AI Hydra Settings Thread
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- Start date
Fudz Cwerner
New member
What do you plan on doing with your hydra parts from your upgrade? One of my deep blue LEDs has quit working on one of my hydras. If you are interested in selling the parts, let me know.
Tuffloud1
New member
Send me a PM
gregrocks79
Less talk, more rock!
Just call AI and they'll send you a replacement. They have stellar customer service
I sold three Hydras and bought three Hydra 52s this last December. These 52s are very powerful. The sticks and zoas are responding extremely well.
Last edited:
I cannot speak for everyone, but in my case. It is worth it. The color looks so much better and the growth are noticeable. Look at page 109 and post number 2721.
Tuffloud1
New member
TWOLITREmedia
New member
Alright here is my setup and my settings, I need some help as I am coming from three AI SOL Blues and these two Hydra Twenty Six units paired with me jumping to a much larger tank has me questioning everything all over again.
Just some background I moved recently from two years with a 75 gallon tank running 3 AI SOL Blues over top, to now I have a 110 Gallon 5' Wide tank with two of the new Hydra twenty Six units over top.
Here is a photo of my tank for reference to start with. Please excuse the absolutely horrid excuse for a photo, the ironic thing here is I am actually a professional photographer by trade so for me to even post a photo like this atm is horrible, but I have been so busy lately I haven't even had time to point the camera at the new tank as I have been too busy drooling over it and finicking with everything
Anywaysssss grabbed the AI Director the other day so now I am controlling everything through my phone and computer.
Here is my current ramp, and settings as they sit right now:
The two units are perfectly spread out 1/3 and 1/3 into the tank from either end. They are 16" above the water in order to make sure the spread hits the edges of the tank with no shadowing.
The plan is to eventually build a hood for the tank and supplement these two units with 4 T5 bulbs and/or purchase a third twenty six eventually.
Settings at peak day time:
UV - 24%
Violet - 57%
Deep Blue - 90%
Royal Blue - 85%
Green - 23%
Red - 18%
Cool White - 40% (Slowly Acclimating up from what I had it at 20%)
As you can see the rock work in my tank is in two main "mountains" if you will. I plan on my tank being a mixed reef with a variance of sps, softies, and lps as well as all the other goodies. The way I see it due to how par distributes from the lights, I will just place all of my high light/flow sps type coral at the tops of the mountains and the softies and lps at the lower areas and we should be good.
A little background on the current tank. This tank has only been wet now for just over two months. Just took my readings today and everything looks mint:
Salinity - 1.025
Temp - 78.3
PH - 8.2
Calc - 450
Mag - 1350
Alk - 174
Phos - .05
Nitrates - 3ppm
Iodine - .06 (Standard)
Yes nitrates could be at 0 but for two months in we're doing pretty good.
Anyways I have about 7 fish some larger some smaller and maybe 10 pieces of coral into the tank now that I figured I would stick with for a couple of months until the tank matures a bit.
Everything seems to be doing well other then the odd random coral. So just two days ago an acro frag that I have had for almost a year and a half randomly and suddenly bleached out and lost all of it's "skin" if you will or the colour. It was towards the top of the tank, but seemed to be doing great for the month and a half since the tank started. Not sure if this is a lighting relatied issue or if it's just new tank syndrome kicking in, not having those essential bacteria cultured fully yet making funky things happen with the water column.
Anyways here is a picture of my ramp cycle just to give you an idea of what I have going on, it's based on a culmination of things I have seen on here.
My MAIN issue is I see everyone talking about cranking up those whites for growth but I am concerned I will fry all of my coral if I do so. I have been at 20-30% white this entire time and just today turned whites up to 40% with a 50% acclimation on white specifically.
Other concern then just the bleaching of coral is over growing of algae. I feed as sparsely as possible while making sure to keep everyone happy, but like most new tanks I am seeing some random green algae blooms here and there, no gha yet but just green staining of the rocks.
Well give me your guys opinions about the numbers, height of the lights, supplimenting with T5, anything and everything you see going on here. I will be creating a full build with proper photos in the next couple of days that I will reference people to for more info on my setup.
Thanks in adavnce, sorry for the novel!
Just some background I moved recently from two years with a 75 gallon tank running 3 AI SOL Blues over top, to now I have a 110 Gallon 5' Wide tank with two of the new Hydra twenty Six units over top.
Here is a photo of my tank for reference to start with. Please excuse the absolutely horrid excuse for a photo, the ironic thing here is I am actually a professional photographer by trade so for me to even post a photo like this atm is horrible, but I have been so busy lately I haven't even had time to point the camera at the new tank as I have been too busy drooling over it and finicking with everything
Anywaysssss grabbed the AI Director the other day so now I am controlling everything through my phone and computer.
Here is my current ramp, and settings as they sit right now:
The two units are perfectly spread out 1/3 and 1/3 into the tank from either end. They are 16" above the water in order to make sure the spread hits the edges of the tank with no shadowing.
The plan is to eventually build a hood for the tank and supplement these two units with 4 T5 bulbs and/or purchase a third twenty six eventually.
