AI Sol Blues

[jmp21677]

It may be to much light. I've had corals flush color before because they were getting to much exposure. Try citing down on the time your lights are on.

 

[Stpatrick]

i bumped them to 50-70-80 and my coral colors are coming back.

 

[LAustin]

I am looking to get rid of my 250 MH. Can't stand the heat or high electric bills. My tank is a flat-back hex. 36" wide (longest point--back) and is 36" deep. However, I have a deep sand bed so the actual depth from top of water to top of sand bed is ~30". How many AI SOL Blue units would I need?

 

[AZDesertRat]

I would start with one and mount it parallel to the tank rather than perpindicular. My 100G is 5 feet long and two fixtures covers it great.
If you find one does not cover well you can always add a second but I can't imagine needing it as long as you can mount it about 12" above the water level.
AI says two or three mounted perp. but their legs are only like 6" high so coverage is not that great.

 

[reefknight]

I'm looking at possibly replacing my current lighting set up with AI Sol blues. Currently I'm running an ATI PM 10x54w and love the fixture but would love the ability to adjust the color spectrum and intensity levels. It'd also be nice to reduce the electrical costs of the fixture along with future bulb replacment costs.

My display is 60"L x 30"W x 24"H. I'm wondering if three of these units would be sufficient in keeping a mixed SPS/LPS reef. The aquascape is two islands with space in the center of the display.

Looking for some thoughts and suggestions.

Thanks

 

[AZDesertRat]

I would say 3 would easily do it. My tank is 60" x18" x 23" and two does a great job with no shadows when they are place parallel with the tank.
In your case I would say leave them perpindicular to the tank but raise them up to 12-15" above the waterline instead of the AI lleg kit which is only about 6" high and does not provide much spread.

This is two Sol Blues over a 60" tank.

They are mounted 12" above the waterline and notice how you can see light hitting the sides and back of the canopy which shows the spread at that height.

 

[bob]

AI recommends a different number of units depending on how high above the water line you have them

I'm building my new tank around ONE unit, so I maxed out at 24x24"

 

[AZDesertRat]

Yes, they will, they are in the business of selling you something. They cover much much better than they let on. I have had to turn my two down to 65%, they were irritating the corals on the rocks.

 

[reefknight]

Yes, they will, they are in the business of selling you something. They cover much much better than they let on. I have had to turn my two down to 65%, they were irritating the corals on the rocks.

I was going to ask how you had yours programmed? 65% white, 37 blue or royal blue?

 

[reefknight]

AI recommends a different number of units depending on how high above the water line you have them

I'm building my new tank around ONE unit, so I maxed out at 24x24"

By their numbers I would need 5 - 6 units and I know that is way too much. They're really pushing more is better and from what I've read most people are bleaching and or frying their corals with these. I'd rather start with less and build if need be. People told be not to put a 48" fixture over a 60" display due to too much drop off on the ends of the display. Wrong answer, I get plenty of coverage on the ends. Enough in fact that I still have to shade acans and chalices otherwise they bleach. Thank you though for the input, its appreciated. Good luck with the new tank!

I bought one unit from a friend for my 30gal cube (20"w x 18"d x 20"h), going to attempt to make it a frag tank and use one Sol Blue to light it. I know I'm going to have to crank it way down.

 

[SoCaliReefin]

I have one Sol Blue over a 24x24x12 frag tank, hung 18 inces above water. White 25, Blue 50, R-Blue 50. Coverage is good but is this too much light?

 

[AZDesertRat]

I am currently running 70% white, 65% blue and 60% royal blue. The were each 10% higher but the corals were bleacing.

 

[bob]

coverage is not the same as intensity. their table is for proper coverage regardless of how intense the lighting. from their website they also have this illustration:

but they don't really specify how far above the water line they have it. but as you can see one unit on a 36x36" area has minimal coverage on the outskirts of the tank, which is probably why they recommend 1 unit covers 24x24" max (when 12" above the water line)

 

[AZDesertRat]

Speaking from experience, their charts are very conservative. Two modules over a 60" tank provide great coverage and three would be spectacular.

