Whats with everyone's hate for AI

[snue]

I truely believe the hate for AI is hate from people who have never owned the unit or only momentarily viewed the unit at their local LFS and never had the chance to really appreciate the design, quality and features of these untis.

 

Ive had my AI Sols since they were released. They perform just as well as the day I first turned them on. The original controller is awesome and easy to use, the past 2 years it has been very nice not having to touch or worry about my lights. Even though the features are not used very often its appreciated should the time come. The overall quality of these units are superb, the mounting option is not perfect but its not hideous either. Every single part is individually replaceable from the power supply to the fan right down to the led pucks. I heard AI purposely underdrive their emmiters for higher system efficiency. I am so happy with the overall quality and performance of these units that I am absolutely invested into their brand name and will continue with their range as long as I feel they are worth their pricetag and so far the SOL's are worth every penny, especially considering people pay $400+ for powerheads these days. AI is constantly coming out with new and exciting products and features which always keeps me wanting more. I am considering the 52's for my 300G SPS and cant wait, im just as excited as I was when considering the SOL's

[zooman72]

I truely believe the hate for AI is hate from people who have never owned the unit or only momentarily viewed the unit at their local LFS and never had the chance to really appreciate the design, quality and features of these untis.

 

Ive had my AI Sols since they were released. They perform just as well as the day I first turned them on. The original controller is awesome and easy to use, the past 2 years it has been very nice not having to touch or worry about my lights. Even though the features are not used very often its appreciated should the time come. The overall quality of these units are superb, the mounting option is not perfect but its not hideous either. Every single part is individually replaceable from the power supply to the fan right down to the led pucks. I heard AI purposely underdrive their emmiters for higher system efficiency. I am so happy with the overall quality and performance of these units that I am absolutely invested into their brand name and will continue with their range as long as I feel they are worth their pricetag and so far the SOL's are worth every penny, especially considering people pay $400+ for powerheads these days. AI is constantly coming out with new and exciting products and features which always keeps me wanting more. I am considering the 52's for my 300G SPS and cant wait, im just as excited as I was when considering the SOL's

 

I will say that I appreciate your respect for the brand in question, and not to sound harsh or condescending, but this borders the "fanboy" territory I mentioned earlier, but only a little... I wholly agree that some that render opinions are doing so from their desk or couch without ever having used or experienced the fixtures, but there are quite a few that also have used and/ or experienced them and come away less than enthused, which again brings me back to one of my original premises from other threads and here on this one - use what you can afford and like, and save the condemnation for items that truly deserve it.

 

Everything has its pros and cons, and everyone has their own opinion, which makes declarative statements over the value or usefulness of various aquarium items quite arbitrary - coupled with the odd obsession to justify personal actions undertaken in aquarium husbandry as superior to others...

[1.0reef]

I've seen all of them in real life, I prefer the color a Razor or even Kessil puts out.... I really don't give a cat about anything other than dimmability and controllability

[defender.TX]

I've seen all of them in real life, I prefer the color a Razor or even Kessil puts out.... I really don't give a cat about anything other than dimmability and controllability

 

You're totally entitled to preferring one color or another. I think it's just funny when people act like you cannot have a healthy tank with AI lights. Many tank owners have evidence to the contrary, as well as the Central Campus Marine Biology Lab in Des Moines, IA, who is switching from T5/Halide combinations to AI Vega Colors and seeing incredible results.

[1.0reef]

I am, I preferred the Razor's color, design, spectrum, everything. I dislike AI lights, deal.

[snue]

Guess how much a single radion power supply cost, lol

[Cameron6796]

Isn't it like 200+$

[beeker]

i have used par38's with many bulbs i had custom made, i have used the AI sol's and now a AI hydra 52, i will say that all of them grew coral just fine, it's just that some corals prefer a few different spectrums than other's.

 

in my par38's i used cool white, warm white, cyan, blue and royal blue, i feel that this combo works best for all sps,

 

the ai sol blue, IMO was too bland just using cool white's with blue and royal blue led's, the white's had to be run at 60% or less for proper color.

 

the AI hydra imo gets everything right, but the color balancing is difficult to figure out with all the control ability, i agree they should have used warm white instead of red and cyan instead of green, but overall you know the cool white's alone provide enough red and green spectrum to grow corals, the extra green and red you can get out of the fixture make's pinks, purple's, green's and reds deepen color even more if they weren't there, i have only had the haydra 52 over my biocube for 3 weeks but am satisfied with the sps's colors i have so far.

 

i run my hydra at

 

CW:40

V:60

R:25

G:25

B:100

RB:100

UV:25

 

Seem's to be a good setup for a biocube 29g,

[Sancho]

Wow this is a 2 year old thread. Ai is no longer AI. I have had my issues with AI but the customer service has always been top notch. Since they have been taken over by Ecotech the customer service sucks giant ass! The lights work but the firmware to make the director work is terrible. Since Ecotech bought them out my emails to customer service have gone un answered. My Hydra and director keep losing wifi. I have to re set it every couple days. But yet I ordered a Prime on black Friday just got it 2 weeks ago....HMMMM. maybe the hate is cause they suck. I think Ecotech is a horrible company. They over charge us for, crappy, noisy , and ugly giant thing hanging off your tank power heads, and the Radion is just stupid. (yes you radion lemmings can hate all you want) the light is crap and you overpaid for it. very sad to see a company that had reasonable prices be partners with the rapist of our hobby.

[Cameron6796]

Interesting take one it, it was a merger not an aggressive take over. This thread (yes I know it's mine) is kind of silly. I really should have asked the world why they have superiority complexes(Apple vs Microsoft, AI ecotech, call of duty vs halo) I was actually kind of biased in this as I was planning on using AI lights. Overall I just think that hey stuff happens, the companies both still exist. I like both and think they have their pros and cons like any and may have been over reacting to some hate thrown my way when I said I was going to use AI lights.

 

Anyways the merger may not have been the most intelligent thing but I think AI was losing money and EcoTech was absorbing all the money, those pumps have become the gold standard despite the noise people still love them (the apple theory despite whether it's actually better it still sells best) The ceo of Ecotech is like 27.... Let that sink in

Might I also add.... Damn that AI prime is pretty hard to beat on a lot of aspects

[SpencerShepard]

The ceo of Ecotech is like 27.... Let that sink in

I don't get it...what does that mean?

[Horerczy]

I don't get it...what does that mean?

It means stuff?

[CrazyEyes]

I bought a prime for my 34g, because the price was right and Im too busy aka lazy to build a light and have it actually not look like a rats nest of wires. That being said, I really do like the light for a couple reasons, I love the size of it, I love that it's WiFi out of the box. I don't like that it uses cool whites, red and green. If I had the ability I would 100% remove the whites, red and green and replace the CW with NW and replace the red and green for lime and cyan. Now as far as their customer support, I've never dealt with them. But like I said, for a WiFi out of the box light for $200, it's decent.

[Cove]

I can comment on customer support! Justin from AI had a new mount to me in 5 days. I submit my ticket on a Sunday, heard back on Monday, the mount shipped out on the Wednesday and I received it on Friday! That is almost $100 dollars for priority shipping to TORONTO! Not even within America. VERY pleased with the C.S. The new mount works as it should! No sag, no nothing.

The light it self is great! Im not one to comment on it lacking NW, lime, cyan. The light works with out those LED's in my eyes. My coral actually looks natural and not like some blast of blue hit it with my previous fixture. Growth: I have two new Acan heads in a week, my corals are fluffy and happy they look amazing. Im not an AI fanboy, in fact I was going to purchase a Nanobox but the exchange rate killed it for me. The AI Prime is really worth the money.