Settings at peak day time:
UV - 24%
Violet - 57%
Deep Blue - 90%
Royal Blue - 85%
Green - 23%
Red - 18%
Cool White - 40% (Slowly Acclimating up from what I had it at 20%)
As you can see the rock work in my tank is in two main "mountains" if you will. I plan on my tank being a mixed reef with a variance of sps, softies, and lps as well as all the other goodies. The way I see it due to how par distributes from the lights, I will just place all of my high light/flow sps type coral at the tops of the mountains and the softies and lps at the lower areas and we should be good.
A little background on the current tank. This tank has only been wet now for just over two months. Just took my readings today and everything looks mint:
Salinity - 1.025
Temp - 78.3
PH - 8.2
Calc - 450
Mag - 1350
Alk - 174
Phos - .05
Nitrates - 3ppm
Iodine - .06 (Standard)
Yes nitrates could be at 0 but for two months in we're doing pretty good.
Anyways I have about 7 fish some larger some smaller and maybe 10 pieces of coral into the tank now that I figured I would stick with for a couple of months until the tank matures a bit.
Everything seems to be doing well other then the odd random coral. So just two days ago an acro frag that I have had for almost a year and a half randomly and suddenly bleached out and lost all of it's "skin" if you will or the colour. It was towards the top of the tank, but seemed to be doing great for the month and a half since the tank started. Not sure if this is a lighting relatied issue or if it's just new tank syndrome kicking in, not having those essential bacteria cultured fully yet making funky things happen with the water column.
Anyways here is a picture of my ramp cycle just to give you an idea of what I have going on, it's based on a culmination of things I have seen on here.
My MAIN issue is I see everyone talking about cranking up those whites for growth but I am concerned I will fry all of my coral if I do so. I have been at 20-30% white this entire time and just today turned whites up to 40% with a 50% acclimation on white specifically.
Other concern then just the bleaching of coral is over growing of algae. I feed as sparsely as possible while making sure to keep everyone happy, but like most new tanks I am seeing some random green algae blooms here and there, no gha yet but just green staining of the rocks.
Well give me your guys opinions about the numbers, height of the lights, supplimenting with T5, anything and everything you see going on here. I will be creating a full build with proper photos in the next couple of days that I will reference people to for more info on my setup.
Thanks in adavnce, sorry for the novel!
Fudz Cwerner
New member
Thanks for the advice Greg...Ive been running AI's from the beggining...Gen 1's, then Sol's, then Vega's, and now a Hydra/Vega combo. Also run a Nano on my cube. I have run every fixture and controller that AI has made with the exception of the new 26/52. I can speak first hand for their excellent customer service and will express that to everyone, along with their top notch product...that being said...
My hydra is out of warranty...and I can buy the part from AI, but was looking for a better price, along with other back up parts since dont plan on upgrading my hydra to 52's.
Tuffloud1
New member
Alright here is my setup and my settings, I need some help as I am coming from three AI SOL Blues and these two Hydra Twenty Six units paired with me jumping to a much larger tank has me questioning everything all over again.
Just some background I moved recently from two years with a 75 gallon tank running 3 AI SOL Blues over top, to now I have a 110 Gallon 5' Wide tank with two of the new Hydra twenty Six units over top.
Here is a photo of my tank for reference to start with. Please excuse the absolutely horrid excuse for a photo, the ironic thing here is I am actually a professional photographer by trade so for me to even post a photo like this atm is horrible, but I have been so busy lately I haven't even had time to point the camera at the new tank as I have been too busy drooling over it and finicking with everything
Anywaysssss grabbed the AI Director the other day so now I am controlling everything through my phone and computer.
Here is my current ramp, and settings as they sit right now:
The two units are perfectly spread out 1/3 and 1/3 into the tank from either end. They are 16" above the water in order to make sure the spread hits the edges of the tank with no shadowing.
The plan is to eventually build a hood for the tank and supplement these two units with 4 T5 bulbs and/or purchase a third twenty six eventually.
Settings at peak day time:
UV - 24%
Violet - 57%
Deep Blue - 90%
Royal Blue - 85%
Green - 23%
Red - 18%
Cool White - 40% (Slowly Acclimating up from what I had it at 20%)
As you can see the rock work in my tank is in two main "mountains" if you will. I plan on my tank being a mixed reef with a variance of sps, softies, and lps as well as all the other goodies. The way I see it due to how par distributes from the lights, I will just place all of my high light/flow sps type coral at the tops of the mountains and the softies and lps at the lower areas and we should be good.
A little background on the current tank. This tank has only been wet now for just over two months. Just took my readings today and everything looks mint:
Salinity - 1.025
Temp - 78.3
PH - 8.2
Calc - 450
Mag - 1350
Alk - 174
Phos - .05
Nitrates - 3ppm
Iodine - .06 (Standard)
Yes nitrates could be at 0 but for two months in we're doing pretty good.
Anyways I have about 7 fish some larger some smaller and maybe 10 pieces of coral into the tank now that I figured I would stick with for a couple of months until the tank matures a bit.
