Ecotech Marine Radion XR30w LED video

By Jake Adams on Sep 13, 2011

This Radion XR30w video is an intimate look at the hotly anticipated new LED light from Ecotech Marine. The video of the Radion XR30w demonstrates all of the major features of the Ecotech Marine LED light: 34 LEDs, running a total of 130 watts, with five channels of color control, multiple color presets and wireless communication between the Radion XR30w and an Ecosmart Vortech pump.

Moreover, of course the video shows off the pure aesthetics of the Radion XR30w from the glossy black top with touch-sensitive controls, matte rubberized outer edge and a unique cluster of LEDs backed up with bi-angled individual reflectors. The one thing that the Radion XR30w video doesn’t show is the lights running over corals, but we’ll see a ton of videos of Radions running over reef tanks once they start shipping in a couple of weeks.

http://pulse.yahoo.com/_XMBVIE5PJXMAMZJSENESFNWBKA Joe

A fan on the bottom? I would assume it is pulling in cold are into the fixture to cool it, not pushing hot air out the bottom.. but if it is pulling in air from the bottom it is also pulling in some saltwater mist. I dunno, doesn’t seem like a good design idea at first glance, but maybe they figured out a way to have the fan and not pull in saltwater into the fixture.
Anonymous

Nice demo, can’t wait to see these over some corals.

And great song choice, as always
http://profiles.yahoo.com/u/FKKXICJCRCA5WK2M7ETT3DHNDM Frode

I had the same thoughts about that aspect of this design. But maybe this isn’t much of a problem if the fixture is hanging high enough above the water? And an advantage might be that the fans collect less dust this way? Cause that’s a major problem with my DIY LED fixture.
http://profiles.google.com/cmooreinor Chris Moore

Looks great! love your videos.
Anonymous

SHWING
Anonymous

Too bad there’s no way to do a tank mount.
Anonymous

Too bad there’s no way to do a tank mount.
http://twitter.com/nanoReefblog nanoReefblog

Does anybody know what kind of coverage each of these units offer, are we looking at 24″ x 24″ or more 12″ x 12″?
Anonymous

I have one over my 90g and it easily covers 24″ x 24″
Anonymous

great job on the demo..bad job on Ecotech price,as I would need at least 4 of these for my tank and there is no way for my wife to give me the funding to upgrade my 1500.00 MH system to a 3000.00 LED system..Although those lights do kinda look like the lighting in my spa lol
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_3PQR2S2EAZUDJKVYUCKLCWJ37Q Micheal

What was with that interface? The leds.. meh they’re LEDs everyone does them… but that touch screen to change everything? More info on that!
http://www.facebook.com/christopher.h.sim Christopher Sim

Not FoundThe requested URL /video/29002212 was not found on this server.Apache Server at player.vimeo.com Port 80
Anonymous

LOL, looks like we took down Vimeo with too many requests for the Radion video.
Anonymous

How on Earth can Reefbuilders take down Vimeo??
Anonymous

Ecotech rate each module to cover a 24×24 surface area. Perfect then for my 24 cube
Anonymous

Ecotech rate each module to cover a 24×24 surface area. Perfect then for my 24 cube
http://www.facebook.com/people/Jonathon-Gordon/11310867 Jonathon Gordon

What is up with “night mode” for Vortech? This is mimicking what happens on the planet Zeptonious where all waves stop at night time? That’s where corals came from right? Sorry to sound like a smart @X$, but what is cool about this feature? What is natural about it?
Anonymous

It pulls cold air into the fixture. It flows over the heatsink and vents out of the sides. I don’t know why it would be pulling in salt water. It isn’t the ocean with wind whipping saltwater mist off of the tank. Do your fish spend a lot of time splashing water out of the tank? Any evaporation that it would suck in would be pure water.
Anonymous

“wife” and “give” are your problem, not the price. lol
Anonymous

I’m very interested in that software as well. I’d dedicate my hp touchpad and mount it to the wall if it would control my lights and my vortechs.
Anonymous

My tank with mainly wrasses and a school of zebra dart fish and they all spend quite a bit of splashing. I have a canopy and a euro braced tank but I still have to clean the front of my glass several times a day due to the splashing the fish do and water streaks down the front. I have my LED light 14″ above the water line with a splash shield on it and I have to clean the splash shield weekly of water/salt spots. So I agree with Joe, from my experience a fan on the bottom like shown in the video is not the wisest idea.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=622465486 Ryan Thompson

You are the exception, not the rule.

I would get new fish.
Anonymous

Maybe that was an exaggerated effect for the demo mode? Since the LEDs ramp down gradually for night I would expect the Vortech to do the same.
Anonymous

Naw, I love my tank full of different leopard wrasses. I could never give them up. I don’t mind cleaning the glass but I agree that my tank/fish would be the exception to the rule. I still do not think a fan on the bottom blowing up into something like a light is a good idea for anything hanging over saltwater. I don’t see why they wouldn’t mount it on top like everyone else. Dust on a fan is easy to take care of, a little windex on a paper towel will clean a fan up nicely. Getting salt creep out of the insides of your LED light, not so easy.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Hesham-El-Adly/1500783697 Hesham El-Adly

The fan on this unit pushes air over internal heat sink fins within the fixture. No air is actually blown over any circuit boards or sensitive equipment. It is a smart cooling approach.

