Aqua Illumination new clusters

[lpsouth1978]

I am also a 12 year user with the ATI Sunpower with Reefbrites. I am thinking to make a change to Leds as to be honest the electricity bill is killing my monthly expenses.

Apart from price and power that each model produce between the 32 and 64 what will you experts recommend me for my standard 125 6' (72 x 18 x 24) SPS tank and how much?

I think your best bet for SPS dominant would be 4 x 64HD.

 

[lpsouth1978]

I was just checking out the Prime SOL and had a good chuckle. AI is touting the Prime SOL as a more "budget friendly" option for small tanks. The issue for me is that the AI SOL is $189 while the Prime 16HD is $209. Who in their right mind is going to get the SOL over the 16HD for only a $20 difference? It has less LED's, less spectrum, no moonlight, and is only $20 less.

 

[wcharon]

I think your best bet for SPS dominant would be 4 x 64HD.

Thanks for the suggestion.

 

[Dragon52]

I am also a 12 year user with the ATI Sunpower with Reefbrites. I am thinking to make a change to Leds as to be honest the electricity bill is killing my monthly expenses.

Apart from price and power that each model produce between the 32 and 64 what will you experts recommend me for my standard 125 6' (72 x 18 x 24) SPS tank and how much?

i chatted with one of their people & was told I needed 2 of the 64s for my 60"Lx24"Wx30"H tank.

 

[lpsouth1978]

i chatted with one of their people & was told I needed 2 of the 64s for my 60"Lx24"Wx30"H tank.

I don't think 2 x 64's will give the spread you want. I a doing 4 x 32's to get the spread on my 6'x2'x2'. This is the same amount of light as 2 x 64's but spread more evenly across the tank.

 

[Dragon52]

I don't think 2 x 64's will give the spread you want. I a doing 4 x 32's to get the spread on my 6'x2'x2'. This is the same amount of light as 2 x 64's but spread more evenly across the tank.

She spent about 10 min checking everything, I told her I figured it would be 4 or five because of only being 11" long. I'm not planning on buying new lights anytime soon but was curios to see what they thought.

 

[TheDashCave]

I currently have 2 26HD's over my tank.

I'm left with some questions that haven't been asked that have been the two biggest issues for me.

Science behind settings. How to dial them in and what is effective for what purpose (SPS dominant, LPS, etc.)

Thankfully with the help of a community such as this, a lot of reading/research, BRS, and a par meter was I able to dial in my settings. Which honestly is pretty annoying. I did bleach a few of my first batch of coral, I was new to LED and had no prior experience.

What have they done to help the hobbyist in this regard with the new lighting?

Secondly, the shadowing and will we need to still supplement or need to spend additional money on diffusers?

 

[GrouperBait]

I have been waiting to buy new lights for two yeasts, 2 months, and 1 day...waiting for something to come out that makes sense. And nothing came. So I bought 4 AI 26’s with the waterbox 220.6 plus on Sunday night. I’m absolutely incredibly upset. This is unbelievable. I sent waterbox a message. I’m hoping they can help me out. I woke up thinking it was a terrible dream. Nope.

 

[MERKEY]

I have been waiting to buy new lights for two yeasts, 2 months, and 1 day...waiting for something to come out that makes sense. And nothing came. So I bought 4 AI 26’s with the waterbox 220.6 plus on Sunday night. I’m absolutely incredibly upset. This is unbelievable. I sent waterbox a message. I’m hoping they can help me out. I woke up thinking it was a terrible dream. Nope.

I feel your pain...I called my Local saltwater place where I bought all 3 of mine less than 2 weeks ago and he acted like they just told him and how they just discounted all his merchandise and they are making room for the new ones. Let's just say I wont be going back to that shop again for a while.

 

[Reefermadness89]

My lfs is still selling them same price lol I only get water there cause he’s a jerk

 

[jordlr]

i chatted with one of their people & was told I needed 2 of the 64s for my 60"Lx24"Wx30"H tank.

Ive got 3x 26s over my 40x20x24" and id say that was perfect but then my lights are also only 6" off the surface. You can see the 'cone' on this evening shot. For a 60" tank id say you need 3-4 64s....

 

[AlexKintner]

I have been waiting to buy new lights for two yeasts, 2 months, and 1 day...waiting for something to come out that makes sense. And nothing came. So I bought 4 AI 26’s with the waterbox 220.6 plus on Sunday night. I’m absolutely incredibly upset. This is unbelievable. I sent waterbox a message. I’m hoping they can help me out. I woke up thinking it was a terrible dream. Nope.

As of today, Waterbox is already listing the 32s as included with ReefPro Plus models. I really hope they take care of you.

 

[MERKEY]

Ive got 3x 26s over my 40x20x24" and id say that was perfect but then my lights are also only 6" off the surface. You can see the 'cone' on this evening shot. For a 60" tank id say you need 3-4 64s....

That's sweet! Do you have par readings with the lights so close to the water?

I'm thinking of doing the same but worried the gain in coverage/spread/par would leave me using less power from the 3 lights and not gaining much over 2 cranked up a bit more.

