*HELP* Radion Pro or Hydra 52

[zachts]

Power factor also plays into things if your using a bunch of fixtures or motors on a circuit. Lower power factor means you won't be able to have as many fixtures/pumps on the same branch circuit as they will have higher amp ratings. The ac input amp rating on the device is what you use to size the branch circuit and determine how many lights or pumps, etc, can go on your breaker.

[jbraslins]

Originally Posted by simonh

Power factor has NOTHING to do with how much of the real watts used by the device is converted into lumens.

It is all to do with the phase of the current to the voltage in the supply. A purely resistive device has a power factor near 1, an inductive device such as a motor or transformer will have a power factor less than 1. Nowadays, cleverly designed switched mode transformers can avoid most of the issues of low power factors.

From what I've gathered as power factor gets further and lower from 1, the device will have higher and higher surge draw during initial startup for a few milliseconds. So if you have a lot of fixtures on a single breaker, it may become an issue sooner than if you power factor was 1.

Also, I've been told that any device that converts power from AC to DC and has power factor closer to 1, could automatically be considered as having better/higher end components than one with power factor of 0.54.

In our comparison, that applies to the power supply only, not necessarily the rest of the light fixture. Basically it takes a better power supply to have lower startup surge and power factor closer to 1.

Simonh, would you agree?

[sanababit]

Heres my story, been a t5 since 2007, in time i had great growth and color, was very happy with results, but electricity bill was killing me, on july decided to go led, and bought a couple of radion g2, and here is where it gets interesting, i removed 6 of my 8 t5 from above tank, and installed the two radions, after battling with their ESL (ecosmart live) for a couple of days and trying to program them i finally got a nice graph going between 14k and 18k through out the day, everything looked good for 2 weeks, then it started going down hill, lost some sps, not a lot, but some that i really liked, color started to fade too on all corals, BUT i hanged in there, thngs are goign to get better, this is when i decided to turn my remaning t5 for 5 hours along with the radions, well after almost 3 months corals started to get back on track, sps look great with good growth, zoas are multipliying like crazy, lps never looked better, glass doesnt get green as fast, t5 are providing the uv spectrum which my radions g2 lack, so i am a happy camper, oh and saving electricity too, i used to run 8 t5 at 54w which equals 432 w, now i run my radions at around 90 w each and my two t5 which come out to 108w for a total of 288 w, all i can say is, if and when you decide to go with leds is that you need patience, specially if your tank is already stocked, if your just starting out then the decision of using leds will be an easy one..

Now would i recommend the radions, yes and no, lets star with the positive

Really well made fixture
Awsome customer service
Great color leds
Small fixture and sleek, its sexy, lol
Once its programmed your all done
I have the apex and wxm, now i can acces them wirelesly, waiting for fusion too

The negative

Fan on bottom
No wireless control, need 200 dlls more for that, i have the apex and wxm luckly
You need a computer and long usb cable to program
No hanging kits 50 dlls extra each
ESL is finicky, if your not computer savvy then you will need to contact customer service
No uv for me at least (g2), but i dont care i have t5 going

I can only talk about the radions because thats what i have, i have seen the hydras52, and they look great too, so whatever choice you make, you still get leds, lol, good luck

Sana

[Travis590]

So if you don't have an iphone can you still use your phone to connect to them? I have a Galaxy S4 and was looking into, but if they are only apple friendly then that does me no good.

[maddhugan]

Originally Posted by jbraslins

From what I've gathered as power factor gets further and lower from 1, the device will have higher and higher surge draw during initial startup for a few milliseconds. So if you have a lot of fixtures on a single breaker, it may become an issue sooner than if you power factor was 1.

Also, I've been told that any device that converts power from AC to DC and has power factor closer to 1, could automatically be considered as having better/higher end components than one with power factor of 0.54.

In our comparison, that applies to the power supply only, not necessarily the rest of the light fixture. Basically it takes a better power supply to have lower startup surge and power factor closer to 1.

Simonh, would you agree?

OK you guys are right. The low power factor is due the the current lagging the volt. It is the phase difference; However, if you have low power factor then there will be some energy loss due to the low power factor. Do you guys agree? A power factor correction should have been included in the Radion Pro. I wonder why it wasn't done. Any thoughts on that?..............

[vulteiv1]

So is there an update on this? I've had radion g1, g2 and g2 pro, and was nevered really happy with them due to fan placement and esl. So I went back to t5, and eventually shut down that tank. I'm in the process of setting up a new tank and am interested in your feedback of the hydra52.

[sandy7263]

Honestly I never was able to use them because we are moving and I didn't want to set them up before the move. A friend of mine who services tanks was very impressed by them. He set one of them up opposite a Radion and I thought the 52's looked much better.

Moving in 2 months and I will be getting the 52's.

[toky916]

I have my hydra 52 for 4 weeks now over my 65gal 39,17,20.
Have the fixture set --- 11" high get excellent coverage.
Still ramping up but week 2 noticed my ORA joe the coral tip burn slightly but fixed it lowering uv down to 15% and whites down to 30% now and everything is doing good see more darker more deep color in SPS. Also Zoa&lps colors improved !

