Can you use multiple AI Primes to grow SPS coral? | BRStv Investigate

[JimFuller]

I am using two of the AI Primes on a 73 Gallon Tank. I am thinking that my PAR is a bit low for SPS corals. I am considering replacing or adding some lights. This video has me considering adding a couple more.

 

[Nickusmc0411]

I’m new to the whole “Expensive” light thing. I’ve tried using black box china lights and recommended lights off of amazon and finally I have found the light of all lights! Great quality and for a great price!!! I have the AI Prime HD with the arm attachment so it sits over my 4 gallon aqua Japan tank at about a good to 12 to 14 inches. After playing around and finding the right percentage to make my corals and and grow without hitting a algae spert or crazy break out I have it to a tee. 90 percent of my coral in the tank have started from 1 to 3 polyps. Now I know they are only Zoas and easy to maintain blah blah blah. But since I switched to the AI I average 1 to 3 new baby polyps in about a week and some change in time obviously I have found some don’t grow as quickly like my rainbow Incinerator, bowsers, rastas and rainbow infusions. I bought a frag of hyper jubilee with 1 head and now has a total of 6, the one it starts with 4 that are almost as big and a new baby poylp so the light is a monster. I don’t use any products reef roids and all that crazy stuff out. A nice dip of hitch hicker medicine, miracle mud, coral skeleton and water change every 4-5 days. Look for yourself oh and recently picked up a Jason fox beach bum and it’s showing green though it. Highly recommended!!!

 

[mommabear]

Call me an old codger, but I absolutely cannot stand the level of customization available on current LED fixtures. How on Earth can an LED channel produce more than 100% of its rated output? What does that even mean? Are you overdriving the LED, providing more current than the diode was designed to take? I hope not.. there's no better way to make an LED go "pop" than to feed it too much current (if you've ever done DIY LEDs and you've made an LED go pop, you know the sound I'm talking about). Additionally, how does running a white LED at, say, 5% of its rated capacity suddenly mean the blue diodes can now accept more current than they're designed to accept? Running one LED far below its rated capacity does not suddenly change the other diodes to allow them to accept more current. Are all the LEDs in AI fixtures underpowered, and the +100% output means you're just getting more power that AI didn't want to let you have in the first place? It makes absolutely no sense. And that doesn't even factor in that you have no clue what spectrum the resulting mix is, or how much PAR it's providing. That's a whole different issue all together.

Aside from ramping up and ramping down to emulate sunrise and sunset, I have no interest in playing with spectrum. Give me a 10,000K, 14,000K, 20,000K and maybe 24,000K preset, and I'm satisfied. If I don't like the color, I can at least start tweaking the spectrum from a known starting point. Of course, this is just my humble opinion, and it's likely not in the majority. If it was, I would see more people complaining about the spectrum choices available, and the manufacturers wouldn't be making something that people don't want. Still. Just don't get it.

EDIT: Regardless, good video again from BRS. Thanks for taking the time!

I think it's just moving the amount of power used. Like all lights can be on at 100% but if you want your whites stronger you will have to turn down another color in order to bump that one up more.

 

[star fawkes]

Was that the correct visual for 8 lights at 6 inches?

 

[Fishhands]

Are Kessil the only leds that has a "correct" spectrum out of the box? Too many color choices and slide bars is not what i want. This is why i have been unsuccessful with leds so far. Brs is a game changer for doing these videos

 

[psychobilly07]

My AI sucks, the fan doesnt work properly and the light shuts down at least about 12-15x a day for 10-15mins at a time

 

[sh4rkbyt3]

I've been using 2 of these for a month now on my 36 gal bowfront after upgrading from a Finnex 247 Marine SE. My Montiporas definitely like it as well as my Purple Gorgonian and my Red Goniopora. Mushrooms, Ricordia, Yuma and Zoas are also all doing well.
I can't attest to the growth factor of everything yet except 2 of my monti's have absolutely been responding to some growth at about 14"-16" away.
The tough part was getting a good light setting, so many people use a LOT of different combination settings. I settled on 40 Purple, 40 UV, 90 RB, 90 B, 2 Green, 4 Red, 20 White. Not what you'd want for photos but pleasant to view and at least my SPS are responding to it.

