ecotech radion, maxspect razor
- Thread starter btscreef
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chort55
unregistered
Check the site for the radion, I believe they will work with anything that will access a website now, but not 100%.
jedimasterben
Bubble coral sting good
Is that so? What are the differences between the XT-E used in the Radion and the XT-E used in the R420R?
Frankly, this is how I see it. The Radion Pro improves greatly upon the original in the fact that it uses XT-E as its base (I can't believe Ecotech charged so much for using such cheap LEDs on the original) and using violet LEDs, which are much more important than people think, royal blue is NOT where you're going to get the most growth from. However, the fact that they use green and 'yellow' (590nm is amber, not yellow) LEDs really won't help much as far as coloration or photosynthesis go. Amber helps with true color rendering, and green makes the light look 'brighter' to our eyes, as our cone receptors sense green light first and best. They should have added cyan instead of green, as this would help dramatically with coloration of a lot of corals, but they figured green was 'good enough' I supposed (it's not). They add too little deep red, I'd love to see them triple or quadruple the power they put in that spectra, because yes, corals can use that part of the spectrum just as well as parts of the blue spectrum. See my thread in the lighting section here: https://www.reef2reef.com/forums/eq...0170-lighting-spectra-photosynthesis-you.html
The Maxspect R420R uses the same cool white XT-E as the Radion uses, however, it is half and half with warm white XT-E. This is where commercial fixtures are truly failing hobbyists. The lack of warmer whites is destructive to color rendition! Halides and T5 lights both cover broad spectrums in cyan, green, amber, orange, red, and therefore are truly able to reproduce colors accurately, eg, a red coral will look red, green will be green, etc. LEDs are narrow-spectrum emitters, even those considered 'white'. Adding the warm white is what bring the R420R far and above what the Radion can do in terms of color because it has a much more broad spectrum since it only has sharp peaks at a few wavelengths (however key they may be).
I'd highly suggest the R420R over the Radion.
btscreef
Community Member
so i read your thread on led very good. so what i gather is a dyi led light is the way to go. the only thing is you can only dim them right. or can you do the hole sun rise mid day night thing with the led ramping up and down. so what led light fixture all in one would you say to go with. thank you
jedimasterben
Bubble coral sting good
LEDs need either timers controlling different strings or a controller. A controller is easier than wiring multiple strings, IMHO.
Like I said, for a premade fixture, the Maxspect is what you'd want.
Like I said, for a premade fixture, the Maxspect is what you'd want.
Big E
Valuable Member
Well said, here's a thread I started a while back & sheds some light on actual specs. I would pick the Razor over the Radion, mainly because of what's under the hood & based soley on what has a better chance of performing well for a wide range of Sps.
LED's with respect to color of Sps corals - Reef Central Online Community
I'm in wait mode till these latest models prove their worth.........I'd definately opt for the latest renditions of these units & do your homework.
btscreef
Community Member
so the razor dose not have the red uv cyan and a full color spectra right. would you say to do a dyi with these other color led to help out with the coral color and growth. also i am not stuck on just these led units. if there are any other recommendation out there please feel free to let me no.
jedimasterben
Bubble coral sting good
UV and violet are not the same thing. UV light (even UV-A, which is 300-400nm) is destructive on the DNA level, and I would not ever use it over a tank. True violet (400nm to about 435nm), however, contains two of the three peaks for chlorophyll a absorption at 410nm and 430nm, and drops off sharply after that, and rising again at 660nm or so (which means royal blue isn't that important to chlorophyll a, which is 90% of the total chlorophyll in most zooxanthellae).
The R420R uses Epistar 410nm and 420nm chips, XT-E cool white and warm white, XT-E royal blue, and XP-E cool blue. The warm white XT-E adds red and amber to the point where it is not necessary to add any extra, and it also makes for some wicked coloration mixed with the royal blues.
btscreef
Community Member
so it sounds like from what you say that the razor it the best bang for your buck. or is there another one that is better. do you use led and if so what do you use? if a dyi they what led fixture would you buy.
jedimasterben
Bubble coral sting good
My setup is a big custom DIY setup using Luxeon Rebels, 12x neutral white, 32x royal blue (445nm), 6x OCW (deep red 660nm, cyan 505nm, cool blue 470nm), and 12x violet (417nm and 430nm, six each). If I were to purchase a fixture premade, it would be the R420R.
My setup that I just put together:
Before adding 8x royal blue and the 430nm (I had 12x 417nm then)
My setup that I just put together:
Before adding 8x royal blue and the 430nm (I had 12x 417nm then)
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