The only component I would be concerned about with this cooling approach is actually the fan.
Anonymous

Jake – really good vid and interview. Nicely done.
Joaquin Lee

Hey, can someone tell me where to find the rail used to mount the lights? Or at least what to search for on Google.
http://twitter.com/0DrFeelGood0 Dr. Feel Good

I happened to overhear some talk about a special coating on the fan and possibly internals of the fixture itself while at MACNA. They may have more up their sleeves than it looks like.
Anonymous

The wisdom of the fan placement escapes me. Saltwater does splash and aerosol out of an aquarium (as anyone who has ever had a sump in a cabinet would know). Eventually the fan will become coated with salt spray. This will short out the motor for the fan and cover the heat sinks with salt creep decreasing their efficiency.

One of the biggest advantages to LED is that you don’t have radiant heat which allows them to be put closer to the water so you don’t lose light intensity. But now you have to back the Radion up 8″ so it doesn’t suck in salt spray? Kind of seems a step backward.

Lots of nice features but I have a feeling this is going to become a warranty nightmare for Ecotech.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=622465486 Ryan Thompson

I think people are WAY too worried about this issue. Ecotech engineers aren’t idiots. It isn’t like we are dealing with Coralife or Marineland here. These guys totally changed the way a pump can move water. They were also smart enough to not fall into the blue:cool white trap that other manufactures use.

Tim at EcoTech has assured they have tested this design in extreme environments and had no issues. The electrical components are all isolated and will not come in contact with moisture. I think you would be hard pressed to find any significant amount of salt in one of these fixtures down the road.

I have never had salt buildup in my stands with sumps in them. Then again I use the Herbie method and don’t get any splashing or gurgling with my tanks. Salt is only going to escape the system because of splashing. If you have fish that splash a ton and that worries you, look at different fixtures.

Simply wiping down the fixture every once in a while is just good practice and should be done with ALL of our equipment on our tanks.
Anonymous

They really didn’t change a way a pump can move water. They just found a new use for old technology. I was using lab stirrers in chem lab 20 years ago that are the same concept.

Ecotech has had plenty of technological issues with their products so they aren’t perfect. They are well documented through the forums.

Congratulations on somehow avoiding salt spray. But I think you are delusional. If the saltwater didn’t splash onto your equipment then why are you wiping it down?
Anonymous

The only salt spray I get out of my sump is when I have the top off of the skimmer. My Aqua Illumination LEDs have been over my tank for almost a year. They were 6″ above the water’s surface. I could physically see where each water droplet had made impact with the light. This usually occurs with the rising bubbles following dumping a bucket of water in after a water change. There was definitely not enough of anything to concern myself with salt creep.

3 weeks ago I raised my lights to 12″ over the surface. They are completely clean.
Anonymous

Also, it’s not like this fixture operates in a sealed vacuum. If you’re worried about it, open it up and clean it out every 6 months to a year. Here’s a pic of the inside.

http://cdn.manhattanreefs.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/IMG_5518.jpg
Anonymous

And how much light intensity did you have to sacrifice to move them that high?

Anyways this discussion is all conjecture without any real data to go on. I move we table this discussion until next year when the units have been out for awhile and more people have put them to the real world test.

Good Luck Ecotech.
Anonymous

This was my light schedule at 6″.
Time: 06:00 am | W:01% BL:05% RY:05% | Ramp Duration: 30 mins
Time: 07:00 am | W:30% BL:30% RY:30% | Ramp Duration: 59 mins
Time: 09:00 am | W:40% BL:40% RY:40% | Ramp Duration: 59 mins
Time: 11:00 am | W:50% BL:50% RY:50% | Ramp Duration: 59 mins
Time: 13:00 pm | W:40% BL:40% RY:40% | Ramp Duration: 59 mins
Time: 16:00 pm | W:30% BL:30% RY:30% | Ramp Duration: 59 mins
Time: 19:00 pm | W:01% BL:10% RY:10% | Ramp Duration: 30 mins
Time: 22:00 pm | W:00% BL:04% RY:04% | Ramp Duration: 30 mins | Lunary Cycle: On

When moving to 12″ height, I cranked my 6 am – 4 pm setting up 10% while leaving everything else the same. I max out at 60 % for only 2 horus. This is with 8 x 70º optics instead of the 4 x 70º + 4 x 40º stock optics, so my par is not as high as it would be out of the box. I will never be able to come close to maxing out my LEDs without roasting everything in my tank (24x24x24).

So to answer your question. I lost zero light intensity and still have much more overhead to go if I did choose to go higher. I did gain much better spread by raising my lights.

Related posts: