AI Vega Color/Blue Owners Thread!

[Steeves]

Thought i would just post some pics of my new canopy with the vega's in it.

[SteveWong]

Here are some of my above tank shots. I really like the clean look of the lights mounted with the hanging kit. In my situation, I did have to carefully drill holes into the mid part of an EXT 18" rail to keep the cables perfectly vertical. I thought about angling them like the demo shots on AI's site, but I think I like the parallel cables better.

I left about 6" of cable length longer than the current position, to allow for more adjustability, and I tucked the excess up into the rail using a thin black zip tie -- kind of like the loop on a belt.

I tried a manual exposure since it's difficult to properly expose brightly lit tanks in a dark room. In person, I'd say the daytime colors look more saturated and brighter than I was able to expose, and the night mode coral colors are absolutely luminescent.

Daytime shot:



Lunar mode:

[qfrisco]

Originally Posted by Steeves

Thought i would just post some pics of my new canopy with the vega's in it.

Looks good! Nice and clean! The only feedback I'd give is the Vegas like very high - looks almost a foot off the water. AI recommends the Vegas be 4-6" above the water to get the most PAR. With the 80 degree optics, a bunch of your light is hitting the canopy walls and you'd be able to squeeze even more light if you were able to lower the lights.

[kajung2k]

Can you take a picture with the room lights on and maybe from the back so i can see how you routed your power cables, and where they are going to?

Originally Posted by SteveWong

Here are some of my above tank shots. I really like the clean look of the lights mounted with the hanging kit. In my situation, I did have to carefully drill holes into the mid part of an EXT 18" rail to keep the cables perfectly vertical. I thought about angling them like the demo shots on AI's site, but I think I like the parallel cables better.

I left about 6" of cable length longer than the current position, to allow for more adjustability, and I tucked the excess up into the rail using a thin black zip tie -- kind of like the loop on a belt.

I tried a manual exposure since it's difficult to properly expose brightly lit tanks in a dark room. In person, I'd say the daytime colors look more saturated and brighter than I was able to expose, and the night mode coral colors are absolutely luminescent.

Daytime shot:



Lunar mode:

[MBVette]

can someone explain to me how to set the timers on the controller. I have it set right now using the basic setup for 2 hour ramp, 630-430; which is fine, but I dont want the moon lights to stay on all night; I just want it to be off. (This is in the lobby of a business and no need to have the lights on if nobody is here)

So I just need some help to figure out what I need to do to program this. I see in the manual setup area, but I see a set time, but dont see the set off. Any help would be awesome.

[sgammon1]

Excited to get my Vega tomorrow! Not happy that I read on here that you have to have the controller plugged into power to actually use it... The kinda defeats the purpose of "Wireless"

[Hooked4life]

Originally Posted by MBVette

can someone explain to me how to set the timers on the controller. I have it set right now using the basic setup for 2 hour ramp, 630-430; which is fine, but I dont want the moon lights to stay on all night; I just want it to be off. (This is in the lobby of a business and no need to have the lights on if nobody is here)

So I just need some help to figure out what I need to do to program this. I see in the manual setup area, but I see a set time, but dont see the set off. Any help would be awesome.

To turn a color off, set the intensity to 0% and it will dim it down to off over the ramp time set.

[qfrisco]

Originally Posted by MBVette

can someone explain to me how to set the timers on the controller. I have it set right now using the basic setup for 2 hour ramp, 630-430; which is fine, but I dont want the moon lights to stay on all night; I just want it to be off. (This is in the lobby of a business and no need to have the lights on if nobody is here)

So I just need some help to figure out what I need to do to program this. I see in the manual setup area, but I see a set time, but dont see the set off. Any help would be awesome.

If you don't want any lights on a night, just make sure you have all LEDs set to 0% intensity in the "NITE" column of the Easy Timer setup. So when you go into the Easy Setup, set the Sunrise and Sunset times to 6:30am and 4:30pm with 2 hour ramp as you've already set.

The next screen should be the intensities for each of the LEDs. The column on the left lists the intensities for the daytime, i.e., between 6:30 and 4:30 outside of the ramp periods. The column on the right lists the intensities for the nighttime or "NITE". Just make sure all those are set to 0% and you shouldn't have any LEDs on at night.