The lights are rated at 24"x 24" for optimal spread. They reach 36" I believe but 24" is recommended. I could be off on that one lol

Just trying to see the difference in par is all. 3 lower power or 2 cranked up covering the same area. I feel the coverage on a tank of 48' or less would be completely covered by 2 but very curious to see the difference

 

[MERKEY]

As of today, Waterbox is already listing the 32s as included with ReefPro Plus models. I really hope they take care of you.

I feel bad I lost 150 but that's a whole free light! They should at least give you a refund on 1 of your lights.

 

[ScottB]

Ive got 3x 26s over my 40x20x24" and id say that was perfect but then my lights are also only 6" off the surface. You can see the 'cone' on this evening shot. For a 60" tank id say you need 3-4 64s....

Yeah, those "cones" are why I switched back to T5s (8 X 80 watt on a 5 foot tank). I used an Apogee PAR meter to confirm my suspicion of hot/cold spots. Very surprising findings in the top 16 inches of the tank -- like 150 versus 380 PAR just lateral inches apart.

Unless the new lights solve for this with better spread, I don't feel like folks should be all that upset, nor compelled to trade up. The old lights are fine, you just need a bunch of them, or to hang them higher.

That and shadowing.

 

[lpsouth1978]

...The lights are rated at 24"x 24" for optimal spread. They reach 36" I believe but 24" is recommended. I could be off on that one lol...

This is the manufacturers recommendation? If these are anything like the 26's, I would lower that expectation to 18"x18" or even 12"x12" for SPS. I am sure BRS will test these soon and let us know, but I think 24"x24" is very generous.

 

[MERKEY]

This is the manufacturers recommendation? If these are anything like the 26's, I would lower that expectation to 18"x18" or even 12"x12" for SPS. I am sure BRS will test these soon and let us know, but I think 24"x24" is very generous.

I hear what your saying but I'm running 2 over my 4' and the spread is actually decent at 8" above water. I have the 32s coming Thursday so I can do a side by side comparison just for my self assurance rather than watching BRS do it. Kinda real world testing side by side 26 and 32. If I get a better reading with 3 vs 2 without having to reduce the 3 lights so much it makes no sense to have the 3rd than bam it makes sense to have 3. But if 2 can reach the same spread and par just turned up I see no reason to have 3.

Time will tell lol

I'll be renting a par reader from BRS unless someone here wants to rent one out hahah

 

[lpsouth1978]

I hear what your saying but I'm running 2 over my 4' and the spread is actually decent at 8" above water. I have the 32s coming Thursday so I can do a side by side comparison just for my self assurance rather than watching BRS do it. Kinda real world testing side by side 26 and 32. If I get a better reading with 3 vs 2 without having to reduce the 3 lights so much it makes no sense to have the 3rd than bam it makes sense to have 3. But if 2 can reach the same spread and par just turned up I see no reason to have 3.

Time will tell lol

I'll be renting a par reader from BRS unless someone here wants to rent one out hahah

I look forward to seeing your results. My hunch says 2 will work but the coverage will not be as even and hot spots will be more apparent. 3 will likely give more even spread, but may require the power to be reduced.

I personally prefer to have more even spread with the lights run at a lower power. Not only does this reduce hot spots and smooth out the spread, but it provides less shadowing the more point light sources you have, and it prolongs the life of the LED's and fixtures, by reducing the heat and work load.

 

[jordlr]

That's sweet! Do you have par readings with the lights so close to the water?

I'm thinking of doing the same but worried the gain in coverage/spread/par would leave me using less power from the 3 lights and not gaining much over 2 cranked up a bit more.

The lights are rated at 24"x 24" for optimal spread. They reach 36" I believe but 24" is recommended. I could be off on that one lol

Just trying to see the difference in par is all. 3 lower power or 2 cranked up covering the same area. I feel the coverage on a tank of 48' or less would be completely covered by 2 but very curious to see the difference

Its been a while since i measured it but i think it was hitting 700+ at the surface under the pucks, 500ish at the top of the rockwork and around 200 on the sand. This is with deep blue at 80%, light blue at 60% white at 40% and all other colours at around 20%. The PAR readings were fairly even across the whole tank even into the corners except in the top 4" of water where the cones and shadowing are prominent. Once the light starts to merge with the light next to it at around 5" deep the PAR levels even out and there are no peaks and troughs across the whole surface area.

I have the lights mounted perpendicular to the tank so the 2 pucks run front to back to avoid shadowing on the underside of the corals as much as possible. If i turned them 90 degrees so they ran parallel i dont think i would have any shadow spots in the upper reaches at all but as this is just swimming space and not noticeable to the eye, just the camera, light reaching the coral is my priority. Again if i raised them up another 2-3" i think the 'cone' effect would vanish.

I used to have only 2 lights on the tank so ill look through my tank thread on UR and see if i can post some comparrison pictures between the 2/3 light setup at the same height.

 

[Tuan’s Reef]

So worth the upgrade for the extra violet channel? How’s the shimmer and spread now?