Look at my photos and I can take plenty more shwoing the light reflecting off the sides and back of the canopy as well as how it looks 20" below the water surface.

 

[reefknight]

coverage is not the same as intensity. their table is for proper coverage regardless of how intense the lighting. from their website they also have this illustration:

but they don't really specify how far above the water line they have it. but as you can see one unit on a 36x36" area has minimal coverage on the outskirts of the tank, which is probably why they recommend 1 unit covers 24x24" max (when 12" above the water line)

Great chart, hadn't seen this one previously. I wonder if this chart is using the 40* or the 70* optics or the hybrid optics?

 

[reefified]

I run 4 over my 120 and learned the hard lessons of cooking every SPS in there. I am currently running them at 35/45/45 except a 1 hour blast of 40/55/55 and the SPS that survived are getting color and PE back after about 3 weeks. My zoos and acans on the sand bed are thriving and look awesome. Right now I am running the following lite cycle
8am 0/15/15, ramp 60m
10am 35/45/45 60m
12pm 40/55/55 60m
2pm 35/45/45 60m
6pm 0/15/15 60m
9 0/4/4 60m w/lunar on
30% chance of storm

What are other running with success?

 

[bob]

I run 4 over my 120 and learned the hard lessons of cooking every SPS in there. I am currently running them at 35/45/45 except a 1 hour blast of 40/55/55 and the SPS that survived are getting color and PE back after about 3 weeks. My zoos and acans on the sand bed are thriving and look awesome. Right now I am running the following lite cycle
8am 0/15/15, ramp 60m
10am 35/45/45 60m
12pm 40/55/55 60m
2pm 35/45/45 60m
6pm 0/15/15 60m
9 0/4/4 60m w/lunar on
30% chance of storm

What are other running with success?

how high above the water line do you run yours? I'm running a single unit over my 34 Solana (14" above the water line), just ramped it up to 35/45/45 last night from 25/35/35 and everything seems to be ok so far. Going to start ramping it up every week or so and see how things react.

 

[reefified]

I have them 12" above the water

 

[Stpatrick]

Hi all. I am having issue with mine as well. I am running 3 over a 30" wide tank and 24" deep. Lights are about 8" above the wl. 35-45-55. I cant get good color out of my corals. As soon as I start ramping them up above 60% I bleach something. So I back them back down and things turn brown. My sunset milli is now a rusty red color. My Yellow milli is now green. It seems that the green corals that you would think like a lot of light are the ones that are turning brown. The blue corals, like my Echinata, OT, Cali tort, blue green gomezi, blue bottle brush etc are doing fine. Oh, forget about chalice colonies. If they are not shaded there toast.

I am upgrading to my 115 rimless cube in the next couple week. Tank is 36X30X24. I am considering supplementing with 4 t5s. Thoughts? I will be starting the build thread in the next couple days. I would love suggestions.

 

[scouncil]

Ouch. I'm switching from 250x3MH/T5 fixture to AI Sol Blues (3 of them) over a 200gal tank. 6ft long, 36" deep and 18, maybe 24 at the most wide (too tall, not wide enough for my arm....) and I have a bunch of chalices.....

My tank can be viewed from both sides (thought it was a great idea, and it would be with a wider tank) so I have sort of the skinny tower look to the middle. The chalices and acans have been doing great in the middle of the light range with SPS higher, but I guess I'll have to move all of them to the sand bed for a while? Or just start with the lights low? Stpatrick, you are scaring me!! Everybody else seems to be doing ok, it's got to be your set up somehow? too much light? I guess that I usually have things just flat out die instead of brown. Everything turns purple in my tank for some odd reason. Well not everything, but everything with a chance of maybe turning purple, even remotely, turns purple. I wouldn't think that you would need 3 of the AI SOL blues over a 100 or 110 from the advice that I've gotten, but since I don't even have mine up yet, I have no idea. I'll watch for your tank build thread. Good luck. And thanks to everybody in this thread! I'll try to let you know how my tank does after the AI switch. (hope I'm not begging all my friends for frags after I get them going....)
Susan