AQUA ILLUMINATIONS CLUB

[pschom]

 

6am sunrise 1 hour ramp 25 60 60

10am noon 1 hour ramp 60 60 60

4pm evening 1 hour ramp 40 60 60

7pm sunset 30 min ramp 0 0 0

10 pm moonrise 30 min ramp 0 6 6

4 am moonset 30 min ramp 0 0 0

 

 

Tanks in my doorway area so its pretty much dark after dinner, wanted to try to follow normal sunrise and set as much as possible + I wake up everyday at 6am for work and its nice to watch the tank a few minutes every morning.

 

Noon phase is rather bright, but I haven't seen any corals having an adverse affect from the lights.

 

So am I reading this right that your at about 60% for 12 hours? That seems like a lot. I dialed mine back quite a bit from the original setting. Maybe some longer ramp times. What about this:

 

6am sunrise 2 hour ramp 15 40 50

10am noon 2 hour ramp 55 65 70

4pm evening 2 hour ramp 40 60 70

7pm sunset 30 min ramp 0 0 0

10 pm moonrise 30 min ramp 0 6 6

 

Or something.....

 

[nanoreefer11]

What are you guys lunar percentages at right now? Mine was 0 as of last night with a max percentage of 5 which seems off given our current lunar phase. Also, what's the most current version of the gen 1 controller software? It seems as if they removed it from their site.

[BadCrab]

Question for you Sol guys. If you were hypothetically thinking about lighting a small home prop system (something like a 48x24x12 coral flat) and you wanted to do it with AI Blues (You would right? For spectrum/cost on used units?) would you use 2, 3 or 4 units? What kind of optics would you install and how far would you hang them on EXT rails above the water?

[Flexin5]

who owns a wireless adapter for the sol?

[nicholc2]

who owns a wireless adapter for the sol?

I don't believe they are on sale yet.

[aethier]

They are available. I have one that i ordered from Bulk Reef Supply. Hooked it up yesterday and works good so far. They are $49.99

[nicholc2]

Funny because I was on their website yesterday and it still showed as coming soon. Cool!

[aethier]

Ya go to Bulk Reef Supply, they got them

[pschom]

Just got the controller from BRS and they did have the wireless adaptor in stock. But please people DO NOT use the provided adaptor for the controller! Find an iPhone/other phone USB adaptor and plug it in. You will save yourself a headache. The controller does not operate efficiently with the provided adaptor. Under or per powered. Buttons were going crazy. You've been warned.

 

Question for you Sol guys. If you were hypothetically thinking about lighting a small home prop system (something like a 48x24x12 coral flat) and you wanted to do it with AI Blues (You would right? For spectrum/cost on used units?) would you use 2, 3 or 4 units? What kind of optics would you install and how far would you hang them on EXT rails above the water?

4 units lengthwise, stock optics, 10" up

[Flexin5]

i'm waiting for my 3rd wireless adapter. first one only the green light would show, second one worked for 1min, then won't turn on at all and got super hot. waiting for the third one to come in the mail. just wondering if anyone else had problems with theirs.

 

shitty thing is that i have the vega upgrade working but i can't controll it yet.

 

oh and let me tell you how i screwed up my upgrade kit by my own dumba$$ fault. if you using the EXT rails, the origional screws are too long, but the new screws (that holds the rail to the heatsink) are pretty short, so short that i could only get at most two threads into the heatsink and i didn't feel comfortable having 3 units above the tank with only two threads. so i used the old screws, and tightened them down too much, going through the heat sink and damaging the two boards with the LEDs on them. so i had to order those two new boards. Justin at AI has been super helpful with all of this.

 

so for a solution, i ended up using the old longer screws, but used two washers on them so they don't go through the heatsink; but have more than enough threads on the screws.

 

for anyone doing the upgrade and using the EXT rails, when you get the sol pucks off of the heatsink, that's a good time to install the rail, that way you can see if the screws are too long.

