AI Vega Color/Blue Owners Thread!

[kajung2k]

One thing we need to remember the optics are 80 degrees (vega).

The higher the light awl the more spread you will have. What AI does not tell us (makes me disappointed and upset) is how to achieve 24x24 spread with the maximum amount of par/pur into the tank.

Another words at 5" above water line, parallel install with LEDs at 100 percent I should get my 24x24 spread with PAR at 150 20" below water.

This way I know for certain that if I at least do that I know what I am getting.

Originally Posted by ReeferGil

Thanks, I hope I can help out the newbies like myself and at the same time get some good advice from experienced aquarists.

I did want the light parallel to the tank, but I would have to mount the EXT rails on each side of the stand. They would block my views from thesides of the glass, get in the way of my magnetic glass cleaner and would be an eyesore (the rails would). These are supposed to cover an area of 24X24" or now I am reading 24X18", so I don't think it would matter if the lights were horizontal or parallel to the length of the tank, the coverage would the same in theory. My EXT rails are bolted to the back wall.

[milhous3er]

I finally got these hung yesterday. A couple notes:

I got them hung on my existing lighting rack by drilling a extra hole. While not bad, this is something that will get cleaned up later (yeah probably not).

Intensity. I'm only running them at 60% or so. While not too bright now, I did set them at 100% and took a step back. In terms of brightness, they blow my 250w halides out of the water.

Spread. More to be desired. I have two over my 75 and feel I got more coverage on my halides. This is also a good thing though for my chalice and favia I already have on the outer parts of my tank.

Actinic lighting. I've never got to play with this before since I only had single bulb MH pendants. It was nice to see my corals really pop when the white leds were off.

Full timer. No more big bulky home timers to power my lights. I sat downstairs from 6-8pm and literally watched my tank go into the sunset mode as well as the lunar cycle. Very cool.

Negatives

"disco" effect. Wow this is unreal. If the red and green Leds are more than 15%, there is a noticeable dance floor on my sand bed. Very distracting. I seen a hermit crab AND snail doing the boogie a couple times. I think I can either raise my lights another inch or two off the water line to combat this. Did I mention this was very distracting?

I feel I'll be more impressed when I get to ramp these lights up over the next month or so. I think I'll eventually switch out the red/green LEDS.

I have two set up over a standard 75, running parallel with the tank. Mounted about 5" off the water line.

[qfrisco]

Originally Posted by milhous3er

Negatives

"disco" effect. Wow this is unreal. If the red and green Leds are more than 15%, there is a noticeable dance floor on my sand bed. Very distracting. I seen a hermit crab AND snail doing the boogie a couple times. I think I can either raise my lights another inch or two off the water line to combat this. Did I mention this was very distracting?

If I remember correctly, someone posted a few posts back that lowering the lights closer to the water (instead of raising) actually reduces the disco effect. You might try that, as well as reducing surface agitation.

[milhous3er]

I don't really want to go the route of reducing surface agitation. I'll see if I can handle the disco effect first then resort to the surface agitation.

[El Dude]

Originally Posted by kajung2k

One thing we need to remember the optics are 80 degrees (vega).

The higher the light awl the more spread you will have. What AI does not tell us (makes me disappointed and upset) is how to achieve 24x24 spread with the maximum amount of par/pur into the tank.

Another words at 5" above water line, parallel install with LEDs at 100 percent I should get my 24x24 spread with PAR at 150 20" below water.

This way I know for certain that if I at least do that I know what I am getting.

Oh man this would be great. This is pretty much what I'm looking for. I'm SLOWLY building a 150g and I'm trying to keep the # of units required to a minimum, but I would still like decent coverage. I'm a T5 guy through and through so I'm apprehensive about settling on any # of these units because I'm concerned about coverage. I see that AI claims they can cover 24"x24" but what's the trade off? Less PAR/PUR? Do I have to keep them ramped up to 100%? Whatever the case it would be nice to see people experiment with this.

Great thread and info from everyone so far! I'm learning a lot from you guys! Keep it up!

[bezlar]

Originally Posted by milhous3er

I don't really want to go the route of reducing surface agitation. I'll see if I can handle the disco effect first then resort to the surface agitation.

For me it took about a week and I don't notice disco anymore.

