AI Settings w/ set-up details

[Zoilus]

Although everything seemed quite happy with the settings I had, I decided to dial it back just a little to be on the safe side.

Here are my revised settings (my wife doesn't care for the blue hue as much as I do thus the mid day settings with higher whites are for her when she is home with the kids).

[jtma508]

Obviously there's alot of personal color preference at play here. I was curious about ramp times. Seems like we have some people with really quick ramps and others with very long ones. Any opinions on what gives the most 'natural' look?

[Zoilus]

I was under the impression that the closer I can get it to mimic what happens outside would be the best thing for my livestock but that in no way means I know what I am talkging about. In the end I think its partly a matter of prefference and what you get you tank acustomed to.

I really hope we can get some other oppinions on this as I am very curiouse to find out what others have had success with.

Also I obviously did not have the ability to ramp my lights up and down at all with my old lighting system and this is one of the things that help me decice to go this route in the first place (as well as the electric bill). I am really happy with these light so far but have only had them in for less than 1 week.

D~

[fishaholic911]

How many units would I need for my 180 gallon 60L by 24d by 30T ?

[TonyV]

I wish this thread was a sticky. The ramp schedules are very helpful. Keep posting them up if you have them.

[Urchinhead]

Apologies if this is the wrong thread for this but...

I am standing up a new 60" l x 24" w x 24" d (water depth 22") tank and am leaning very heavily towards the AI units. I saw someone post that 1 unit per 24" is good whereas it seems the stock is 1 unit per 12".

If I mount the lights lengthwise (counter to the standard mounting scheme), I want 4-6" of low light on each side of the tank, 2-3 inches of low light in the front, and I use 70* optics am I good to go for high light SPS at 10" above the bottom with the lights mounted 12" above the tank with two units or should I do 3 or even 4?

Goal is to get 350+ PAR at 12" depth over a fair spread of the tank with minimal light units which is what I was getting with my 6 bulb ATI powermodule.

Thank you for the responses.

[freezetyle]

1) Type of unit - Sol White/Sol Blue
Sol Blue

2) Tank dimensions
24" X 24" X 20"

3) Number of units
1 unit

4) Optics in unit (standard or ???)
70's

5) Height of units above water
8"

6) Detailed settings
RB and blue: ramp from 0%-35% between 7:30-9:00
35%-30% between 12-2
30%-35% between 2-6
35%-0% between 6-9:30

White
0%-25%between 8-9:30
25%-35% between 12-2
35%-0% between 2-8:30


7) Experience

About two years in reef keeping

[NatureNerd]

1) Type of unit: Sol Blue
2) Tank dimensions: 48" X 20" X 20"
3) Number of units: three mounted parallel to front glass
4) Optics in unit (standard or ???): Standard mix of 40's and 70's
5) Height of units above water: 6" from LED surface to the waterline. I have a previously built canopy that I cannot easily replace or modify. I mounted a single rail hung by earthquake straps so that when I lift the canopy top the lights swing down to stay directed at the water. This is great as I use to blind anyone in the room when I worked on the tank before.
6) Detailed settings:

T1: 10:00 W3, B5, RB6 10 min
T2: 10:30 W60, B40, RB40, 120 min
T3: 7:00 pm, W5, B20, RB20, 30 min
T4: 9:00 pm, W0, B0, RB0, 30 min

7) Experience: Just three days. I will add an hour of light and up the powers to a max of 80, 60, 60 in a week or two. I will play it by ear from there. So far the corals are doing great. Better PE than I have seen before and one of my bluish/brown corals is definitely getting less brown. Way too early to tell how things will do in the long run. I'm coming from 2 X 175W mh's so this is a big change.

Any comments or suggestions?

[bvoss]

Urchin head...

I have the same size tank and replaced 8x80 ATI PM. I hate to say this but people are getting really getting carried away about the PAR from these lights. They are great lights, but Theyare not magical.


I am running 5 Sol Blues wide open and getting less PAR than the powermodule. Even when you make 20% adjustment to allow for measuring error, the PAR is a little less.

[alrha]

anyone reconfigure the standard lenses to have the 40's in front and the 70's in the back (to focus the light stronger in the front and let it dissipate to the rear) or vice versa?

[VegasMike]

I think that the real thing to pay attention to is how the corals look and react to the lighting. People have come up with varying PAR measurements and it has been stated that most PAR meters have a very difficult time reading the non-white PAR.

I have been running these lights at the same settings for over two months. The colors have only gotten better and I have not really changed the settings from what I have posted on here. I think I max out at 75% for a couple hours a day. I have one maricultured SPS that has shown a color shift, a Soli. I moved it down earlier this week so we';; see how it reacts.

I have received around 30-40 frags from various individuals and the color has only changed for the better, some cases deeper, some cases a bit lighter (actually more varied, like dark tan to light tan/blue). I have visible growth around just about every frag plug. I have one Undata frag that is growing like crazy with awesome color.

Are they better than the MH I had in a previous tank? I would have to say the tank does not appear as bright, the corals look about the same, growth is similar, heat is nonexistent and my electric bill is a fraction.

[Urchinhead]

Bvoss-

Cheers mate. That is what concerns me. I am seeing allot of anecdotal information on the lights but nothing empirical. Maybe there is a research paper in this...

