Wide Angle Lens is out

[Arkayology]

Can those of you who bought the new wide lenses please post your PAR and your first impressions when you get your lenses?

[dwolson2]

I wonder what the penetration is going to be. I would think that the wide angle lens ramped up a bit might actually be better since the radions are a very powerful light and a lot of people turn them down.

[mfinn]

I also wondering how it is working.
I wonder if the recommended coverage area is going to be expanded and what it will be?

[taphil]

I ordered a set today to go on my Radion Pro over a 28g Nanocube. It's mounted right under the stock hood, so I've been looking forward to getting a wider lens for more spread.

[cakemanPA]

I am upgrading to a 36" X 36" cube shortly. I will be adding a set to my lights.

[SaltWater226]

how deep is to deep for the wide angle lens?

[dwolson2]

I would guess 20 inches. the pro was hung at 24 and par was down pretty low at the edges.

[SaltWater226]

my tank is 5ft x 3ft x 27in and I have 2 radion pro's. If I add the wide lens how far should my lights be above the water line?

[cakemanPA]

My new cube is deep. So we'll see what happens. I will try this before adding a 2nd pro

[taphil]

Well that was fast! Received the wide lenses this morning, and less than 10 hours after ordering it's installed. I immediately noticed better coverage of my cube, especially down in the front where zoas are on the sand bed and in the top back where a setosa and duncan are no longer growing in the shade. Overall as expected the lighting from the LEDs is less directional and there's less shadowing considering my Radion is only 4" off the water.

[Arkayology]

Well that was fast! Received the wide lenses this morning, and less than 10 hours after ordering it's installed. I immediately noticed better coverage of my cube, especially down in the front where zoas are on the sand bed and in the top back where a setosa and duncan are no longer growing in the shade. Overall as expected the lighting from the LEDs is less directional and there's less shadowing considering my Radion is only 4" off the water.

Let us know how the corals respond to the new lenses. I wonder if things will start reaching for more light, or if colors will change, because of the lowered intensity?

I also wonder if this means radions with these new lenses should be turned up to 100% to maximize PAR?

[cakemanPA]

That is great that you got then so quickly.

Only 4" off the water? That would worry me a bit long term.

So how hard was the install? What was involved?

Well that was fast! Received the wide lenses this morning, and less than 10 hours after ordering it's installed. I immediately noticed better coverage of my cube, especially down in the front where zoas are on the sand bed and in the top back where a setosa and duncan are no longer growing in the shade. Overall as expected the lighting from the LEDs is less directional and there's less shadowing considering my Radion is only 4" off the water.

[trueblackpercula]

What new lens are out? My tank is 30 x30 x 31 deep I may want to see this new lens.

[cakemanPA]

Wide Angle Lens is out

[mfinn]

What new lens are out? My tank is 30 x30 x 31 deep I may want to see this new lens.



It's in the parts area at EcoTech.
The website is really slow atm.
I think everybody is trying to get there.

[kc350twin]

Awesome..........
I just turned my pros down to 35% over my cube. It will be nice to turn them up a bit because they look so dim.

[jfuka78]

very nice, just ordered one, curious on how the spread will be on my 180, hoping this will allow me to just order one more light instead of two more.

[mfinn]

very nice, just ordered one, curious on how the spread will be on my 180, hoping this will allow me to just order one more light instead of two more.


How many do you have now?

[jfuka78]

How many do you have now?

Currently I am running two lumenarc on the outside and one radion in the middle. I was running just one arc and the radion but did not like the spread to much, I hope this will help me out. I still can not take the total plunge, i did for a few weeks with the tank split, but was not fully happy. With the new lens I think I will be.

A store local to me converted to all radions from arcs and I have been watching this wild colony go from brown the a very nice light blue in a month with nice growth. That is the evidence I have been waiting for. This forum has not shown me anything but frags that were already colored up and such. He riddled me his program and I am programing mine to do that right now.

[mfinn]

2 Radions on a 6' tank will not be enough, even with the new lens.

[dwolson2]

Are you still going to keep one lumenarc?
I want to see how the color ball effect goes. More or less?

[trueblackpercula]

Found them thanks but it doesn't say much about them.

[jfuka78]

Are you still going to keep one lumenarc?
I want to see how the color ball effect goes. More or less?
yes, I will split the tank like I was trying before, I have an acrylic tank, there are no black braces. My over flows are on the sides, therefore I really only need to cover 5.5' pretty good.

mfinn, hopefully they do cover Did you order the new lens? Not bad for $35 the shipping seams a little steep for the size of them.