[milhous3er]

I can't figure out how to have total darkness in my after the sunset phase. I have all my LEDs to 0 during the night phase (under intensities, right side column) but when I get up for work the lights are still on. I have a lunar cycle from 12-2am.

This fixture really needs some kind of manual. Very frustrating

[kajung2k]

Milhous3er - the lights "ramp down". for a while I couldn't figure it either, and yes a manual would do wonders...

Look thru your manual setup. It sounds like one of the "active" timers has the following setting:

Time 12am
LED Blue (or one of the other colors)
Intensity 0%
Ramp Time 2 hours

What this means is at 12 midnight it will ramp down the intensity to 0% over 2 hours.

You would most likely need to change this from active to not active.

Look at your previous timer "Time" and "Ramp Time". If the "Time" is set for 7pm, make sure the ramp time goes for 4 hours (midnight).

Also make sure you are running the latest firmware from their webpage.

Originally Posted by milhous3er

I can't figure out how to have total darkness in my after the sunset phase. I have all my LEDs to 0 during the night phase (under intensities, right side column) but when I get up for work the lights are still on. I have a lunar cycle from 12-2am.

This fixture really needs some kind of manual. Very frustrating

[kajung2k]

I have the latest firmware and I'm still having issues with scrolling around in the controller. If i use my iphone adaptor power adaptor it seems to work fine. I have played with the sensitity option and still have issues using the powersource the controller came with. Anyone else having this issue?

[qfrisco]

Originally Posted by kajung2k

I have the latest firmware and I'm still having issues with scrolling around in the controller. If i use my iphone adaptor power adaptor it seems to work fine. I have played with the sensitity option and still have issues using the powersource the controller came with. Anyone else having this issue?

I'm convinced the touch sensitivity issue is more a power supply problem than an actual problem with the capacitive touch buttons. Maybe AI will realize this and open a recall on "defective" power adapters.

I have a similar problem with my cellphone and one of my wall chargers, specifically the one I got from the AT&T store. It charges my phone just fine, but with my phone plugged into it, the touchscreen does not work properly. The touchscreen starts working properly as soon as the charger is unplugged. Other wall chargers also work fine.

It sounds weird, but there's some kine of correlation between the two.

[milhous3er]

Originally Posted by kajung2k

I have the latest firmware and I'm still having issues with scrolling around in the controller. If i use my iphone adaptor power adaptor it seems to work fine. I have played with the sensitity option and still have issues using the powersource the controller came with. Anyone else having this issue?

After reading the reviews and issues after release, I immediatly went to another micro usb adaptor. The one that came with the Vega controller is powering my PS3 headset...

[kajung2k]

Lunar Cycle -- here is some really GOOD information from Justin at AI:

Here is a better explanation of how lunar cycle works. Hopefully this helps:

1) Lunar Cycle reduces (never increases) intensities of all LED colors for the programmed hours of the day. It is a rough approximation of the 8 phases of the moon that occur throughout the month.
2) Intensities are reduced in 8 steps by multiplying the current intensity by a fractional number. The calculation is done every night at midnight, and one of the 8 multipliers are then applied to the current intensities based on which phase of the moon.

Intensity Reduction
New Moon
.10
Waxing Crescent
.20
First Quarter
.40
Waxing Gibbous
.60
Full Moon
1.0
Waning Gibbous
.60
Third Quarter
.40
Waning Crescent
.20

As you can see, a full moon has no effect of intensities (multiplied by 1.0), so the nighttime intensities need to be set to the brightest, full moon level desired.

Take the example of setting ROYAL as your moonlight with an intensity setting of 5%. You would wind up with the following intensities:

Actual Results
New Moon
5% x .10 0%
Waxing Crescent
5% x .20 1%
First Quarter
5% x .40 2%
Waxing Gibbous
5% x .60 3%
Full Moon
5% x 1.0 5%
Waning Gibbous
5% x .60 3%
Third Quarter
5% x .40 2%
Waning Crescent
5% x .20 1%

Important Notes:

- Results are truncated to whole percent. Be careful when setting the "full moon" intensity less than 5%, or you will have 0% intensity for most of the month. The absolute minimum nighttime intensity to use Lunar Cycle should be no less than 5%.

