

What about the AI VEGA color? So far the discussion has just been between the Radion or the Reef Breeders. They are on opossite ends of the spectrum as far as features and price. I think the AI Vega has alot of potential and great features while being middle of the road for price.

AI has a ton of new stuff coming out to support the VEGA as well...the director and power puck are both coming soon.

 

I doubt that anyone will tell you buying radions is a bad choice but there are others.I personally have no exsperience with radions or AI lights but from what I have read they appeal to someone that is somewhat tech savvy since they can be set up and controlled with a laptop.Reefbreeders can be controlled but not to such an extent and appeal to a larger number of people due to the price.I myself use the razor and chose it because of the look of the fixture and the built in timer system which I am very happy with(not tech savvy).You can get a very nice dawn to dusk effect with the razor but not with the colors ou were speaking of.