Thread: LED lighting
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Old 02-13-2012, 05:38 PM
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sphelps sphelps is offline
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In terms of testimonials for Radions it's simply too early to get anything overly meaningful. Radion owners have really at most only had these fixtures installed for a month or two which isn't long enough to really express how great they are. They are impressive and I have no doubt they will do as expected but still it's too early.

The AI sols on the other hand have been out long enough for such testimonials and I've seen impressive tanks and growth from using these fixtures. They have also released upgrade kits which a good sign. People do tend to think the Radions are better given that they have better controllability and features as well as they are a less expensive option. I tend to disagree, although I don't own either fixture I have seen both and seriously considered both a one point.

AI sols have more power/$ than Radions. Typically 1 Radion is compared to 2 sols while really for most tanks 3 sols are about equal to 2 Radions, and some might even agree the spread from 3 sols is better than 2 Radions in most situations. The red and green LEDs in Radions eat up some of the wattage so their full rating can't compare to sol blues.

In terms of controllers the sols are external and purchased separately which might seem like a disadvantage compared to Radions but it allows you to skip the basic controller and save the money for something better. The sols are compatible with other controllers such as Profilux which will do virtually everything the Radion controllers do, if not even more.

So personally for a typical size tank I'd go with 3 sol blues over 2 Radions and take the extra $400 in savings and put it towards a profilux. Then I'd probably also add a Profilux SIMU-L Effects LED Light Bar to fill any effects missing. Honestly in terms of effects and value this package is better, IMO.
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