I'm coming from kessil 350. I was waiting for kessil to release a new product similar to a Multiple cluster fixture to prevent shadowing in SPS and wireless control.
But looks like it's going to take them longer than I'm expecting to wait. Love the Kessil nice shimmer the hydra 52 has some shimmer no noticeable disco effect.
Over all I'm really happy with the light only more time will tell.

[SloppyJ]

I bought a Radion gen 3 pro to use over my 93g cube.

[chrismhaase]

Originally Posted by vulteiv1

So is there an update on this? I've had radion g1, g2 and g2 pro, and was nevered really happy with them due to fan placement and esl.

What does "esl" stand for?

[SloppyJ]

Ecosmart Live. It's the program that Ecotech uses to program the lights.

I went through this same decision Hydra 52 vs. Radion. I went with a gen 3 pro and I have no regrets. I love it.

[chrismhaase]

Originally Posted by SloppyJ

Ecosmart Live. It's the program that Ecotech uses to program the lights.

I went through this same decision Hydra 52 vs. Radion. I went with a gen 3 pro and I have no regrets. I love it.

Thanks SloppyJ

[ClownsRCoo]

I'm not that impressed with my ecotech products. My first set of lights had one that would never consistently follow the schedule I set up. They sent me a new one and now the new one doesn't color match the original I've had. When displaying certain shades of blue it's a totally different shade on the left than the right. I've done all of the recalibration and their suggestions and it didn't nothing. They want me to go without a light while they look this one over which I can't do. I don't want my corals in that side of the tank to suffer because of that.

My connection with ESL is constantly a battle to keep it working. I'm having to reset that box weekly to get it to work. My vortech's don't follows set schedule correctly. One will randomly go on full blast for a good 30 seconds every so often. For the money I've dropped on their products I haven't been blown away that's for sure. It's better than that cheap Chinese crap but not worth what they charge for it. Not that disappointed with the vortech's but am pretty let down by the quality of the radions. Really thinking of dumping them in favor of T5's.

Tons are features are great when they are working but really **** you off when you have paid for them and they aren't working properly.

[chrismhaase]

Originally Posted by ClownsRCoo

I'm not that impressed with my ecotech products. My first set of lights had one that would never consistently follow the schedule I set up. They sent me a new one and now the new one doesn't color match the original I've had. When displaying certain shades of blue it's a totally different shade on the left than the right. I've done all of the recalibration and their suggestions and it didn't nothing. They want me to go without a light while they look this one over which I can't do. I don't want my corals in that side of the tank to suffer because of that.

My connection with ESL is constantly a battle to keep it working. I'm having to reset that box weekly to get it to work. My vortech's don't follows set schedule correctly. One will randomly go on full blast for a good 30 seconds every so often. For the money I've dropped on their products I haven't been blown away that's for sure. It's better than that cheap Chinese crap but not worth what they charge for it. Not that disappointed with the vortech's but am pretty let down by the quality of the radions. Really thinking of dumping them in favor of T5's.

Tons are features are great when they are working but really **** you off when you have paid for them and they aren't working properly.

Wow, sorry to hear that. Makes me wonder.

[reelredfish]

Well Now I am at this cross roads between these two brands. I currently own both brands but different models...older models.

I bought the org. radions and the ai SOL BLUE about the same time for two different tanks. The radions have been replaced 4 times and the power modules as well once or twice. The AI's have never had anything done to them and are still working just fine.

As others have said its just as simple as bad design that should have been fixed years ago by placing the fan on the back or top like AI.

I am just shocked that they have continued to build them this way knowing that it leads to lights failing. The amount of money they have spent in warranty would have more than covered the cost of the redesign I would think.

So I think with that said I will go with 3 Hydra 52 for my 5' 180 in wall build. The simple fact that they continue to make a design with this same simple issue just amazes me.

By the way I still have all 4 lights in operation today....just that the radions have been swapped out many times....

[chri]

im running hydra 52

[mypepper]

I running two Hydra 52's on my 90 gallon mix reef and the coral growth is exceptional. I'm also using the AI Director, which makes setting these LED's a breeze.

Prior to using the Hydra 52's, I upgraded from my two Vega Color units, which were ok, but eh Hydra 52's knocks the socks off the Vega units.

Just as a FYI, the reason some people are disappointed with LED's compared to Metal Halide's the coral need to acclimate and adjust to the LED's diodes.

In my case, I started with extremely low intensities and worked up from there and my corals are doing just fine. To be honest, it took close to a year for my corals to adjust to the LED's compared to my two 250 watt Metal Halides.

In the end, you will be very happy with your 3 Hydra 52's.

Have a good evening,
Randy

[nanoreefer1000]

Nanoboxreef has nicer fixtures IMO, out of those two, a Radion Pro.

[jellymon]

I got hydra52 when they came out and had great results. That said I just set up a new tank with g3 radion pros. And I would think if the fan was such a issue ecotech would have had a recall or changed design. But I guess I will find out.