- A full moon only lasts 4-5 days for the entire month, so the intensity setting of 5% won't be seen for 3 weeks.

- The year, month, and date must be correct for all of this to work.

- There are no intermediate steps or graduations beyond the 8 steps listed. The intensity reduction simply changes 8 times a month at the midnight hour.

[blajoie]

thanks for this. this make a ton of sense! glad we finally know how the lunar works. For those that don't read it it:

Originally Posted by kajung2k

- Results are truncated to whole percent. Be careful when setting the "full moon" intensity less than 5%, or you will have 0% intensity for most of the month. The absolute minimum nighttime intensity to use Lunar Cycle should be no less than 5%.

- A full moon only lasts 4-5 days for the entire month, so the intensity setting of 5% won't be seen for 3 weeks.

- The year, month, and date must be correct for all of this to work.

- There are no intermediate steps or graduations beyond the 8 steps listed. The intensity reduction simply changes 8 times a month at the midnight hour.

Does anyone know if the light output scales linearly with the % output?

I assume they are only increasing voltage.
It seems as if once you hit ~50% there are dimishing returns in terms of total brightness.
Does par still increase linearly?
Maybe we can save some $watt$ if we have a lower maximum % output?

[qfrisco]

Great info on the lunar cycle. Now a question for everyone - what colors do you use for the lunar mode?

[kajung2k]

Blue 2%, RB 9% and Deep Blue 5%

Originally Posted by qfrisco

Great info on the lunar cycle. Now a question for everyone - what colors do you use for the lunar mode?

[milhous3er]

Can someone answer a question that has baffled me for a week now? In my controller box, there was a cable that is approximatly 5-6' long and looks like a standard headphone connection on both ends. I have no clue on what this is.

It's probably something that I'm overlooking...

[kajung2k]

I believe its used to control the SOL's, and the NANO LEDs. Btw.. did you solve your issue with the lights coming on from midnight to 2am?

Originally Posted by milhous3er

Can someone answer a question that has baffled me for a week now? In my controller box, there was a cable that is approximatly 5-6' long and looks like a standard headphone connection on both ends. I have no clue on what this is.

It's probably something that I'm overlooking...

[milhous3er]

No, I looked at my timers set for 12am and none of them are active.

[milhous3er]

Nevermind, I did a test run. Its showing me my lights are off from 2am-6am. Thanks for the help though! Nice seeing someone around that has some experience with these lights!

[bnumair]

Originally Posted by milhous3er

Can someone answer a question that has baffled me for a week now? In my controller box, there was a cable that is approximatly 5-6' long and looks like a standard headphone connection on both ends. I have no clue on what this is.

It's probably something that I'm overlooking...

controller is compatible with all previous products of AI. so cable is there to run older models that dont have wireless capabilities. sol nano sol gen 1 and 2 leds fixtures

[ReeferGil]

Blue: 4% DB: 4% RB: 4%, no other colored lights.

[milhous3er]

Originally Posted by milhous3er

Nevermind, I did a test run. Its showing me my lights are off from 2am-6am. Thanks for the help though! Nice seeing someone around that has some experience with these lights!

Ok, so this is confusing me. I ran the test on the fixture yesterday and had a dark period from 2am-6am. I wake up for work at 3am and sure enough the lights are still on...

[qfrisco]

I just turned the lunar cycle feature on last night, and I thought for sure I set it to be active from 11pm - 4am, but the lights were still on at 7am when I left for work this morning. My lights don't start ramping up for sunrise at 9am. Didn't have time to check it this morning, but we'll see what's up tonight.

[kajung2k]

You need to look into your "manual" programming and see which timers are set to active. Look at the ones that say 0%, and look at the time, and ramp time. If you want report them back up here, or PM me. You can always contact support too if you feel more comfortable with them too.

[kajung2k]

Yeah.. this lunar cycle is still baffling because it technically doesn't start until midnight when it reads the lunar cycle. Weird IMO. After all this.. I hope the AI Director is much easier and less buggy....

Originally Posted by qfrisco

I just turned the lunar cycle feature on last night, and I thought for sure I set it to be active from 11pm - 4am, but the lights were still on at 7am when I left for work this morning. My lights don't start ramping up for sunrise at 9am. Didn't have time to check it this morning, but we'll see what's up tonight.