EcoTech Radion vs Aquaillumination Sol

Information from Ecotech about what happens to heat and info about the cooling system:

EcoTech Marine said:
The size of the heat sinks don't determine the life expectancy of the LEDs, however the heat generated at the junction point does. Despite it's small stature, our fixture is capable of maintaining temperatures below the manufacturer's maximum rated specifications for the LED's in up to a 100deg environment. However we only claim up to 90deg in order to include a margin for safety. This means that so long as your room stays below 90deg your LED's will continue to operate at max capacity.

Further, the LED temperatures are actively monitored by our driver and in the event that the conditions become too hot for the LED's, the Radion will automatically dim the LED's to a safe level (reducing the current), preserving your LED's and alerting you that your light may need attention. In the extreme case it will shut down the LED's and blink red letting you know an error occurred.

Also realize that this test data collected by us was with all LED's at 100% max power, which equates to approximately 10k color temperature. If you run the fixture at cooler temps the red and green will be dimmed slightly and the total heat produced will be less.
Click to expand...
 
Ok, but how high is "normal"(operate) temperature of that unit working on power setted to 100%? Can you give us any information about this fan(speed, noise, cfm)?
It possible to hear that fan - from 2m for example?
And last one - LED chip are assembled to metal core pcb. It possible to change single led(like in Maxpect fixture)? What if one single led will die - lamp have to be send to service - or you will send a new mcpcb?
I think that is very important - because if somebody will not have a temporary lamp - it could be difficult to stay without light...
Thank you.

Belagio
 
Further Information:

Quote:
Originally Posted by SkullV
Tim et. al,

What kind of reliability/heat/spectrum shift testing have you done with running the XP-G at 5w? I'm mostly sold, but the prospect of the diode not dealing with the heat long term (50k hours?) is the only think still keeping me on the fence.

There will be no reliability/heat/spectrum issues because we maintain the LED's below their maximum thermal threshold as specified by Cree. Most others do not run their LED's above 3w each not because of the danger in doing this (it's officially recognized by Cree to be acceptable for their XP-G's) but because it requires higher driving current within the drive circuitry which is difficult or expensive to design/manufacture. Running an XP-G at 3w is actually more analogous to under-driving them than running them at 5w is to over-driving them.

We designed our driver completely on our own, without any off-the-shelf integrated drive circuitry and therefore could pursue whichever route we wanted for the Radion. Building a driver that can run these higher currents also enables us to run higher current LED's such as the XM-L series, in the future.


Quote:
Originally Posted by alrha
any suggestions for a tank-mount option?

Not at this time.

Quote:
Originally Posted by madweazl
OK, I was sitting in bed all night trying to figure out a solution for my tank. Assuming I can rotate each LED cluster 90 degrees in the hood (which looks possible from the exterior), would I be wrong in thinking I would narrow the beam pattern roughly 12" while picking up another foot length wise? It looks like each kidney shaped element has a 2' spread lengthwise and roughly 1' wide width wise? Is this a correct assumption?

The beam from the Radion is more or less exactly square, but you could gain a small amount of coverage in the axis of your choice by rotating the fixture so both clusters are on the axis which you wish to have wider spread.


Quote:
Originally Posted by D-Nak
Also, how are the heat sinks accessed for cleaning?

The Radion can be fully disassembled with a #2 screw driver and three allen key's however this is not required to clean the heat sink/fans. To clean the cooling chamber simply blow air with an air duster can into the heat fins from the side or up through the fan and wipe down the fan surface with a cloth filled with rubbing alcohol. We recommend periodic maintenance based on your operating environment.

Quote:
Originally Posted by LukeGI
Is the power supply for the Radion separate or is it somewhere inside the housing?

Yes, it is housed within a separate gloss-white powder coated enclosure. The cable for the Radion is 10' long and has a removable connector which attaches to the power supply housing.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Bellagio
Can anybody answer to my questions - I can find that informations:

This PAR reading was made:
- in the air
- in the water
- what about distance between PAR meter and ligth unit?
I think that is VERY important when you compare this two brands.

In the air, 12" from the center point of the fixture, in a black body enclosure measuring 36x36". At MACNA, at the bottom of a 60x24x24" saltwater filled aquarium, we recorded minimum PAR readings of approximately 220 using an Apogee PAR meter. Three Radions were used above this tank.

Quote:
Originally Posted by SkullV
Also, and I may have just missed this, but what kind of warranty will this fixture come with?

One year on the fixture, two years on the LED clusters. Should a fan need replacement down the road they'll be under $20/ea and easily available through our parts store.


EcoTech Marine said:
Another point- within the next week or so we will have much more detailed information about the light including videos and more concrete specs. The initial spectra and PAR graph are left with little data intentionally because we are still preparing the final and full information to provide.

To those who asked which spectrum is the correct one, the correct spectrum is below, a calculation error was made on the initial spectrum released:

radiongraphs.png
Click to expand...



