AI Fixture Review

[laffy]

Hi All,

I picked up an Aqua Illumination Sol Blue light fixture on the weekend. I'm planning on going with 4 of these modules over my 200 gallon (48x36x27) thats going to be getting setup in the summer. Therefore, I put the fixture over a 12 gallon aquapod for the mean time. This tank will be setup for approximately 5 months to see the growth of coral and how everything responds/adapts to the lighting system.

My first impressions of this light are through the roof! The possibilities with this lighting fixture are endless. Unlike other lighting systems, you can actually control the color and intensity of light in your tank. So if your looking for lots of "pop" in your corals or fish, you simply turn off or lower the white led's and crank up the blue and royal blue led's and let your jaw drop to the floor. If your looking for more growth, you adjust the timers in the controller (12 in total) to have the whites at a higher intensity then the blues for X amount of time and then have the dim back to regular intensity. Ray and I had a green and purple mini carpet with the all the led's turned on and the same anemone turned bright orange under the blues! It was really something to see.  Now the absolutely coolest thing about this light is the THUNDERSTORMS!!!! Who would of thought 5 years ago we'd be able to replicate cloudy days and thunderstorms in our tanks? Not me! The controller allows you to setup up to 5 thunderstorms per day, and adjust the precipitation chance that a thunderstorm will occur. Might be a good way to give timeouts to bad fish! The controller took me about 10 minutes to figure out and about 5 minutes to setup all my timers. Very easy to use. I had to do an update on the controller as it still had the old firmware. It took about 5 seconds to update the firmware from my PC. Word of caution for MAC users....I was not able to update the firmware from my MAC bookpro for some reason. I will post some pictures tomorrow night after I play around with it a little more. In the mean while, here's a list of the pro's and con's so far.

Pro's
1) The best reef light I've yet to see on any tank. The shimmer is much more pronounced then most halides.
2) ZERO heat. The fixture has been running at 100% for the last couple hours and its still cool to the touch. There's also a fan just in case it gets hot.
3) Fully customizable and controllable. You can do whatever your heart desires with this light and controller.
4) Replaceable LED's. If 1 burns out you simply replace the puck unlike other LED system currently available.
5) Modular System. As I previously said, this light will be going over my 200 next summer. If I don't find that the array of 4 is enough, I can simply add more modules.
6) Plug and Play.
7) Small unit.
Longevity of the bulbs (rated for 50 000 hours). No more yearly replacement of bulbs! WOOT WOOT
9) Energy consumption. only 75 watts per module. 1 module = 250 watt metal halide.
10) Thunderstorms! This is something to see. youtube videos don't do it justice.

Con's
1) Cost. The initial cost is stupidness vs. other lighting systems on the market.
2) No mounting hardware comes with the fixture. Tisk Tisk AI....We don't all have sky-hooks or extra legs! Not to mention, we're not all Macgyver's!
3) The price of the rails and hanging hardware is pretty pricey. $11 for legs is also a little silly imo.
4) No data cable to update the controller is included in the box. Its a mini USB cable so most people have 10 of them kicking around the house somewhere.
5) Not MAC compatible from my experience


Pictures will be posted tomorrow.

Cheers,

Laffy

[JetJumper]

I agree with this for sure.  I had the chance to play with one of these briefly (Thanks Ray) and I was impressed with it.  Retail price of not just this fixture but all LED fixtures I find high, but such is life.  The Thunderstorm action was pretty impressive how they did it.   

You might need 2 more if you want to keep corals EVERY where in a tank that foot print.  But over all they are nice little fixtures!

VS the maxspec I have to say I like the Controller Aspect which is lacking in the maxspec.

Can't wait for the pictures

Here is a video I saw before on youtube of the thunderstorm.  The fish don't seem too spooked.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zg16zHaMIAg

[NjOyRiD]

wow that video is nice! where did he get the sound tho?

[laffy]

that video is very close to how mine is setup. I have the thunderstorm setup with more blue, but thats just a personal preference.

PS: Sound effects not included! he he

[laffy]

finally had a few minutes to take a few pictures and post them. i'll be taking some macro shots of the corals on the weekend.

[laffy]

here's a few more with only blues and royal blues. last picture is all three colours at 100%.

[laffy]

few pictures of the fixture itself and the controller.