Radion - the negatives

There are some problems with the unit, but they are all software related. As far as the hardware is concerned, I'm yet to find something I don't like.

Michael Rice
Marine Engineers Aquarium Blog
Sent from Tapatalk so excuse my poor English

 

check yours ill bet its running your just not hearing it since its covered

i did check, the fan is supposed to be on all the time. they say it keeps dust out. its running really really low and i can barely hear it, put it this way... the soft trickle of water is louder, thats what i mainly hear from my tank. but i would think the fan should shut completely off at night, when there are no lights on. but they say no it should run on low all the time, and run faster when there is heat.

i don't see how dust could be a problem the way the light is made. i run my ceiling fans in my house all the time, non stop, i stop them to clean them and turn them right back on. and when i shut one off for a while it didn't want to start again... lol so maybe thats the thought process ? ;D

 

I'll have to check mine. I assumed you meant it was running fast enough to hear all the time.

That is an odd way to keep dust down. Maybe I should point a fan at my bookshelves so I don't have to clean them anymore lol.

Michael Rice
Marine Engineers Aquarium Blog
Sent from Tapatalk so excuse my poor English

 

I use pressurized electrical boxes in certain cases at work if they are going to be in dusty or humid (corrosive) environments. They usually have a fan pumping in clean, filtered air to keep the box slightly pressurized so that dust and vapor cannot enter. I do the same thing with optical or infrared sensor heads to keep dust from collecting on them, usually by running an airline to a box around the sensor with an opening near the sensor eye where the air exits. I would assume that was the design intent behind the Radion if that's what they told you.


The technical term for this is an 'air purge system'.

 

What percentage (power) are you guys running your Radions at?

When I started with my Sol units I browned out a handful of stonies and sent my ALK through the roof which in turn started STN in another colony. I attribute the ALK raise due to my corals stopping the calcification process while I continued to dose as usual. Now that I'm a few months into almost all of my corals have regained color or in a lot of cases gotten better color and everything is on the right track again. I started off at just 25% across the board to try and protect the corals so I didnt bleach anything which is so common with LED.

What's odd is I have not heard of a single case of anything like this happening with the Radion units; that's what has got me so interested in them. I've got a 180 build that is lagging due to not being able to commit to a lighting manufacturer/method. Once my tank regained it's stability I was dead set on using Sols with 4 T5s as supplements. Now I'm not so sure. I'm going to need 3 Radions and that's kind of a bitter pill to swallow but if they are as good as they are looking to be it may be the best option in the long run.

I wish AI would release specs on the "phoenix". Anyone with insider info care to divulge? *cough*Mike*cough* ;D

 

i started mine at 45% upped it to 60% since i was running a 150w halide for 10 hours a day. 60% of 250watts which the radion is said to equal, is about 150w and its only at peak a few hours not all day like my halide was. ( thats my thought process) since its in natural mode and it slowly ramps up in power than lowly goes back down . so far the corals look full and happy, but its early yet. also its about 9 inches above the tank, which i plan on lowering before the next raising of power.
my tank is only 14 inches deep though.

 

makes sense, and with the salt water it really makes sense. you can barely hear the fan its close to silent its really a quality light. I'm very happy with it so far.

 

I run mine at 100% just like I've run every lighting system. In truth I've never light acclimated a coral to any system our lighting type and am yet to see anything other than montipora bleach and die from it.

The Phoenix is rumored to be 20% more powerful than a SOL and will have some new cloud passing mode that looks a lot like a vertex. The thing that you really have to think about is that there is a lot of new stuff going on with different led colors right now. When they showed off the Phoenix, it had a simple blue and white mix, but when it comes out who knows what those pucks will house. I'm excited to see if they will stick with what's worked for them or break the mold and put their name right back at the top of the pile.

Michael Rice
Marine Engineers Aquarium Blog
Sent from Tapatalk so excuse my poor English