Original Post:

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showpost.php?p=19284226&postcount=133
 
Last edited:
pmrossetti said:
Cinci, how do you plan to hang them? i like them too.
Click to expand...

Since I have a canopy that is only about 8 inches from the top of the water I'm going to install wood supports with angle iron at the utmost point. I will span between the existing supports of the canopy and place one radion between each of them (6' 210 gallon). Thankfully the supports of my canopy are right over the supports of my tank. Since the radion is supposed to cover a 24x24 area it will work out perfectly. I will have them turned longwise with the tank so the spread is most even when looking in from the front. I will probably cheat the fixtures to the rear some since that's where my rocks and corals will sit. If I have any shortcomings in the front of the tank I will install some T-5's in the front to cover it. Since the radion is so thin they will still be over 6 inches from the water. And with the design of them I don't have to worry about my lid covering the blow holes for the exhaust or something like that.
 
The Lance said:
The Ecotech reps explained that there is as much humidity in the air above as in the air below, so that is not a concern. This design does however avoid dust settling on/in the fan.
Click to expand...

True, but AI fans actually blow the air from inside the unit to outside, but not the other way round. Hence, the two units' fans designs are radically different irrespective of where they are on the unit.
 
Yep my Ai's did that and trying to clean the dirt and crud from inside the heat sink was a nighmare. where as if you blow across the heat sink you clear the dust and debri, also having the heat sink inverted as with Ecotech, no falling dust can settle. The unit is also designed that no water born particles can get to any electrical components (unless you drop it in water) as the heat sink acts as a moisture barrier. All terminals are corrosion resistant coated also.
 
AQD_ottawa said:
Yep my Ai's did that and trying to clean the dirt and crud from inside the heat sink was a nighmare. where as if you blow across the heat sink you clear the dust and debri, also having the heat sink inverted as with Ecotech, no falling dust can settle. The unit is also designed that no water born particles can get to any electrical components (unless you drop it in water) as the heat sink acts as a moisture barrier. All terminals are corrosion resistant coated also.
Click to expand...

canned air works great!
 
alrha said:
Wondering how these might compare. Aquaillumination has pretty much held the top seat for LED lighting and EcoTech must be aware of their products. Curious to see in what ways the Radion might surpass the Sol, and in what way Aquaillumination will not be beat.

Thoughts?
Click to expand...

Well, that's a matter of opinion. From my point of view, the Vertex Illumina has held the top seat for LED lighting. Of course, they've only recently become available in the US because of the previous patent issue, but I always thought the tanks of those who had them imported were more impressive then the tanks running AI Sols. So for me, AI is already out of the running when I get an LED set-up for my new tank. I'm leaning towards the Vertex Illumina. I was already planning on getting the Illumina fixture before I learned that they were now being sold in the US. I was going to buy it in Canada and transport it home, but now I will wait to see how the EcoTech light works. I do like that it has the full spectrum of color the EcoTech offers so who knows. I won't be setting the tank up until the winter anyway so there is no reason for me to rush into getting the lighting.
 
I think the ecotech is overpriced. It's a great fixture however i'll put my money with the AI phoenix. It looks better, offers more and in my opinion looks a lot better. I personally dont like the ecotech.
 
bobby_demay said:
I think the ecotech is overpriced. It's a great fixture however i'll put my money with the AI phoenix. It looks better, offers more and in my opinion looks a lot better. I personally dont like the ecotech.
Click to expand...

Offers more in what way? They haven't released specs on them. If they use the standard blue:white LED mix, it will still be ages behind the Ecotech.
 
This past weekend I got to go to the Mountain West Reef Fest and I saw both units, in action and over corals. They were side by side on different tanks.

The Ecotech was hands down the better fixture. The color rendering and custom colors were 10 fold what the AI can do. I got to sit and play with both and there was no comparison for me.

The AIs were very cold and you could see certain colors were really missing. I had the vendor switch the corals in the tanks so I could see what each coral looked like under the different lighting. Once again, the Radion won out for me.
 
Wow, that much of a difference! Glad I went with EcoTech. I do like the thunderstorms on the AI units better though I wont really be using it just once in a while to show off! :-)

Sent from Wesley's Moto Atrix 4G using Tapatalk
 
rtparty said:
This past weekend I got to go to the Mountain West Reef Fest and I saw both units, in action and over corals. They were side by side on different tanks.

The Ecotech was hands down the better fixture. The color rendering and custom colors were 10 fold what the AI can do. I got to sit and play with both and there was no comparison for me.

The AIs were very cold and you could see certain colors were really missing. I had the vendor switch the corals in the tanks so I could see what each coral looked like under the different lighting. Once again, the Radion won out for me.
Click to expand...

Was it the AI Sol or Phoenix that you were comparing? And do you think that a warmer white LED would help with the missing spectrum on the AI Sol?
 
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