[sgammon1]

Anyone know when the AI Director will be out and have an idea of how much it's going to cost?

[Steeves]

Originally Posted by qfrisco

Looks good! Nice and clean! The only feedback I'd give is the Vegas like very high - looks almost a foot off the water. AI recommends the Vegas be 4-6" above the water to get the most PAR. With the 80 degree optics, a bunch of your light is hitting the canopy walls and you'd be able to squeeze even more light if you were able to lower the lights.

Thanks for the comments. Next is the base, planning on just putting oak on as well but the front panel removable. Yes they are sitting pretty high 10-11 inches just wanted them there for a little while so the tank can get used to the lights. I also have it in coral acclimation but just don't fully trust it. I left the wires a little longer so I can move them down later on.

[qfrisco]

Originally Posted by sgammon1

Anyone know when the AI Director will be out and have an idea of how much it's going to cost?

Nothing's been officially announced yet, but based on my own conversations with AI folks at MACNA last month, it will be $129 and availability is "soon", with many people thinking "soon" means early next year. Beyond that, nobody really knows! :-)

[MBVette]

Originally Posted by qfrisco

If you don't want any lights on a night, just make sure you have all LEDs set to 0% intensity in the "NITE" column of the Easy Timer setup. So when you go into the Easy Setup, set the Sunrise and Sunset times to 6:30am and 4:30pm with 2 hour ramp as you've already set.

The next screen should be the intensities for each of the LEDs. The column on the left lists the intensities for the daytime, i.e., between 6:30 and 4:30 outside of the ramp periods. The column on the right lists the intensities for the nighttime or "NITE". Just make sure all those are set to 0% and you shouldn't have any LEDs on at night.

Awesome, I missed that spot somehow.

What is the benefit of doing the more custom setup.

[qfrisco]

Originally Posted by MBVette

Awesome, I missed that spot somehow.

What is the benefit of doing the more custom setup.

Hehe - I just learned the Manual Setup myself the other day. :-) The main advantage is the ability to have much more control over what LEDs come on when, how they ramp up, etc.

With Easy Setup, as you've seen, you just setup the Sunrise (or "on" time), Sunset (or "off" time), ramp, and the max intensities you want each LED to have. Easy Setup then automatically creates the timers for you based on the default ramp algorithm, and that is to slowly ramp up the darker LEDs first then slowly bring in the brighter LEDs. You can actually see the timers it creates by going into Manual setup and paging through the various timers it creates.

So for your current setup with sunrise at 6:30am and sunset at 4:30pm with a 2 hour ramp, at 6:30am you'll see the Dark Blue LED come on first, followed by the Royal Blue LED 15 minutes later, etc. The ramp down or sunset is then done in reverse order, ramping down the brighter LEDs first. This is a fixed algorithm, which for most people, is probably enough.

With Manual Setup, you have much finer control. Say you want the green LEDs to come on first followed by dark blue, you can do that. Say you want the red LEDs to come on for an hour, turn off for an hour, then come back on, you can do that. Say you want the Cool Whites to come on for only two hours from noon-2pm with a 30 minute ramp, you can do that, too, just by manually creating a timer specifically for it.

Hope that helps. I had the hardest time understanding the manual timer setup, too, until it was explained to me on here, and now it makes a lot more sense!

[MBVette]

Originally Posted by qfrisco

Hehe - I just learned the Manual Setup myself the other day. :-) The main advantage is the ability to have much more control over what LEDs come on when, how they ramp up, etc.

With Easy Setup, as you've seen, you just setup the Sunrise (or "on" time), Sunset (or "off" time), ramp, and the max intensities you want each LED to have. Easy Setup then automatically creates the timers for you based on the default ramp algorithm, and that is to slowly ramp up the darker LEDs first then slowly bring in the brighter LEDs. You can actually see the timers it creates by going into Manual setup and paging through the various timers it creates.

So for your current setup with sunrise at 6:30am and sunset at 4:30pm with a 2 hour ramp, at 6:30am you'll see the Dark Blue LED come on first, followed by the Royal Blue LED 15 minutes later, etc. The ramp down or sunset is then done in reverse order, ramping down the brighter LEDs first. This is a fixed algorithm, which for most people, is probably enough.

