Anyone get their AI Prime yet?

Do users feel two of these will fully cover a innovative marine fusion 40g About 2' x 20"?

I think I might be able to get two of these with potentially less shadowing cheaper than the nano versions of the radion or Hydra with possibly better coverage? Any input or users that have used/seen the Hydra 26 or xr15 in action?
 
Dapg8gt said:
Do users feel two of these will fully cover a innovative marine fusion 40g About 2' x 20"?

I think I might be able to get two of these with potentially less shadowing cheaper than the nano versions of the radion or Hydra with possibly better coverage? Any input or users that have used/seen the Hydra 26 or xr15 in action?
Click to expand...

The Prime is "fully featured". I have used all 3 lights you mentioned, I would use 2 primes for a mixed reef, or 2xHydra 26 for full blown hardcore sps reef.
 
Dapg8gt said:
Do users feel two of these will fully cover a innovative marine fusion 40g About 2' x 20"?

I think I might be able to get two of these with potentially less shadowing cheaper than the nano versions of the radion or Hydra with possibly better coverage? Any input or users that have used/seen the Hydra 26 or xr15 in action?
Click to expand...

I would think 1 should be enough. Suppose to have good coverage for up to 20 x 20. You may have 2-3" of low light on either side but intensity for shallow depth should be fine. I think too many people overkill on intensity with LEDs these days.
 
Oh I stand corrected I agree 1 of either would be enough, I didn't read it carefully and thought it was a 40g breeder which is much longer than 20"...

I'd go with a twenty six for that tank.
 
Dapg8gt said:
Do users feel two of these will fully cover a innovative marine fusion 40g About 2' x 20"?

I think I might be able to get two of these with potentially less shadowing cheaper than the nano versions of the radion or Hydra with possibly better coverage? Any input or users that have used/seen the Hydra 26 or xr15 in action?
Click to expand...

Your are on the right track...at least two. Its not the intensity, its the excessive shadowing leaving the corals that aren't close to the center of the light in heavy shadows. I ran with one Radion for a few months and MANY of my acros were completely colorless on the shadow side in my 36" tank. With two, all is good.
 
Mark426 said:
Your are on the right track...at least two. Its not the intensity, its the excessive shadowing leaving the corals that aren't close to the center of the light in heavy shadows. I ran with one Radion for a few months and MANY of my acros were completely colorless on the shadow side in my 36" tank. With two, all is good.
Click to expand...

If his tank is only 20" in length, you wouldn't think 2 units is excessive? It is essentially operating like a single MH pendant...when hung high enough, it should spread just fine. I don't think I would go with 2 MH pendants in a 20" tank just to have 2 different points of light, I think 1 unit should be fine.
 
See
Mark426 said:
Your are on the right track...at least two. Its not the intensity, its the excessive shadowing leaving the corals that aren't close to the center of the light in heavy shadows. I ran with one Radion for a few months and MANY of my acros were completely colorless on the shadow side in my 36" tank. With two, all is good.
Click to expand...
Exacly imo for a grown out reef you can throw the "reccomended" coverage claims out the window.. Visible light vs actual usable light is a total different ballgame. I feel exactly opposite of the opinion above of people use to many fixtures when it comes to leds, I think people are misled on the coverage and end up like a few of my friends and needing basically double the fixtures to combat awkward growth patterns and shading .

It's going to be basically a mixed reef in my kids room with all zoas, nems and a few lps/sps of lower demand of light intensity . I Think two of the prime fixtures might do just fine as the demands won't be to much for planned livestock. If it gets serious though like my 105 it will get either t5 or a full size led fixture w/t5 supplementation =)..(its for my kids room but that's just what I told the wife so you never know where it may be in a year coral/Equipment wise lol)


reefermadnessny QUOTE If his tank is only 20" in length, you wouldn't think 2 units is excessive? It is essentially operating like a single MH pendant...when hung high enough, it should spread just fine. I don't think I would go with 2 MH pendants in a 20" tank just to have 2 different points of light, I think 1 unit should be fine.QUOTE)
Tank is 24" width and 22" front to back and 20" tall so 1 is not going to cut in any way you slice it once it's grown in . it's not anything like a metal halide other than being considered a point source light type. I'm going for the long haul and more is always better than less when trying to mimic the sun especially if you can control it and it's only $199 =)..I personally do not like the look of a fixture raised up a bunch to try to get coverage, you can't fix shadowing no matter how high you hang it ime/imo.
 
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Reefermadnessny said:
I would think 1 should be enough. Suppose to have good coverage for up to 20 x 20. You may have 2-3" of low light on either side but intensity for shallow depth should be fine. I think too many people overkill on intensity with LEDs these days.
Click to expand...


I'm on the other boat. IMO I think people are trying to stretch the limits of a single fixture way too often. It's not about intensity but about coverage. You compare it to a metal halide, but the reflector on halides spread the light much more evenly than that of a single LED fixture. If you want to use one fixture for a 24" tank then I'd only be comfortable putting acros under about 8-10" of it and having 3-4" outside of that for LPS and softies.
 