Getting the Parent/Child mode to interact properly (to connect the two lights together through wifi) took some doing admittedly but I finally got them to chain together and they both work in tandem perfectly when changing any of the time or light percentage on all colors.

I emailed AI about the problem but figured it out before bedtime (11pm). The next morning when I woke up I already had an e-mail from Tim at AI offering to help with some good suggestions. He added if there were any problems in the future to let him know and he would be happy to help. I like the product a lot but the Customer Service absolutely sold me!

The control program (available on Google Play) allows you to ramp up time and intensity as much as you want down to 10 min segments. Can I say these are the "best" lights? I don't think there are any "best" of anything to be truthful even though everyone asks that question. What is amazing on one persons tank doesn't always equate to the same results on another person's tank all of the time or even 2 tanks set up identically in the same household.

I absolutely think these are well worth the money I spent and I'm extremely happy with my purchase as well as the customer service response I received. One of the possible side benefits from having so much control is for those who may be experiencing issues with nuisance algae since you can control so much of the spectrum's intensity and duration. Once you get some baseline numbers to work with you can tune to whatever you want and still provide enough light to keep your animals happy IMO, and still deal with the nuisance algaes by lowering or removing any part of the spectrum you want.

To those who are use to plug and play like T5's or MH's it may seem overwhelming at first but so is starting a tank for the first time but we learn and figure out what works and eventually for some, the detail of the how's and why's too. If what you have already works and you're comfortable with it, that's fine. I'd just say don't slam something new simply because you don't fully understand it.

 

[sh4rkbyt3]

I have AI lights in my aquarium I have 2 sps in the upper part of the tank and they are doing fine. Even growing. This are great lights and one of the best if money value in my opinion.

Same here Juan. I read a lot of peoples comments before I purchased mine but found a lot of it was solely opinion based and not fact or user based. I had used T5's for many years on my previous tank with good success but electric and bulb cost were becoming an issue once I did the math. I took a 10 yr hiatus from the hobby when LED's were just starting to become semi-popular but fixtures were way overpriced and was pleased to see the progress in controllability and quality as well as pricing and reliability.

 

[traxxonwaxx99]

My AI sucks, the fan doesnt work properly and the light shuts down at least about 12-15x a day for 10-15mins at a time

All you have to do is contact AI, had the same issue, mailed me 2 brand new fans that took 10 min to put in.

 

[JoeIII]

Call me an old codger, but I absolutely cannot stand the level of customization available on current LED fixtures. How on Earth can an LED channel produce more than 100% of its rated output? What does that even mean? Are you overdriving the LED, providing more current than the diode was designed to take? I hope not.. there's no better way to make an LED go "pop" than to feed it too much current (if you've ever done DIY LEDs and you've made an LED go pop, you know the sound I'm talking about). Additionally, how does running a white LED at, say, 5% of its rated capacity suddenly mean the blue diodes can now accept more current than they're designed to accept? Running one LED far below its rated capacity does not suddenly change the other diodes to allow them to accept more current. Are all the LEDs in AI fixtures underpowered, and the +100% output means you're just getting more power that AI didn't want to let you have in the first place? It makes absolutely no sense. And that doesn't even factor in that you have no clue what spectrum the resulting mix is, or how much PAR it's providing. That's a whole different issue all together.

Aside from ramping up and ramping down to emulate sunrise and sunset, I have no interest in playing with spectrum. Give me a 10,000K, 14,000K, 20,000K and maybe 24,000K preset, and I'm satisfied. If I don't like the color, I can at least start tweaking the spectrum from a known starting point. Of course, this is just my humble opinion, and it's likely not in the majority. If it was, I would see more people complaining about the spectrum choices available, and the manufacturers wouldn't be making something that people don't want. Still. Just don't get it.

EDIT: Regardless, good video again from BRS. Thanks for taking the time!

It's not a matter of overloading an emitter - it's a matter of power budgeting. The "100+" areas become available as you turn down the power on other channels.

In other words there is not enough power (or maybe not enough cooling?) to run every channel at a true 100%.

 

[HairyGary]

I have been running 2 HDs on my IM 20 with mainly SPS with great success. I am only running the blues at about 85%. Planning to upgrade to 45 cube or 50 lagoon and will just add more for lighting.

April 2017 is first photo and today is second.

