JDK Posted April 3, 2012 Share Posted April 3, 2012 Well I have slowly been cranking up my AI Nano and I am currently at 90% across the board W/B/RB for 8 hours a day. Sps are loving it and all my LPS seem fine. No bleaching everything growing. Quote Link to comment
mobilesuit818 Posted April 3, 2012 Share Posted April 3, 2012 Hey guys, I definitely want to join the club. Anyone in the Socalifornia area have a unit to sell? I have a NC24 that I would love to have the hood remove with a trick mounting for the LED's, Question is do I get the nano version or the SOL? I was thinking of waiting for the VEGA but can probably upgrade later.... Anyone have a easy Diy for mounting to a JBJ NC24? Quote Link to comment
laxx1991 Posted April 3, 2012 Share Posted April 3, 2012 Id like to join the club too .. i have 3 AI SOLS over my 70 gallon Quote Link to comment
Alkamist Posted April 3, 2012 Share Posted April 3, 2012 Hey guys, I definitely want to join the club. Anyone in the Socalifornia area have a unit to sell? I have a NC24 that I would love to have the hood remove with a trick mounting for the LED's, Question is do I get the nano version or the SOL? I was thinking of waiting for the VEGA but can probably upgrade later.... Anyone have a easy Diy for mounting to a JBJ NC24? Use some L brackets, there pretty cheap and you can get them in cool designs Quote Link to comment
Captain Hook Posted April 5, 2012 Share Posted April 5, 2012 Just ordered a black AI SOL blue! Time to get rid of the crappy t5 fixture. I paid 418 total free shipping. Should be here in 2-3 days! Quote Link to comment
Catbus Posted April 7, 2012 Share Posted April 7, 2012 joining the club have had lights since beggining of feb but just got my controller today Quote Link to comment
Reef attack Posted April 11, 2012 Share Posted April 11, 2012 <a href=" title="iphone photos and video april 12 497 by reef attack, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5463/6916622430_dabe9a2a8b.jpg" width="374" height="500" alt="iphone photos and video april 12 497"></a> Would like to announce my candidacy as a member of the ai club. Tank is an innovative marine 8 gallon, set up 6 months ago, added the ai nano 3 months ago. Peak has been at 20w28b29rb for the last month. Custom mounted, only 6" off the surface. Fried all of my zoas at first because the digital controller was on back order for the first month and I had it set probably closer to 40% on all three colors. Quote Link to comment
Reef attack Posted April 11, 2012 Share Posted April 11, 2012 Sorry the last photo link was bad. Quote Link to comment
reefsahoy Posted April 11, 2012 Share Posted April 11, 2012 (edited) Heres my question to ai, or led users in general. If 50% lighting is good enough for your corals, why keep upping the output as high as you can get it? Whats the benefit? I would just assume you are shorting the life span of the leds. Now if there is a benefit, say better colors, or more growth, then ok i see the point. But if you are already frying the corals at 50%, i just don't get it. Or is the thinking the more, bigger, taller, the better? Edited April 11, 2012 by reefsahoy Quote Link to comment
pschom Posted April 11, 2012 Share Posted April 11, 2012 (edited) Heres my question to ai, or led users in general. If 50% lighting is good enough for your corals, why keep upping the output as high as you can get it? Whats the benefit? I would just assume you are shorting the life span of the leds. Now if there is a benefit, say better colors, or more growth, then ok i see the point. But if you are already frying the corals at 50%, i just don't get it. Or is the thinking the more, bigger, taller, the better? I think maybe the answer to that is pretty simple. Tank isn't visibly 'bright' enough at 30% output, but the PAR is so much that if you start these things at 100% things will die. I would think that one could switch from a 250w halide to an SOL and start it at 50-60%. My lfs uses 400w halides and I don't usually have to acclimate anything to the SOL and I'm around 80% peak. BUT if your switching from a lower output light source to LEDs then you have to be careful. So I guess the answer is, it's all up to the user. Do you have to turn it up if your happy and your stuff is happy? No. I do think it's also pretty hard to resist the urge to tinker. Edited April 11, 2012 by pschom Quote Link to comment
acropora1981 Posted April 11, 2012 Share Posted April 11, 2012 (edited) Heres my question to ai, or led users in general. If 50% lighting is good enough for your corals, why keep upping the output as high as you can get it? Whats the benefit? I would just assume you are shorting the life span of the leds. Now if there is a benefit, say better colors, or more growth, then ok i see the point. But if you are already frying the corals at 50%, i just don't get it. Or is the thinking the more, bigger, taller, the better? Basically they want the unit to be able to handle tall aquariums as well as shallow. Taller aquariums need higher power LED's to penetrate to the bottom of the tank effectively. Also, many of us using the light for SPS are running the light closer to 80%. I am running a peak of about 60/75/75, but only because it is over small SPS tank. When I move my corals to my new 40 breeder, I will almost certainly have to raise the light higher, and increase the settings to nearly 100%. Edited April 11, 2012 by acropora1981 Quote Link to comment
do_0b Posted April 11, 2012 Share Posted April 11, 2012 Basically they want the unit to be able to handle tall aquariums as well as shallow. Taller aquariums need higher power LED's to penetrate to the bottom of the tank effectively. Also, many of us using the light for SPS are running the light closer to 80%. I am running a peak of about 60/75/75, but only because it is over small SPS tank. When I move my corals to my new 40 breeder, I will almost certainly have to raise the light higher, and increase the settings to nearly 100%. +1 started off at like 30/40/40 and have worked all the way up to 70/80/80. Tank is solana and its raised about 6" above the tank Quote Link to comment
