AI Prime HD Loud??

[becky46]

Hi all,

Started my first saltwater tank and added an AI Prime HD light. The first thing I noticed is that it is loud! I can clearly hear it from other side of the room over my AC. It sounds like the fan is on max for the entire day. Not sure if this is normal or not, so wanted to run it by some experienced reefers. I set it up with the BRS recommended settings (see pic). Thanks!

 

[Bfragale]

Mine are pretty quiet. I mean I can hear the fans, but not from across the room. It sounds like they are new? If they were used a while I would suggest a can of compressed air and a good blow out. But if they are new, I’m not sure my friend. Maybe others have a suggestion, sorry to not be of any more help.

take care and happy reefing.

 

[Zer0]

Yeah as soon as the light goes over 32w the fan ramps up to like 80%. You’re driving the LEDs to max so it’s not surprising.

 

[becky46]

Mine are pretty quiet. I mean I can hear the fans, but not from across the room. It sounds like they are new? If they were used a while I would suggest a can of compressed air and a good blow out. But if they are new, I’m not sure my friend. Maybe others have a suggestion, sorry to not be of any more help.

take care and happy reefing.

Thanks, what wattage do you have them at?

 

[becky46]

Yeah as soon as the light goes over 32w the fan ramps up to like 80%. You’re driving the LEDs to max so it’s not surprising.

Thanks, that makes sense. Should I be keeping it at a lower power overall? Sorry if this is a dumb question.

 

[Bfragale]

Thanks, what wattage do you have them at?

They are at 33 watts at the peak.

 

[becky46]

They are at 33 watts at the peak.

Thanks, is pushing it so much higher (BRS settings) really of little use? Trying to understand the whole lighting thing better.

 

[Joe31415]

I agree they're very loud. I can hear them just fine, even over my TV. It's not (like I read from some AI people elsewhere) that you have to be a few feet away and have an otherwise quiet tank. They're loud all the time.
I see mine (at least the two in the room I'm in most of the time) are running at 43w while they're on. While the air blowing out of them doesn't feel all that warm to me, I assume the actual diodes are hot. Or, at least, hot enough to have the fans running at 100%.

And, I have checked, they're not dirty or filled with dust (they're not even that old). I did read in another thread that as long as you keep every color below a certain amount (something low, like 70 or 80), the fan will generally stay off. I considered lowering everything and then bringing the lights down closer to the water line. However, I just got everything dialed in and I don't feel re-checking all my par levels, and I really don't want to move all the corals I glued in place.

FWIW, I'm using a BRS preset very similar to this one, just with white dialed back a bit. Other than a short ramp up and ramp down, it stays steady at this setting the entire time it's on.

 

[Bfragale]

Thanks, is pushing it so much higher (BRS settings) really of little use? Trying to understand the whole lighting thing better.

I’m running 4 x AI prime hd (not the hd16) with a 48” aquatic life 4 bulb t5 hybrid.

I tuned mine with a seneye and MYeye lol.

im getting the par I want at top of rocks, and just played with the settings on the prime until I had something pleasing to the eye lol.

This may not be the right way, but it seems to work for me lol. Here’s my settings if it helps any:

Here’s the tank with orange filter over camera lens:

Lights seem to grow corals lol. Here’s some close shots:

 

[becky46]

I agree they're very loud. I can hear them just fine, even over my TV. It's not (like I read from some AI people elsewhere) that you have to be a few feet away and have an otherwise quiet tank. They're loud all the time.
I see mine (at least the two in the room I'm in most of the time) are running at 43w while they're on. While the air blowing out of them doesn't feel all that warm to me, I assume the actual diodes are hot. Or, at least, hot enough to have the fans running at 100%.

And, I have checked, they're not dirty or filled with dust (they're not even that old). I did read in another thread that as long as you keep every color below a certain amount (something low, like 70 or 80), the fan will generally stay off. I considered lowering everything and then bringing the lights down closer to the water line. However, I just got everything dialed in and I don't feel re-checking all my par levels, and I really don't want to move all the corals I glued in place.

FWIW, I'm using a BRS preset very similar to this one, just with white dialed back a bit. Other than a short ramp up and ramp down, it stays steady at this setting the entire time it's on.

Thanks! Looks very similar to my settings. Will dialing back the settings (while keeping everything proportionally the same) generally have a big impact? Could the light height be lowered to compensate? I really hate the noise, but feel like I need to be a physicist to understand this lol

 

[Joe31415]

I would imagine dialing back the settings, like you said, in addition to lowering the lights would keep everything pretty close. However, you'd need a par meter to know for sure. Personally, I bought one similar to the oneBRS used to rent. While it's not cheap, it's inline with the cost of other things you need for your tank. BRS sells it for (as of right now) for $234. Just keep in mind, this is the sensor only, you have to hook it up to your computer. The one BRS used to rent came with the monitor. The sensor was a different color as well. Don't know if the internals are the same though.

Also, quick tip if you didn't know this, but on the AI app, when you're looking at the schedule (so we're all on the same page, I'm talking about this screen) if you grab it with two fingers and move left or right, you'll shift the entire thing earlier or later in the day without adjusting the length of time it's on. Similarly, you grab it with two fingers and move it up or down, it'll increase or decrease all the lights by the same percentage. That's how you'd decrease the lighting proportionally. It's a whole lot easier than trying to do them individually. Especially with some of the presets that vary throughout the day.
But, what would be really nice, is to be able to make these changes on my computer. Not via the cloud (unless that was just one option), but either through wifi (a 'regular' connection or an ad hoc connection directly to the lights), or just through bluetooth since most computers come with that these days.

 

[Zer0]

Moving the lights closer to the surface so you can lower the intensity can be done, but at a certain point you will have to start considering light spread/footprint. The lenses on the LEDs are designed with an optimal height in mind, with everything else being doable but suboptimal. For example, as the light gets closer to the surface of the water, the light footprint begins to turn into a more focused beam. As you raise the light higher, the footprint begins to spread out more and more, covering more area. But this means that the PAR values increase and decrease, respectively, as you lower or raise the lights.

 

[Joe31415]

Moving the lights closer to the surface so you can lower the intensity can be done, but at a certain point you will have to start considering light spread/footprint. The lenses on the LEDs are designed with an optimal height in mind, with everything else being doable but suboptimal. For example, as the light gets closer to the surface of the water, the light footprint begins to turn into a more focused beam. As you raise the light higher, the footprint begins to spread out more and more, covering more area. But this means that the PAR values increase and decrease, respectively, as you lower or raise the lights.

That's a good point. If you move the lights up or down, your specific aquascape will make matching PAR in some areas impossible just due to shadows and the path the light takes. You can probably compensate for some of it by spreading out the lights (assuming you have more than one).
However, it should also be noted that the OP just set up their tank (as did I) so we have a bit more leeway in making these kinds of adjustments. If an area that averages about 50-150 PAR suddenly goes to 25-50 while the highest point in my tank goes from 250 to 400, it'll just mean breaking a few frag plugs off the rocks and finding new places for them, it's not that I/we have years and years of growth in here that would require rearranging the rocks to maintain PAR.