With Manual Setup, you have much finer control. Say you want the green LEDs to come on first followed by dark blue, you can do that. Say you want the red LEDs to come on for an hour, turn off for an hour, then come back on, you can do that. Say you want the Cool Whites to come on for only two hours from noon-2pm with a 30 minute ramp, you can do that, too, just by manually creating a timer specifically for it.

Hope that helps. I had the hardest time understanding the manual timer setup, too, until it was explained to me on here, and now it makes a lot more sense!

Ok cool, Im going to just leave it on the easy setup for now running at 100%. Just got my new tank running (last one burnt down around 4 months ago) so I just have 3 fish there and no corals, so I could really just play around with it; but I like the look at 100% for now.

[SteveWong]

Here are some pics on how I routed the electrical wiring to hide it as much as possible. I pulled all the wires to the back of the middle light, and bound the wires together using a plastic wire loom (a spiral-cut sleeve of plastic used to hold wire together). I then sent the wire straight back to the wall, and used a cable tacker to hold the wires up to the level of the lights (so their weight doesn't pull the lights back). By running the cables like this the wiring is really unobtrusive, almost unnoticeable when you're looking at the tank.

I used the thinnest black zip ties I could to make the wires hug the EXT rail.

Here are pics:



You can see the zip ties right at the edge of the Vega light, near the vertical cable holder and at the edge of the next light -- this forces the cable to stay hidden behind the lights and EXT rail. Boy, the flash really picks up the dust particles. Time to wipe it down!



Hiding those fat ugly RF baluns is a pain in the center unit (on the side units, they just hide flat against the light. Here's my fix. You can also see how the zip tie keeps the cable tight against the EXT rail, then the cable loom in the middle keeps things taught.



Hope this helps others.

[qfrisco]

Originally Posted by SteveWong

Here are some pics on how I routed the electrical wiring to hide it as much as possible. I pulled all the wires to the back of the middle light, and bound the wires together using a plastic wire loom (a spiral-cut sleeve of plastic used to hold wire together). I then sent the wire straight back to the wall, and used a cable tacker to hold the wires up to the level of the lights (so their weight doesn't pull the lights back). By running the cables like this the wiring is really unobtrusive, almost unnoticeable when you're looking at the tank.

I used the thinnest black zip ties I could to make the wires hug the EXT rail.

Here are pics:



You can see the zip ties right at the edge of the Vega light, near the vertical cable holder and at the edge of the next light -- this forces the cable to stay hidden behind the lights and EXT rail. Boy, the flash really picks up the dust particles. Time to wipe it down!



Hiding those fat ugly RF baluns is a pain in the center unit (on the side units, they just hide flat against the light. Here's my fix. You can also see how the zip tie keeps the cable tight against the EXT rail, then the cable loom in the middle keeps things taught.



Hope this helps others.

Very nice and neat! Well done.

By the way, is that a center channel speaker in the first picture? Haha. I have a similar-looking one, except in my media room and not the fish room. :-) Is that to keep the fish company with music? ;-)

[SteveWong]

Yeah: the fish room is also the theater room -- a screen drops down in front of the fish tank. Good catch. Also, you can see a Finding Nemo movie poster in the background...

[Nob35]

Received my 4 AI vega colors and installed them in the front canopy of a Red Sea Max S650. It took a little grinding with a dremel to make the vents for the fans but they fit really well and unless you look at the holes it the heat sink on top or from beneath it looks like nothing was changed except the color inside. They seem to be running good and the fans are pulling plenty of fresh air through. Still waiting to get my sump back so still no water but here's a few pics with the lights.

[joeyman15]

Hey where is a good place to buy these? I've really only ever ordered from marine depot and they don't have them.

Thanks,
Joe

[Nob35]

I got mine from saltysupply.com they have them in stock most others are back ordered. They are about the same price every where you look and most have free shipping also. Hope this helps.

[Nob35]

Also if you go to aquanillumination.com and look at the where to buy button at top they will give you the local destibutors and the main chain warehouses that sell there products

[Soggytoes]

+1 to saltysupply. Great people!

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

[ukguy]

Premium aquatic had stock too.. That's where I got mine

[joeyman15]

Originally Posted by ukguy

Premium aquatic had stock too.. That's where I got mine

Thanks i ordered them tonight, hopefully they will be here by the end of next week.

[rldcpa]

What does AWL stand for? Its on the chart for determining how many lights you need.