Ex
itzonlithai said:
I'm on the other boat. IMO I think people are trying to stretch the limits of a single fixture way too often. It's not about intensity but about coverage. You compare it to a metal halide, but the reflector on halides spread the light much more evenly than that of a single LED fixture. If you want to use one fixture for a 24" tank then I'd only be comfortable putting acros under about 8-10" of it and having 3-4" outside of that for LPS and softies.
Click to expand...

Totally agree and that is why these appealed to me so much, I wouldn't be paying out the nose for decent coverage.. If it was going to be an sps only tank I'd say 3 would be the number for my specific tank and these fixtures. but that's all subjective until the performance is actually real world experience, it could be more.


Can someone post some pics of them over a tank? I'm in no rush to get them I think the kessil I have will be enough for a few months till I decide what I really want but I like the features on these on paper so far..
 
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I received my lights a couple days ago. I ordered 2 for a 30" long tank. When I had only one of them on it definitely didn't appear that it would have been enough coverage. My main complaints are with the tank mounts. On a standard 29 gallon rimmed tank the bottom plastic part of the mount would go slightly below my water line. That's with my water level slightly above the rim so it is not visible from the outside of the tank. Luckily I work in a machine shop so I made two 1.4" X 5/8" X 5/8" spacers out of aluminum to raise the mounts. Then I had to screw the plastic screw into the rim of the tank instead of the glass. And yeah, the mounting arms are way longer than they need to be. It doesn't matter so much behind the tank because my background is black but on the top it looks funny. I might cut them shorter. I also didn't really like that the lit up logos on the lights glow in different colors. So one light is blue the other is green and that's not adjustable. I e-mailed AI about the mounts and asked about the logo color. I suggested they sell different sized plastic bottoms that you could swap out instead of the one size fits all approach. I was able to set both lights up to my wireless router and configure the light settings on the Android app without reading any instructions. It is like connecting anything else to a router like a printer and the app really takes care of it for you. I have my router set up with an access list so I have to add the mac addresses of anything that is allowed to connect to the network on my computer. So I had to configure that. But if you don't use your router that way you wouldn't even have to worry about it. I'd like to see some more options in the app for sure but it's pretty good as is. It's nice to be able to adjust all the different colored leds independently or just set it at say 16,000k or whatever you would like and the colors are adjusted automatically. Also, my skimmer is much louder than the fans so that is not an issue whatsoever. I have been waiting forever for these lights. I'd say the wait really was worth it. I have to see how corals do under them in time.
 
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Mark, I'm curious to how you machined the mount so that the plastic didn't sit in the water. I have that same issue. Can you post an image when you get a chance?

I agree that swappable bracket pieces would be a genius idea for AI from a business perspective and definitely for us from a user standpoint.
 
I could just remake the whole plastic piece out of aluminum or something to fit my tank correctly. But when I'm at work I'm supposed to be working lol. The issue is that the tapped hole with the plastic screw is too low on the mount and the bottom of the plastic mount sticks down too far. I tried pulling up on the mount so the top of the screw would be touching the bottom of the rim but still touching the glass and the bottom of the mount was still in the water. This was the quickest and easiest solution. The spacer had to be about 5/8" thick so the screw would line up correctly on my rim.

<a href="http://s33.photobucket.com/user/bingebuddy/media/IMAG0489.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d89/bingebuddy/IMAG0489.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo IMAG0489.jpg"/></a>
 
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mmarti91 said:
Makes me think they rushed this product to the retail market without doing more testing and providing better documentation, which is a shame. Hopefully they come out with a new firmware update to fix these issues and make a user manual! As of now, there is no user manual! :mad2:
Click to expand...

This is standard operating procedure in most tech businesses today. First to market garners market share. If they waited on documentation you wouldn't have your light yet. Documentation can often be the most expensive part of development, hard to believe but true.

I just bought 2 high end professional audio speakers from a well know American company. The Bluetooth app that was to accompany them is 6 months behind promised delivery date.

Read the thread on the GHL Profilux doser II ?

How about that unknown brand 5 pump dosing system that's new ?

Noticed any threads on trying to figure out other LEDs set up ?

Or how about the 100K Harleys being recalled because the clutch can engage when you have it pulled in ?

Ignition switches on cars ?

Airbags ?
 
Thanks Mark! That's a great idea. I might have to rig up something like that out of leftover acrylic.
 
lhof said:
Thanks Mark! That's a great idea. I might have to rig up something like that out of leftover acrylic.
Click to expand...

I was at lowes earlier to buy some supplies to make a screen top for my aquarium and I came across this in the wood trim area.

<a href="http://s33.photobucket.com/user/bingebuddy/media/IMAG0492.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d89/bingebuddy/IMAG0492.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo IMAG0492.jpg"/></a>
 
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