AI Help with degrading AI Hydra 52s

[Treefer32]

I reached out to AI Support on this topic, but was told there's no way to know repair costs. Kinda hard for me to spend money on shipping to and from AI without knowing if it's cheaper to buy a new light than get it fixed.

I have 3 AI Hydra 52s, that the support person said is completely normal to have the lights die within 5-6 years tops. $1800 in lights dying in 5 years seems crazy to me.

I have roughly 2-3 diodes dead in each circle of lights on the of the AI52s. This comes to around 27 Diodes dead on the three light fixtures. And it sounds like based on the age of the lights, the rest would be on their way. Is this worth sending to AI for repair or am I needing to buy all new lights in the next year or so?

I've never had any warranty issues with these lights and they've grown my reef very well. Even with the burnt out diodes I'm getting 120 par on the sand bed (31" tall tank) and 250 par at the top of my SPS. I'd prefer 300-350 par at the top and think with the working diodes I could get there. This is with an Aquatic Life 4 bulb T5 80 watt (per bulb) fixture.

Is there any discounts for new AI lights for returning customers or given I had no warranty issues with the original lights?

I can't afford to replace all 3 but was debating buy a Hydra 68 edge, if it will work with my T5 fixture. Then send the LED fixtures in 1 at a time for repair, if the repair is worth it. If, with shipping I'm spending hundreds per fixture to fix. Kinda defeats the purpose. Wondering if AI had any other suggestions that are low cost. LOL. I can't afford to replace $2k + of lights every 4-6 years.

Tank is 6ft, by 3 ft wide, by 31" tall.

 

[_AV]

You do have a couple of additional options.
1. You can buy replacement LED clusters for these lights from luxdium. They are not cheap, but you get all brand new LEDs.
2. I can repair these lights for you. All burned out LEDs will be replaced. All other LEDs will be checked if they are on their way out and also can be replaced. This will be cheaper than buying brand new clusters.

I will be very surprised if AI still repairs these lights unless something basic is wrong with them. They usually do not stock spare parts that long.

 

[I’m Batman]

I was literally thinking to myself the other day “I love the local wifi on the Prime HD, what am I gonna do when they burn out?”

Sad to see $1,800 in lights degrading, sounds like anything else

I would say, this is when you go to custom LED and controller, then replace individual chips if they go bad… I’ll have to look it up and report back because there was a really nice simple controller I picked up for around $80 and the LED chips themselves were relatively inexpensive. You probably aren’t going to need to play around with light settings on an app if you’re measuring par, set it your day cycle on the controller and leave it right?

I’ll see what I can dig up for you.

 

[jhadaway]

I had a hydra32 repaired for about $225. New clusters and coms (wifi?). I initially turned down the repair thinking I could buy a used one for $225 but after thought about it I would rather have the new led's. If you can get a 1 year old h32 used maybe go that route. It's a toss-up. Good luck.

 

[I’m Batman]

Coralux Storm controller is what I got.