AI Vega Color/Blue Owners Thread!

[bezlar]

18 inches off top of water is about 9 inches to high.

[bezlar]

Make sure you all update the firmware on controller. The new one works a lot better than out of box firmware.

[pwoller]

Originally Posted by lilc64

So from what im reading radions are the way to go?

As some one getting ready to buy LED's thats the exact thoughts I had.

[ctlegacy]

People with radions have a whole different set of complaints.

As far as 18" being to high. I am getting a 140 par reading on the sand bed (27" deep) and a 490 par reading 4" below surface. I see no reason to lower the fixtures.

[spinsonic]

So i just got my vegas colors today. didnt really install it yet, but holding about 6 inches off the water and im seeing major disco effect. Before I go all out and get rid of the t5's, i just want to know if this is normal with the lights right out of the box, without adjusting anything.

could someone let me know what setting you had use when first installing vega's?

[greenstreet.1]

You guys making don't want to get the Vegas to spend that money for problems don't like that idea.

[Nob35]

You will always have some disco effect with LEDs unless you can get 0 waves on the surface. And the answer to your question is the same try lowering the amount of turbulence on the surface and that should get rid of some of it next would to be to adjust the red and green LEDs as these seem to make it worse. If you have not had LEDs before it may drive you crazy for a while but your eyes adjust to it after a day or so.

[qfrisco]

We had an overnight power outage lasting roughly four hours. When power finally came back on, the controller did not re-establish connection with the Vegas. In order to fix it, I had to reset both Vegas then re-discover them via the controller.

Anyone else have an experience like this?

[kajung2k]

Did you have to reprogram them as well? i would have thought there is a battery that saves the configuration (time/date/settings)....? Perhaps the battery last only for a few hours?

I'm not really happy with their controller. I can't wait for the "director".. hopefully they will be releasing it soon....

Originally Posted by qfrisco

We had an overnight power outage lasting roughly four hours. When power finally came back on, the controller did not re-establish connection with the Vegas. In order to fix it, I had to reset both Vegas then re-discover them via the controller.

Anyone else have an experience like this?

[spinsonic]

Originally Posted by Nob35

You will always have some disco effect with LEDs unless you can get 0 waves on the surface. And the answer to your question is the same try lowering the amount of turbulence on the surface and that should get rid of some of it next would to be to adjust the red and green LEDs as these seem to make it worse. If you have not had LEDs before it may drive you crazy for a while but your eyes adjust to it after a day or so.

thank you. i'll give that a go. I'm assuming this happens on all LED lighting?

[Nob35]

Originally Posted by spinsonic

thank you. i'll give that a go. I'm assuming this happens on all LED lighting?

Yes it happens with all leads the reason is LEDs have multiple points of light and t5's have 1 long source so the waves do not refract the light as much with t5's. at least this is what I was told when I asked and made sense to me.

[spinsonic]

got it. i guess it just takes some adjusting. didnt see much of a disco effect at lfs running ai sols, so was kinda worried about the vega. It actually looked great. guess it just needs some tuning.

[spinsonic]

Temporarily installed 4 vega color for my 5ft tank. currently sitting on boxes and 2 aluminum rods until the height is dialed in. First impression is the color of corals pops compared to previous 10x t5. Seems dimmer, but this works for me. 10 t5's were just too bright and lit up my family room. not to mention the cost of running them.

here's a video of it.

http://youtu.be/PQapnzn2aWs?hd=1

[kajung2k]

Nice video. How high above water and what are the percents of the LEDs?

Kevin

Originally Posted by spinsonic

Temporarily installed 4 vega color for my 5ft tank. currently sitting on boxes and 2 aluminum rods until the height is dialed in. First impression is the color of corals pops compared to previous 10x t5. Seems dimmer, but this works for me. 10 t5's were just too bright and lit up my family room. not to mention the cost of running them.

here's a video of it.

http://youtu.be/PQapnzn2aWs?hd=1

[NaturalReef]

Spin,
That looks stunning! Wouldn't change a thing on placement or height. Looks like perfect coverage and the color is awesome. What settings are you at?