[dwolson2]

When someone gets them on their tank, please let me know if the colors blend better or not!

[mfinn]

mfinn, hopefully they do cover Did you order the new lens? Not bad for $35 the shipping seams a little steep for the size of them.


No I didn't order the new lens.
I have 3 gen 1's over my 6' long 240 and a single gen 1 over my 50, which is
30" x 20".


When I said that 2 wouldn't do for a 6' tank, maybe I spoke too fast.
I'm currently getting good coverage with my gen 1 over the 30" width on my 50.
So, if they have a wider spread lens, then maybe it would add a total of another 6"..........................................

probably wouldn't get the best par on the edges, but who knows.

I have been bugging EcoTech to do some testing on their lights to show exactly what kind of par you get on wider, longer tanks, posting the results.
They just keep saying something about,,, "it's in development." Or something to that effect.

[mfinn]

When someone gets them on their tank, please let me know if the colors blend better or not!



What do you mean by color blending?

[mylifeismyown66]

LMK your results. I just bought a 57g Illuminata that is 3' long. It will be SPS dominant and Im hoping 1 radion will light the whole tank and allow SPS on both sides. Im thinking it wont, but ya never know.

[taphil]

When someone gets them on their tank, please let me know if the colors blend better or not!
I think they do, less disco ball effect.

[taphil]

That is great that you got then so quickly.

Only 4" off the water? That would worry me a bit long term.

So how hard was the install? What was involved?

Regular fedex shipping from PA to NYC is one day I guess. Installing it was easy: 4 Phillips screws for the fan, 4 Phillips screws for the plastic cover, and 4 Allen screws for each lens. I think ecotech has a how-to video.

[Alex Y EcoTech]

Taohil,

That is correct, you can find the how-to video here: http://ecotechmarine.com/media-gallery/video/upgrading-the-radion-xr30w-to-the-tir-lens/

[mfinn]

Alex, do you have new recommendations on coverage with the new lens?

How about some par numbers?

I know you guys have to be looking into this.

[dwolson2]

What do you mean by color blending?

I think they do, less disco ball effect.

Tap knew what I was talking about.
I talked to Matt(at ecotech) this morning, and he said that there won't be as much disco ball effect on the new lens. I ordered a pair, and they should be here next week, unless usps magical figures out how to deliver mail on time..:-\

[mfinn]

I have 4 gen 1 Radions and I still don't know what you are referring to.
I got what you would call shimmer, but that was with mh lighting too.

[jfuka78]

I think they mean how when you look at the sand or rock at angles, you can see the individual led colors. That is all I can think of.

I will have mine Friday and will shoot some par numbers this weekend.

[mfinn]

I think they mean how when you look at the sand or rock at angles, you can see the individual led colors. That is all I can think of.

I will have mine Friday and will shoot some par numbers this weekend.



I have a friend that made his own led fixture and he does have that individual color effect, but I just don't see it in mine.


I can't wait to see your par numbers.

[dwolson2]

It really depends on mounting height with the radion. On my 50 I have it over a foot off the water, so I don't see it, but my boss had his close, and you could easily see the colors.

[mfinn]

Ok, learn something new everyday. :)


On both my tanks, I have them at 9" from the water.

[EcoTech Service]

Here's some more information in regards to the Wide-Angle, which includes a PAR chart.

http://ecotechmarine.com/news/ecotech-marine-launches-wide-angle-total-internal-reflection-tir-lens/

http://ecotechmarine.com/products/radion-tir-lenses/

[jfuka78]

Here's some more information in regards to the Wide-Angle, which includes a PAR chart.

http://ecotechmarine.com/news/ecotech-marine-launches-wide-angle-total-internal-reflection-tir-lens/

http://ecotechmarine.com/products/radion-tir-lenses/


is your par chart based on 100% intensity and what spectrum and how far off the water. Please give more description.

[mfinn]

is your par chart based on 100% intensity and what spectrum and how far off the water. Please give more description.



Measurements of where the par numbers are at would be helpful.

Dead center to 1', 1' to 2', 2' to 3'.
Or something like that.
I'm sure others would want to know exactly what par you would get with a single fixture ( gen 1, gen 2, and Pro ) on a 30" and a 36" spread.