Everybody-

All that said I like the idea of a lower heat generation and power consumption but health and "happiness" of my animals trump that. However what I am seeing here is that they are that so I guess it comes down to cost vs. performance.

I have an Apogee PAR meter and I am seeing that there is up to a 20% error factor on these lights. Is that the case? Would a mix of the whites and blues be more appropriate?

Thank you for the responses.

[Zoilus]

After turning down my settings, I think everything was happier with the original settings so I am now ramping them back up slightly to see how things go.

Changes in yellow:

[sjkarrow87]

I was thinking about getting one 12 inch ai blue for my 45 gallon cube. I do not have an interest in sps corals so I am hoping I only need one unit.

With that being said if I keep it close enough to the water line 6 or 7 inches will I be able to keep most lps/zoas/clam and anemone?

Also do they make tank brackets for these units or has anyone done anything so they can jus mount I to the tank? I am not in a position to be hanging things from my ceiling at the moment.

I am in between 1 ai blue sol/6x24 t5s or 3 7led par 38 bulbs from rapid led

[sjkarrow87]

nm i see that they do make a tank mount kit for these units... still curious about needing 1 or 2 fixtures.

thanks!

[butchik]

Zoilus,

Just a quick question, how long are your RBs on at night at 4%? Are they on for only 1 hour? and how long is the Lunar cycle on? I'm getting my AI Sols this week, so I'm not too familiar with the Lunar setting at all. Thanks.

Originally Posted by Zoilus

After turning down my settings, I think everything was happier with the original settings so I am now ramping them back up slightly to see how things go.

Changes in yellow:

[tbettis]

i have the new sol blue with the 40's in the middle. can anyone steer me as to how to change them. i saw a thread somewhere but cant find it.

[mnml]

you'll need to contact AI support. they'll create a service ticket for the 70* optics. It's $25 per module to replace.

[TonyV]

You can order the optics without a service ticket now. They have a parts store on their site now.

[jdg]

Originally Posted by newsalt

Just got my AI fixtures yesterday. Not yet positioned over the tank, but I've set them up like this and running a test on it:

1) Type of unit - Sol Blue
2) Tank dimensions: 180g (72"x24"x24"
3) Number of units: 3
4) Optics in unit (standard or ???): standard
5) Height of units above water: Approx. 12.5"
6) Detailed settings: 8:00 am all lights on at 25% white, 35% blue and 35% royal blue with a ramp time of 180 minutes.
9:00 pm Whites off, both blues to 3% with a ramp down time of 120 minutes.
Lunar cycle on.
7) Experience: None

I thought it was 1 unit per 12" of tank; how do you have them (parallel or front to back?) to get full coverage on the 6' tank with only 3 units?

[SoLiD]

Originally Posted by tbettis

i have the new sol blue with the 40's in the middle. can anyone steer me as to how to change them. i saw a thread somewhere but cant find it.

I wrote this on another thread: http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/sh...841197&page=35

Check out "rostato's" post from way earlier. He was changing out the LED boards too so I edited it to fit. He will give you an idea of how easy it is to swap out the optics.

Originally Posted by rostato

...

So here are some pics of the upgrade process. This way, there is no confusion, or worries for people who might think they cannot do the upgrade. If you cannot do this upgrade, you should not be in this hobby

You need (1) tool, to do the (Optic) upgrade, and maybe 30 minutes max. It took me 30 to take down the fixture, do the upgrade while taking pictures, and re hang the unit. Also, keep in mind I have a nasty flu

The tool you need (is) a 5/64" allen wrench...

Start by taking off the cover with the allen wrench



Then you'll see this...



Start removing the (4 center) optics...



All optics removed.... (Not necessary because you will only be changing out the center 4 but it gives you an idea)



EDIT

Now install in reverse order. I took pictures of the re-installation, but it is entirely unnecessary to post.


Don't forget to install the paper sleeves over the pucks and between the optics... (There is no need to remove them for an Optic Upgrade so skip this step)



Also, the pucks should fit like in this video. (Great video BTW)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LAAya-7qdCU


Here they are on my zero edge light tree


EDIT.... A Special Thank You to Rostato For All His Hard Work!

[Malyon18]

Just installed my 70 degree optics and for some reason they are not as snug as the original 40 after I put the cover back on, if you flip the module upside down you can hear them go up and down, and it you touche them with your finger you can feel them moving a bit, any suggestions or is this somewhat normal.

[reefified]

I also noticed the slight movement of the optics after switching out to the 70 degree's. I think there is a very slight difference in the heigth of the optics. There snug on the pucks lights thenselves as well as the lip on the optic and white cover, they are going nowhere, you will be fine.

[Malyon18]

Ya I even switched out the stock 70's into the middle and had the same result, put the 40's back and they were snug, I was just worried about a little salt creep or something like that. I will just keep an eye on it Thanks

[Pschom]

Just got one module (sol white) for a BC29 once HQI. Have a zero edge light tree on order for next Wednesday. Thanks to everyone here for a very thorough education on the experiences so far. I would have been days tuning the controller without this thread. For reference I'm starting with long timers from 6am with main photoperiod at 30% from 1-6 then slowly down from there to 3% b on lunar cycle. Thunderstorm chance at 70% 2x daily until I get tired of it. Light will be approx 8-10 inches from the water depending on the spread when I get the tree. What's the purpose of upgrading the lenses? Thx!