[mikeatjac]

Originally Posted by pwoller

As some one getting ready to buy LED's thats the exact thoughts I had.

I have used both, short term. The Radion's with the TIR lens have more par. If you are mostly LPS or softies I do not think you can go wrong with either unit.

[spinsonic]

Originally Posted by NaturalReef

Spin,
That looks stunning! Wouldn't change a thing on placement or height. Looks like perfect coverage and the color is awesome. What settings are you at?

thank you! thats at 80% of color settings, and 50% red/green. lights are 6 1/2 inches off the water. Still need to fine tune color, which i'll be doing today

[Nob35]

Mine are 2 inches lower and running parallel on my 650 and still have good coverage but I'm using the stock canopy. I have found that running the red at about 10% less then green works best for colors but I do not have much coral in the tank yet to know for sure. Once you have them dialed in correctly with your corals please post your %'s so the few of us that are a little behind on stock have something to start from to get ours right. Great video by the way.

[spinsonic]

Originally Posted by Nob35

Mine are 2 inches lower and running parallel on my 650 and still have good coverage but I'm using the stock canopy. I have found that running the red at about 10% less then green works best for colors but I do not have much coral in the tank yet to know for sure. Once you have them dialed in correctly with your corals please post your %'s so the few of us that are a little behind on stock have something to start from to get ours right. Great video by the way.

haha was going to ask you, your settings! yea, i tried placing parallel but coverage on the back side is slightly lacking. I'm just going to have someone build a hood and hang the fixture off the ceiling.

anyhow, i'll let you know when its all dialed in. wish i have a par meter.

[Psyire]

I was having some of the similar issue's as you listed until I ditched the power adapter that come with the unit. It's a complete POS. If you can plug it into the USB port on a laptop or computer and power it that way see if it acts normal. If so just buy a new 110v to USB power adapter, that's what I ended up doing. $8 fix and the controller has worked great since. I believe the stock power adapter is not putting out the correct voltage most of the time, causing issue's with the controller.

Originally Posted by m_i_k_i_e

Hey guys,

Just like to share my experience with the new Ai controller. Well kinda of a rank since I'm so P'd off. Got one with the Vega and worked with few minor issue like others mentioned before, Sensitivity issue with button and had to switch different outlet plug blah blah blah. After a month of usage I noticed the connection strength bar on the controller would have an red X but still has Vega next to it (still connected but no connection strength???) Anyways, everything worked till I reset the damn thing and no matter how I tried to connect the controller again it cannot find it. For eg. use different cable,outlet plug,connect using computer etc. Finally got it to connect if I place the controller right next to the light itself but indicator still the same. X and Vega but who cares as long as it worked. So I talked to Justin from Ai support, great service btw, response was within minutes. After few email exchanges he sent me a new one but I had to cover the shipping fee because I lived in Canada. Not happy about that but it was only $13. Suppose to be 6-10 days took 3 weeks but not Ai's fault. Plugged in the new controller, connected with no problem *Awesome* screen saver set to 5 mins. Later on the night I noticed the screen didn't turn off. (which also happened to my 1st controller but solved but resetting the power) so I tried that but didn't work. Tried few more times still didn't work than I finally noticed the time on it did not change. Tried plugging in the computer and didn't change. Updated the firmware didn't work. Now I tried to use my old controller and it doesn't connect anymore even if I place it next to the light. After trying like 30 times I got it to find the Vega and second msg popped up saying comm error. %$#@%#$%@!!! kept trying few more times and same thing!!! $%#$%#. Now I'm stuck with 2 useless controllers, well the new replacement isn't totally useless. I can change the color % and use it as an wireless on and off switch . Finally today, received email reply from Ai about this problem. They asked if I have it plugged into a power source the whole time. hmmm kinda annoyed me by that but obviously yes and asked like it was a surprised that the clock didn't work??? Yes the clocked doesn't move. So now I'm just waiting for reply now as I asked if I can get a replacement from LFS where I purchased it since I don't want to wait another few weeks especially when I have to turn my light on and off manually everyday and I ain't paying for shipping again. Oh and almost forgot to mention that the fan started to having issues starting up, makes loud noises and you can see it struggling to turn but works after few mins. .