[dwolson2]

Maybe someone can tell me how two circles in a line cover a square and not two circles in a line?

[WeMa]

That's part of the purpose of the lens

[Alex Y EcoTech]

is your par chart based on 100% intensity and what spectrum and how far off the water. Please give more description.

The testing is done at 100% intensity with at a 12K setting. We are currently performing many more tests and will have more data shortly!

[jfuka78]

Ok 5 min to install and first impression

At first I did not think it covered more area but upon looking at it better I think it does. The par dropped significantly
This can be fixed my changing brightness. I run mine at 20k except for dawn dusk then it does what it does.

As far as the blending, definitely better now. I do not see the individual LEDs on my sand or the disco effect. So far I like, I wrote a new program and will install tomorrow. Will see the par readings tomorrow. Now I officially took my arc off the right side and am only using the radion.

[LinkinReef]

Ok 5 min to install and first impression

At first I did not think it covered more area but upon looking at it better I think it does. The par dropped significantly
This can be fixed my changing brightness. I run mine at 20k except for dawn dusk then it does what it does.

As far as the blending, definitely better now. I do not see the individual LEDs on my sand or the disco effect. So far I like, I wrote a new program and will install tomorrow. Will see the par readings tomorrow. Now I officially took my arc off the right side and am only using the radion.

What intensity where you running them before the wide lenses and are you raising the intensity in your new program after the wide lenses?

I run mine at 60% and just today I pulled my old MH to compare them and I might go back to MH since I think the colors and brightness seems better on the 14k DE phoenix bulb.

Hopefully with the wide lenses I can raise the intensity and make the tank look a little bit brighter.

[jfuka78]

What intensity where you running them before the wide lenses and are you raising the intensity in your new program after the wide lenses?

I run mine at 60% and just today I pulled my old MH to compare them and I might go back to MH since I think the colors and brightness seems better on the 14k DE phoenix bulb.

Hopefully with the wide lenses I can raise the intensity and make the tank look a little bit brighter.

around 60 but it was more or less a wasted light set between to lumen arc because i was not to thrilled with the spread. Now I like the spread and have it sitting around 10" above the water and running at 100% and it is pretty comparable to my lumenarc on the other half. The radion ramps up at 9 am from 25% to 100% but taking 5 hours to do so then steady at 100% for 3 hours before ramping down to 30% at 8 then just blues till 1030 while ramping off. I control via apex though. See what happens though, I love the controllability via my apex.

[drtango]

I didn't know you could control the radion via apex.

What's the minimum Apex hardware needed to do what the echotec wireless controller does?

Thanks

[jfuka78]

They are a competitor, I won't post about it out of respect how much I do like my ecotech products. Go to there forum

[dwolson2]

Wxm to connect to ecotech products, then a gaming adapter to get to the net wirelessly, or just use a lan cable(which is actually better imho) I still need to do my update!

[96slowbra]

i have a radion pro that i plan on putting over my frag tank, 36x24x12. so it is very shallow, that is a bigger concern than total coverage. i don't have to fill it from edge to edge with frags. Would you recommend these?

[dwolson2]

Yes, it seems that theses lens are designed for people like you, and me(low canopy height)

[Arkayology]

Any updates on what people think of the new lenses? Pics of before/after?

[dwolson2]

They, after looking at them a bit more, seem to be about the same par as my G1 lens, but with a softer(almost like t5) look. but it still has shimmer.

[jfuka78]

I am very happy with them, my 180 has no black bracing because it is acrylic and I can say that it covers half of my tank.

I think that I may be on to something as to dialing them in with spectrum and brightness. I have some corals coloring up that have been completely brown.

[bmullikin1]

Got mine installed today, was easy, like the spread better, doesnt seem to have the hotspot in the middle of the tank as bad, im running a 30lx24dx16h tank and now have coverage to all edges, will have to see effects on corals, as i just lowered intensity recently due to some bleaching.

[jfuka78]

Got mine installed today, was easy, like the spread better, doesnt seem to have the hotspot in the middle of the tank as bad, im running a 30lx24dx16h tank and now have coverage to all edges, will have to see effects on corals, as i just lowered intensity recently due to some bleaching.

What instensity were you at and what are you at now? How high above the water?

[bmullikin1]

went from 70 to 50, coral are looking better, light is 12" above water line, but my tank is only 16 h, so pretty shallow.