socalmonty
New member
Very nice, Ed. What are the settings on your lights?
Ecotech Radion ~vs~ AquaIllumination SOL ~vs~ Vertex Illumina
- Thread starter Jeremy B.
- Start date
Dustin1300
Reefaholic
Honestly on a 90 I'm not so sure you need 3 radions. 48"X18" should really only need 2 of them from what research I've done.
Robb in Austin
New member
I've seen a Radion on a 90. It lit up half the tank as well as the 250MH sitting next to it.
edsreef
New member
It's all about versatility! Put two on your 90's and be happy! I'm happier with three on mine and I'll be able to do more than you can with color transitions across my tank and more power available at different color temps. Remember, the rated power of the light, with all led's running at full power is at 12K. At 20K max power is 58.8% of that.
Dustin1300
Reefaholic
I'm planning for a 140 gallon frag/grow out tank and 450 gallon DT so I'll need a few more than 2
The lights are suspended! I'm using a 60" AI rail kit that I ended up attaching everything to. I already had this in place over the tank with 3 AI SOL Blue's hanging from it, so I just essentially removed 2 AI modules, then placed the Illumina in the middle, and the Radion on the right of the rail system.
I chose to mount the Illumina and Radion front to back, rather than left to right, since the AI's are mounted that way anyways. On top of that, it was much easier to hang the Illumina and Radion up this way along with the AI rails. I'm only going to be using this setup for color rendition and par measurements through the water. I will do more precise par measurements over a certain area with no water and a grid I'll be using.
I chose to mount the Illumina and Radion front to back, rather than left to right, since the AI's are mounted that way anyways. On top of that, it was much easier to hang the Illumina and Radion up this way along with the AI rails. I'm only going to be using this setup for color rendition and par measurements through the water. I will do more precise par measurements over a certain area with no water and a grid I'll be using.
Dustin1300
Reefaholic
I really want to come check out these fixtures and glad to see the progress Jeremy. Wife has my Saturday tied up this weekend so hopefully I can come by next Saturday
My hunch so far - the AI is going to blow these others away in PAR. Having said that, you can also see how focused the AI is compared to the other two as this is over a bare bottom tank. You can really see a difference in the light focusing with it. The Radion is very sleek, but it also has by far the most heat coming down off the bottom of it (still minimal with LED's though). With all three running at 100% right now the Illumina looks like it's just a hair more dim than the Radion, and I mean just "hair"! The AI looks the brightest directly under the module, then the most dim once you get out from underneath it. The Illumina will have the best spread of all these I think, and it won't be close.
Those are my first impressions, we'll see if the actual testing proves me wrong with all of this. Tomorrow I will try and get power true power consumption numbers on these, as well as some par numbers in the water. I'll also start adjusting each module to a more "real world" intensity percentage and coloration and take some photos with corals under them.
My goal is to have the 24" x 24" grid par numbers done by the end of next week, wrapping up this comparison. For anyone local to us we will have the modules running on this particular holding tank for at least that long if you want to stop by.
One other note, the Radio and Illumina are both available for sale as a "demo model", 10% off. The first person to contact me at jeremy@premiumaquatics.com with billing and credit card information gets them.
The AI looks the brightest directly under the module, then the most dim once you get out from underneath it. The Illumina will have the best spread of all these I think, and it won't be close. Those are my first impressions, we'll see if the actual testing proves me wrong with all of this. Tomorrow I will try and get power true power consumption numbers on these, as well as some par numbers in the water. I'll also start adjusting each module to a more "real world" intensity percentage and coloration and take some photos with corals under them.
My goal is to have the 24" x 24" grid par numbers done by the end of next week, wrapping up this comparison. For anyone local to us we will have the modules running on this particular holding tank for at least that long if you want to stop by.
One other note, the Radio and Illumina are both available for sale as a "demo model", 10% off. The first person to contact me at jeremy@premiumaquatics.com with billing and credit card information gets them.
Jeremy,
I think testing them this way is unfair to Radion and specially to Illumina.
Using Optics you must hang the AI about a foot above the water surface to avoid spotting effect.
With Illumina you can hang the light a couple of inches away from the water surface. For me this was the whole point since going rimless you want everything to look low-pro and having a light 18" away from the tank just looks ugly.
I am not sure about Radion since the fan might prohibit you from getting close to the water surface! Or even the use of their reflector however with Illumina you can go as close as you want!