Final thought with my first Ai product. Controller is POS, never own anything with so many issues. What's the odds of both controllers having different issues. Or I just have horrible luck lol. No complaints about the Vega other than fan. So far I have no confidence in Ai products. If it was just pos controller than I'm still happy with the light but common lights as well ??? WHY CAN'T YOU WORK PROPERLY!!!! that's all I have to say for now, will keep you guys updated.

*Phew* I feel a little better now and thanks for listening.

[ctlegacy]

I can with 100% certainty tell you that if knew what I know now, I'd have just bought 3 sols for my tank. That being said now that I have 1 sol hanging in The middle, it has definitely created a great light system.

Spin, your tank looks fantastic. The disco effect never goes away, but your mind will adjust to it. I thought it was gone in my tank. Then, one of my buddies came over last night and said, "how can you stand all that flashy crap going on?" I just laughed, because I don't see it anymore.

My anemones have NEVER LOOKED THIS GOOD. That has to say something.

[Nob35]

Originally Posted by spinsonic

haha was going to ask you, your settings! yea, i tried placing parallel but coverage on the back side is slightly lacking. I'm just going to have someone build a hood and hang the fixture off the ceiling.

anyhow, i'll let you know when its all dialed in. wish i have a par meter.

I would have hung mine as well but the ceiling where the tank is at is 22' in the air so that was out of the question. But yes if they were mounted level to the tank at the height I have mine I would probably have coverage problems also but that slight angle makes a difference and I only have to push the canopy about 3" from the front of the tank. Everything I have read says that you can't trust a par meter when it comes to LEDs but at the same time AI is pointing out par readings as a selling point so hard to say who to trust. If you get a meter let me know how it goes and I will do the same, my LFS will be coming over next month to check out tank will see if he has one to take some readings and see what he thinks my tank can handle.

[spinsonic]

Originally Posted by ctlegacy

I can with 100% certainty tell you that if knew what I know now, I'd have just bought 3 sols for my tank. That being said now that I have 1 sol hanging in The middle, it has definitely created a great light system.

Spin, your tank looks fantastic. The disco effect never goes away, but your mind will adjust to it. I thought it was gone in my tank. Then, one of my buddies came over last night and said, "how can you stand all that flashy crap going on?" I just laughed, because I don't see it anymore.

My anemones have NEVER LOOKED THIS GOOD. That has to say something.

Thank you!
It seems like keeping 6 inches above water provides best coverage and minimizing disco effect for me. It's really not bad at all at this height. And yes. My corals has not looked any better. Colors are so vibrant.

[tonypittman]

Finally took the plunge and got rid of the old lighting. So far, I like the Vegas as well as the controller. I updated the firmware right out of the box, and I seem to have avoided some of the early adopter pain that others have described.

I can't tell whether the tank inhabitants like the Vegas yet, but I can say that "I" do. Smaller, quieter, cooler, easier to program, much better color customization possible. For me, worth the price so far. I had grown weary of changing halide and actinic bulbs!

Hanging 6.5 inches above the water line (AWL)

[Skipponator]

Well its been over 3mos and I am going to say that I still enjoy my Vega Color! I have been getting good growth, color, and polyp extension. The same week I got my Vega I also put a ATI 4x24 PM on the other side of the tank. I would say both are equally awesome! Perhaps the Vega being slightly better in the astetic dept as I enjoy the shimmer. Algae seems to be slower on the Vega side but both considerably reduced in algae growth compared to halides. Here are some pics the other day. I posted pics in post #164/234. The difference tho is those were 9.5" AWL and I switched to 4.5" and happy ever since. I have also recently added an Oraphek blue/UV 48" LED tube. I have also fragged a few colonies and added many new frags the past week or so and am excited to see the progress.