Everything seems to be doing well other then the odd random coral. So just two days ago an acro frag that I have had for almost a year and a half randomly and suddenly bleached out and lost all of it's "skin" if you will or the colour. It was towards the top of the tank, but seemed to be doing great for the month and a half since the tank started. Not sure if this is a lighting relatied issue or if it's just new tank syndrome kicking in, not having those essential bacteria cultured fully yet making funky things happen with the water column.
Anyways here is a picture of my ramp cycle just to give you an idea of what I have going on, it's based on a culmination of things I have seen on here.
My MAIN issue is I see everyone talking about cranking up those whites for growth but I am concerned I will fry all of my coral if I do so. I have been at 20-30% white this entire time and just today turned whites up to 40% with a 50% acclimation on white specifically.
Other concern then just the bleaching of coral is over growing of algae. I feed as sparsely as possible while making sure to keep everyone happy, but like most new tanks I am seeing some random green algae blooms here and there, no gha yet but just green staining of the rocks.
Well give me your guys opinions about the numbers, height of the lights, supplimenting with T5, anything and everything you see going on here. I will be creating a full build with proper photos in the next couple of days that I will reference people to for more info on my setup.
Thanks in adavnce, sorry for the novel!
It doesn't seem like 2 Hydra 26's are enough coverage for a 5 foot long tank. How come you didn't get the 52's?
I guess if you strategically place corals directly under the lights it would be fine.
Sonicboom
Addicted to salt
Anywaysssss grabbed the AI Director the other day so now I am controlling everything through my phone and computer.
The plan is to eventually build a hood for the tank and supplement these two units with 4 T5 bulbs and/or purchase a third twenty six eventually.
Settings at peak day time:
UV - 24%
Violet - 57%
Deep Blue - 90%
Royal Blue - 85%
Green - 23%
Red - 18%
Cool White - 40% (Slowly Acclimating up from what I had it at 20%)
Everything seems to be doing well other then the odd random coral. So just two days ago an acro frag that I have had for almost a year and a half randomly and suddenly bleached out and lost all of it's "skin" if you will or the color. It was towards the top of the tank, but seemed to be doing great for the month and a half since the tank started. Not sure if this is a lighting related issue or if it's just new tank syndrome kicking in, not having those essential bacteria cultured fully yet making funky things happen with the water column.
My MAIN issue is I see everyone talking about cranking up those whites for growth but I am concerned I will fry all of my coral if I do so. I have been at 20-30% white this entire time and just today turned whites up to 40% with a 50% acclimation on white specifically.
Other concern then just the bleaching of coral is over growing of algae. I feed as sparsely as possible while making sure to keep everyone happy, but like most new tanks I am seeing some random green algae blooms here and there, no gha yet but just green staining of the rocks.
Thanks in adavnce, sorry for the novel!
if your lights are at 16" and you plan on building a hood for them, it might look like a top hat on the tank being so high. by the amount of light spilled on to the walls, you might be able to drop a few inches, this leads the the next part, power on whites. "I have been at 20-30% white this entire time and just today turned whites up to 40% with a 50% acclimation on white specifically." confusing, if you were at 20-30% and in one day jumped to 40% but then set acclimation to 50%, that means you dropped back down to 20%, why? why such a massive jump in one day and why up the whites at all if nothing was wrong. also with such a new setup there may be other variables for the demise of the coral, too much lighting to fast? probably. :deadhorse:
TWOLITREmedia
New member
Hey thanks for the response, and I can see why the way I wrote that would be confusing. The idea is I wanted to increase whites, but slowly acclimate the coral to it over a three week period. To do this I increased overall percentage but then set acclimation to begin at 50% of that amount on whites only (20% whites is 50% of 40% white setting) and increase to 100% of the goal in three weeks time slowly (40-50% whites being the goal.)
Hopefully that makes more sense of it. I'm just trying to understand how people with smaller shallower tanks than mine have they're lights not only producing 40% or more power in the whites but also have theyre lights 5-10 inches closer to the water and still aren't bleaching corals. The reality is with LEDs the whites are the "power house" if you will for growth, without acclimating coral to higher white intensity the growth rate down the road will be almost at a stand still at 20-30% forever.
The twenty six units should provide plenty of coverage at 3x3 each over a 5 ft wide tank, and should produce more then enough par for my 24" tall tank. I'm just curious if anyone has a similarly sized tank and runs the twenty six, what did they start they're numbers at, what was they're final goals etc etc.
The goal with the hood would be that I would be able to lower the twenty six's quite a bit because they would be supplemented by 4 t5 bulbs in the hood array as well. So the Hydras could be reduced in height and power overall.
Anyways thanks for any help you may be able to provide.
Sonicboom
Addicted to salt
Sounds like mine and quite a few others setups here, you would need to read through the thread but I know many posted their AWL height, mine were at 7" for almost two years, now that I am running the craziest combination of a Hydra, hydra 26, and a hydra 52 I raised my lights to almost 8" AWL with power staying the same.
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