In any case maybe would be a good idea to lower the 2 non-optic fixtures to see the results, or ultimately for a fair test maybe you can have them all hung at the same height as is right now and a second test with all being a couple of inches away from the surface and then do a comparison of shadowing and PAR... in 2 different scenarios.
Ultimately if these LEDs are of the same strength and are being run @ the same Ma then you should get the same amount of light, with no optics you are focusing on having a better spread so this means you have to lower the fixture to have less of the light produced stray out of the system which should be considered as a loss. On the other hand hanging the AI close to the surface will cause spotting so………
Having said all that Radion and Vertex should generate more PAR simply because of higher number of LEDs, with AI you have over concentration in one spot and poor distribution to other parts.
Cheers,
Dave
I think testing them this way is unfair to Radion and specially to Illumina.
Using Optics you must hang the AI about a foot above the water surface to avoid spotting effect.
With Illumina you can hang the light a couple of inches away from the water surface. For me this was the whole point since going rimless you want everything to look low-pro and having a light 18" away from the tank just looks ugly.
I am not sure about Radion since the fan might prohibit you from getting close to the water surface! Or even the use of their reflector however with Illumina you can go as close as you want!
In any case maybe would be a good idea to lower the 2 non-optic fixtures to see the results, or ultimately for a fair test maybe you can have them all hung at the same height as is right now and a second test with all being a couple of inches away from the surface and then do a comparison of shadowing and PAR... in 2 different scenarios.
Ultimately if these LEDs are of the same strength and are being run @ the same Ma then you should get the same amount of light, with no optics you are focusing on having a better spread so this means you have to lower the fixture to have less of the light produced stray out of the system which should be considered as a loss. On the other hand hanging the AI close to the surface will cause spotting so………
Having said all that Radion and Vertex should generate more PAR simply because of higher number of LEDs, with AI you have over concentration in one spot and poor distribution to other parts.
Cheers,
Dave
Addiction2SPS
New member
I have my AI 12 inches above my tank and I absolutely love it. I don't need to worry about raising or lowering the light to get in the tank. I can also take top downs easily.
socalmonty
New member
I was interested in seeing full tank shots to see the difference in the appearance of the lights. I know they are hung over a 12" deep frag tank so I'm not sure that pictures of the tank will even make sense but are you planning to show tank pics? I understand that with the ability to adjust each of the lights it's bound to be more or less an apples to oranges comparison but it would still be interesting to a lot of us.
@Luxo, I wouldn't say it's "unfair" so much as I would just say this is the reality of doing a comparison with three different types of fixtures. We are comparing apples to oranges here no matter how you look at it. The purpose of this thread is to show what each fixture does, an unbiased review, and then it's up to the end user to decide what is most useful, efficient, and full of the gadgetry that they want for their specific aquarium.
Now having said that, I will take a look at doing different par readings at different heights. I know how well the Illumina spreads, and how close you can have it to the water. I personally hate having light spillage from any fixture into a room, which is what I really like about the Illumina (and will probably be the same for the Ecotech) is that you can essentially put these fixtures 3" off the water surface if you wanted and it still covers an entire tank.
@socalmonty, I will be doing full tank shots with these. I just got them suspended yesterday afternoon and got them programmed.
Now having said that, I will take a look at doing different par readings at different heights. I know how well the Illumina spreads, and how close you can have it to the water. I personally hate having light spillage from any fixture into a room, which is what I really like about the Illumina (and will probably be the same for the Ecotech) is that you can essentially put these fixtures 3" off the water surface if you wanted and it still covers an entire tank.
@socalmonty, I will be doing full tank shots with these. I just got them suspended yesterday afternoon and got them programmed.
kentrob11
Premium Member
Very interested in seeing the results here. One major issue I have with LED's is the coldish light output and the unnatural looking shimmer they produce with tighter optics. I was interested in the radion mostly because of the control-ability out of the box but also because they included a wider range of LED colors, making it easy to really dial in the exact color of light. I've always been a fan of tank lighting that was a crisp white with very little, if any blue....Another thing I think is relevant is the fact that PAR output is becoming a less important variable with LED's, since lights supposedly equaling the output of only a 250w halide are having to be dimmed to less than 50% to keep from burning the corals. I think the real determining factor with these will not be output(since their all more than sufficient) but rather coverage and control-ability.
Dustin1300
Reefaholic
I think I'm going to drop by PA tomorrow and check out the fixtures. You going to be around Jeremy?