Alkamist Posted April 12, 2012 Share Posted April 12, 2012 Can i join? i promise i'll bring some beers lol Quote Link to comment
KeTos Posted April 12, 2012 Share Posted April 12, 2012 I want to join the club! I did a very stupid thing and bought a Marineland "Reef Capable" light fixture for my ten gallon (I know, I know). My tank only has softies and a couple low light LPS and it's only 12 inches deep so I thought I'd try to be cheap. You get what you pay for, the thing barely supported the life in my tank and it got so hot that I thought it was going to melt and burn the house down. So, I returned it and bought an AI Nano from Aquariumspecialty.com (great online store!). The controller is backordered right now so just running the light on a timer and I love it! Of course the mount didn't really work, but I did a lot of reading on here and this is the DIY mount I came up with: The hinges let me swing the light out of the way so I can work on the tank. It's firmly mounted into a wall stud (pretty sure we lost our deposit on the apartment after this one). Once the controller gets here I'll clean up the cords a little better with some zip ties. The whole setup was about $20 at Home Depot. Here is a FTS with the light: Quote Link to comment
Flexin5 Posted April 13, 2012 Share Posted April 13, 2012 (edited) ^very nice thought i'd toss up a pic i noticed some sps frags from tanks with a T5 setup have started to brown out, the sps frags i get from my friend with the same lights at about 90% rb/b intensity are doing great, right now i'm at about 60 rb/b peak, and all other params are great, think i should continue to raise the intensities slowley and the color should come back? Edited April 13, 2012 by Flexin5 Quote Link to comment
do_0b Posted April 13, 2012 Share Posted April 13, 2012 (edited) ^very nice thought i'd toss up a pic i noticed some sps frags from tanks with a T5 setup have started to brown out, the sps frags i get from my friend with the same lights at about 90% rb/b intensity are doing great, right now i'm at about 60 rb/b peak, and all other params are great, think i should continue to raise the intensities slowley and the color should come back? what % is your white? Edited April 13, 2012 by do_0b Quote Link to comment
Flexin5 Posted April 13, 2012 Share Posted April 13, 2012 what % is your white? my whites were raised to 40 from 35, that's when i noticed more of the browning, so i turned them back down. my friend who sells frags mostly sps and zoa's, has like 14 or 15 sol blue's. he finds that with more blue/royal blue the colors are amazing, not so great for growth, but the coloration is alot better than with less whites. he actually has his set to somwhere in the 90's for the blues and only like 15 or 20 white; i can't argue with him either because all the sps he has looks fantastic. Quote Link to comment
twan Posted April 13, 2012 Share Posted April 13, 2012 The hinges let me swing the light out of the way so I can work on the tank I like this idea. Send us an updated picture when you have your cords sorted. Quote Link to comment
Captain Hook Posted April 13, 2012 Share Posted April 13, 2012 Nice pic flexin, thats a great shot! that being said, fedex just called my SOL blue is coming within 3-5 hours !Ive Been very anxiously awaiting arrival. It was 418$ delivered free from modularled in Canada. Couldnt wait for the Vega to come out, ill upgrade eventually. My current fixture is causing discoloration and last week while doing a water changed I noticed stray voltage on the metal mount, but what do you expect for a 60$ used POS. So happy to get this light Quote Link to comment
twan Posted April 13, 2012 Share Posted April 13, 2012 It took long enough and I still need to make some final adjustments but I am ready to join. Quote Link to comment
Captain Hook Posted April 13, 2012 Share Posted April 13, 2012 nice idea for hanging. Im looking to make something cheap and adjustable while I wait for the controller to come in, Quote Link to comment
acropora1981 Posted April 13, 2012 Share Posted April 13, 2012 my whites were raised to 40 from 35, that's when i noticed more of the browning, so i turned them back down. my friend who sells frags mostly sps and zoa's, has like 14 or 15 sol blue's. he finds that with more blue/royal blue the colors are amazing, not so great for growth, but the coloration is alot better than with less whites. he actually has his set to somwhere in the 90's for the blues and only like 15 or 20 white; i can't argue with him either because all the sps he has looks fantastic. Your whites were 'raised' from 40 to 35? That is lowered... please clarify. I also have a friend who sells frags and has about 10 SOL blues, and he too keeps his blues way way way high (80%) and his whites very low, something like 10% whites. His corals are also super colored up. I will likely go that route when I upgrade to my 40 breeder, because I will have supplemental red pigments coming from HOT5's anyway. Quote Link to comment
Flexin5 Posted April 13, 2012 Share Posted April 13, 2012 Your whites were 'raised' from 40 to 35? That is lowered... please clarify. I also have a friend who sells frags and has about 10 SOL blues, and he too keeps his blues way way way high (80%) and his whites very low, something like 10% whites. His corals are also super colored up. I will likely go that route when I upgrade to my 40 breeder, because I will have supplemental red pigments coming from HOT5's anyway. no no, raised TO 40 from 35. hrm. but same thing with your friend? high blues and very low whites. that's what im going to start to get too aswell, i'm going to try to end up with the higher end of blues and keep the whites at like 20 or 15. i guess the downside to it would be that the tank looks crazy blue but personally i prefer that look. Quote Link to comment
do_0b Posted April 13, 2012 Share Posted April 13, 2012 i set my peak to be 40/60/70 will see how it goes.... Quote Link to comment
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