 

[BoomCorals]

Great video! I was interested in adding two of the AI primes to my Nuvo 20 but was little hesitant after learning that they sometimes have synching issues, such as variability in color and intensity output, in a multiple fixture setup. Is there any truth to that statement after your experience with testing as many as 8 fixtures all at once?

Me anecdote, I experienced this with my AI as well. Even had one go to 100% after losing its programming and fry two Corals as I didn't catch it until I was back home.

 

[BoomCorals]

Hi I am close to giving up on these lights i have 3 non hd primes lighting my 3 ft and have seen no growth from some sps frags in over a few months now.
Even tho I have the frags up high on my rock work and all other parameters are good I just can't seem to get any growth.
An LFS told me my white channel was to low so have gradually got that to 65% but still nothing happening.

Any advice would be great.

Here is photo of my tank and my light schedule.

It takes more than just light for sps growth. They also need a lot of flow. How far from the lights are the coral? What are your parameter numbers?

 

[BoomCorals]

Are Kessil the only leds that has a "correct" spectrum out of the box? Too many color choices and slide bars is not what i want. This is why i have been unsuccessful with leds so far. Brs is a game changer for doing these videos

To my knowledge yes. And I think it's a good feature for people who struggle with LED settings.

 

[JoeIII]

Me anecdote, I experienced this with my AI as well. Even had one go to 100% after losing its programming and fry two Corals as I didn't catch it until I was back home.

I had one reset to factory, would not light up and had to reconfigure it from "go" even after I got it reconnected to their cloud service. I could see the old config and the new one as separate tanks in my account. I was not amused about having to start over with scheduling. The scheduling beyond the most basic settings is far too difficult and too many steps on my phone

 

[Biznizface]

It takes more than just light for sps growth. They also need a lot of flow. How far from the lights are the coral? What are your parameter numbers?

I have 3ft in length as said have an MP10 at full power in reef crest mode at one end and an rw8 at full power at the other end.

I return the water using a Vectra m1 pump.

My numbers have been stable for a few months now using ATI essentials.

Kh 8.0
Mag 1350
Calcium 420
SG 35ppt
Nitrate 8ppm
Phos 0.01
PH 8.1

The lights are 9.5 inches from the water surface.

 

[BoomCorals]

I have 3ft in length as said have an MP10 at full power in reef crest mode at one end and an rw8 at full power at the other end.

I return the water using a Vectra m1 pump.

My numbers have been stable for a few months now using ATI essentials.

Kh 8.0
Mag 1350
Calcium 420
SG 35ppt
Nitrate 8ppm
Phos 0.01
PH 8.1

The lights are 9.5 inches from the water surface.

Why are you using ATI essentials? Just curious. I have often found additives to do more harm than good unless you measure for something like alk/ca and dose 2 part. Are you testing numbers on the trace elements ATI adds?

 

[Biznizface]

Why are you using ATI essentials? Just curious. I have often found additives to do more harm than good unless you measure for something like alk/ca and dose 2 part. Are you testing numbers on the trace elements ATI adds?

I did balling but had issues with precipitation and could never get my alk higher than 6.5dkh so I switched to ATI and got my cal, alk and mag stable also done an ICP test an adjusted potassium and strontium as per their instructions.
ATI so far has kept the main 3 (cal, mag, dkh) very stable so am very happy with the product.
Just can't decide if I'm actually over lighting my tank or not enough light and that's why I'm seeing no growth.

 

[lazlodawg]

Hi I am close to giving up on these lights i have 3 non hd primes lighting my 3 ft and have seen no growth from some sps frags in over a few months now.
Even tho I have the frags up high on my rock work and all other parameters are good I just can't seem to get any growth.
An LFS told me my white channel was to low so have gradually got that to 65% but still nothing happening.

Any advice would be great.

Here is photo of my tank and my light schedule.

Hi! I'm no expert, but it looks like you are not providing a long enough photoperiod. You have 4 hours of ramp up and 4 hours of ramp down, but only 4 hours of maximum intensity. I would suggest 8 hours of maximum intensity with no more than a 2 hour ramp up and down.
Try adding half an hour a day to your photoperiod and reduce your ramp times by 15 minutes each until you get to 8 hours full intensity and 2 hour ramps.
Again, not an expert, but 4 hours seems really short. 8 to 12 is more common!

 

[Centerline]

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