Aqua Illumination Blade par readings

[dangles]

Thanks for to the OP for the great thread. I'm planning an upgrade (50g to 120g) and wanted to add two 48" Grows to the 2 Primes I already have. I have *heard* the white/blue issue on the ends has been addressed.

 

[Ccote]

The blades aren't rocket science. They're actually cheaper to make than an XR30 Radion. They're a long strip of light and multiples will literally cover the tank in light.

That's one of the key factors LED is lacking, light coverage. If someone ever makes a fixture that is about the size of a T5 fixture to cover the entire tank, it will be perfect. An LED could be very thin line the ATI Straton and just larger.

Don’t reefbreeder do something like that?

 

[Ccote]

I’m interested to know how much par just adding one would do? I have three ai primes over my Red Sea 350 and they are almost maxed out just to get to over 200 par in my tank. It would be nice to know if I could just add one 39” ai blade or if I should just start replacing my primes with radions

 

[scotthclements]

I haven’t seen much actual PAR results from the AI Blades, so here’s mine.
Cade 1800S2/p 1800x800x600mm
3x Coral Grow 57”
1x Coral Glow 57”
7” above the water
Red numbers are 100%, Yellow is 50%

Thank you so much for posting this! Very helpful for those of use that have these blades but no meter.

 

[Craig was here]

Yeah I think 2 will give you plenty of coverage and power. You really need 1 for about 8" of higher par lighting. So if it's the aio 25g lagoon you have about 17" from front to filtration. Get the raised supports for better coverage.
My tank is about 20" front to back. Under the light I'm in the mid 100s half way down or about 10". Setting is 70 70 60 currently. That covers about 2-3" in front and behind the light. Par drops off pretty quickly past that front to back. Still getting high 70s low 80s on the sand bed front and back. Around 100 directly below the light.

You have any more par readings? I have one on a 32” Fiji cube and trying to figure out what percentage. W o buying/ renting a meter. Thanks

 

[twentyleagues]

You have any more par readings? I have one on a 32” Fiji cube and trying to figure out what percentage. W o buying/ renting a meter. Thanks

No not really. That tank is just kind of on autopilot with 5 rfas. I set up my 80ish gallon cube in jan running a reefi 2.0 on that.

 

[AlexandraDreadlocksPanda]

No, not at all. They do lose a little par at the edges, because AI hasn't yet found a way to change the physical laws of how light works, but it's still much more even that a set of larger lights grouped close together (Like an XR30). If I needed that much par in the corner of my tank, I'd have just gone with the 66" light. Not desirable though. All my rock work, and almost all of my sand, gets plenty of par to grow anything I'd want.


Another, less measurable benefit - Seeing the tank in person with the blades after having XR30s, the filler light produced is impressive. Light gets into ALL the nooks and crannies that it didn't before, due to the simple geometry of the diodes. That's not subjective, it's a fact.

I know there's a lot of naysayers, but if I were designing an LED lighting system for SPS reef tanks, it would look a LOT like the Blade (hope I don't sound like a fanboy, but they're good.

Very similar experience with Orphek bars - I’ve got 7 over my tank, with the two on each end angled inwards to try and prevent shadowing. Gives a beautiful blanket of light…