The Radion have always been considered the best ceiling lights in the market for marine aquariums, and now we have a brand new Radion XR30 G5 Blue thanks to ReefLine, the official distributor and importer in Italy. Let’s see the results.
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As you know Ecotech Marine has changed direction with the new Radion. The first four Radion are famous for the double cluster configuration for the lighting, in opposition to the diffuse LED ones like the GNC AM 466 (here our review). The old Radion G4 had 34 or 46 LED depending on the model, the new ones have 200, plus 2 LED for the moonlight. Even the power is higher: starting from 150/190 watt, now is 205. Even in the case of the G4 PRO there’s a difference of 8%.
So we couldn’t wait to have a proper test in our DaniReef Lab. We wanted to know if these ceiling lights were still on top, if their coverage was wider and if they were still the best for value in the middle. We had a lot on the plate. Let’s proceed in order analyzing the technical characteristics of the Ecotech Marine Radion G5.
Technical characteristics of the Ecotech Marine Radion G5 XR30 Blue and Pro
The ceiling light is rectangular, about 4 cm of height, and with a base of 30×18 cm. The LED type of the XR30 Blue are 9 and they have different colorations. You can choose and set each LEDs singularly. There are also 2 LED for the moonlight, a white and a blue one, so that you can choose the one you prefer, or you can use them together.
| Radion XR30 Blue | Radion XR30 PRO | |
| Length | 30 cm | 30 cm |
| Width | 18 cm | 18 cm |
| Height | 3,9 cm | 3,9 cm |
| Consumption | 205 watt | 205 watt |
| LED configuration | ||
| Cold white | 6 | 24 |
| Royal Blue | 40 | 32 |
| Blue | 24 | 16 |
| Photo Red | 2 | 4 |
| Lime | 4 | |
| Green | 6 | |
| UV (405nm) | 4 | 4 |
| UV (415nm) | 4 | 4 |
| Purple | 6 | 4 |
| Cyan | 10 | |
| Warm white | 6 | |
| Moonlight | 2 | 2 |
Construction
The construction of the ceiling light is flawless as always, with some solutions that improve significantly the performance of the previous ceiling lights. For example, the vent doesn’t suck from the bottom, so that the air isn’t humid. The controller doesn’t work anymore through a cable or the ReefLink (review), but now it has its own app mobius that works with bluetooth.
The programming through mobius
Let’s start right away with mobius. It’s the dedicated app that works both with Apple and Android and with bluetooth. I rather prefer this way instead of the wifi because it has less problems of connnection. The software is immediate and powerful. When you launch the app you have to activate the bluetooth, then you can reach the ceiling light. In a few minutes you’ll have all set. You can set each channel of the ceiling light.
Differently from the old software of the previous Radion I didn’t understand where you can see the consumption of the ceiling light. Too bad, I think it would be extremely useful.
Notice that there isn’t any delay between the input on the smartphone and the reaction of the ceiling light. Extremely fast.
Channel 1: UV
Channel 2: Purple
Channel 3: Royal Blue
Channel 4: Blue
Channel 5: Cyan
Channel 6: Lime
Channel 7: Red
Channel 8: Cold white
Moonlight
Moonlight: Blue Moon
Final result
All the values we measured and our working method DaniReef LAB are on page two.