 

 

 

one more thing, there's a boo-boo in the instructions.

 

when you get to this step where you start to screw down the new LED boards, the instructions say to install them like this:

 

http://s238.photobucket.com/user/Flexin5_2007/media/65C1D1D9-AC1F-44EC-8E55-9A6667B531EE-1594-000001CE2A19C468_zps03115b22.jpg.html'>

 

like so:

 

http://s238.photobucket.com/user/Flexin5_2007/media/796A0469-B83B-4894-9DF5-65AB826D07EA-1594-000001CE00110290_zpse38bc5b7.jpg.html'>

 

^you can see the wire for the fan at the right (sorry my pics are screwed up) but the fan wire won't reach the main board if you install it this way, instead you have to flip them around like this:

 

http://s238.photobucket.com/user/Flexin5_2007/media/F6B5FD01-00E2-4C96-98BF-8EB0D517EFEE-1594-000001CE3AEB6C57_zps6a790847.jpg.html'>

 

then it reaches the main board.

 

http://s238.photobucket.com/user/Flexin5_2007/media/4564890B-937B-4424-AC41-01FA9A05D943-1594-000001CE4E2059C4_zps00a50a9d.jpg.html'>

 

and it works (minus my screwed up led's...lol)

 

http://s238.photobucket.com/user/Flexin5_2007/media/25C90126-61AB-4E74-A3C3-3DC055C7BEA8-2863-0000022D06D25E51_zpsfc7e691e.jpg.html'>

 

but atleast some good came out of screwing it up, since i had to re-order the two boards, i got two boards with the red and green and violet in them instead of just the blue and deep blue for the ends.

[SouthFlorida_Tron]

Oh Ai.. Ai... Ai...

[pschom]

Oh Ai.. Ai... Ai...

 

I have a saying. Never forget where you came from..... I'd probably get the radion if for no other reason than people are selling it to me left and right. Just don't feel like forking over the $.

 

And yeah that can thing was annoying. I just patched in a couple of wires with some electrical tape (doesn't look bad) and made it work. I didn't turn them around because it seemed like the housing wouldn't fit. Oh well. Lights work. Except for one green led. Gotta get that fixed.

[aethier]

I switched out the usb adaptor for the controller and it did fix the buttons going crazy. Very wierd but thanks for the tip!

[Flexin5]

hrm i havn't had the controller going weird yet.

 

crappy iphone pic of the new upgrade, still need to clean up the wires tho.

 

http://s238.photobucket.com/user/Flexin5_2007/media/23C6E903-81B7-4851-A28B-B22ECB1A7016-1594-000001E6097E468B_zps50bd17f1.jpg.html'>

[Bucknuter]

Vega arrived for my Nuvo 16G today ;-)

 

 

I just finished reading this entire thread over a few days. Great info. The modular aspect of these lights are perfect for an individual who has plans for an upgrade from their nano tank to a larger system. I have the same Nuvo 16 with 5 of the original lights mounted up top. It actully looks and performs well. My goal is to eliminate the nest of wires and timers needed to run 10 separate leds! I was considering the vega or the blue sol but your coverage looks incomplete. The left side of the tank looks completely shaded. I would have thought that light would have covered that tank much more fully...even with your off center mount. What % output is that pic?

[rbaby]

I just bought the Vega, should be getting it this week. If anyone wants a nano and controller, I'll be selling mine when I upgrade

[pschom]

Anyone having issues with AIs customer service response? In the past they have been very quick and helpful, but I've left two messages and sent a couple of service requests with no response. Not an emergency but if it was....

[RK_tek]

I don't have a tank thread for this one as it was supposed to be a frag tank, but my GF decided it was her tank and it should look nice.

 

Previously, I was running two ledtric full spectrum par38s. They kept failing, so I made the switch. The controller is much nicer than the Typhon controller I use on my tank.

[rbaby]

I just got the Vega yesterday and set it up - for those who've never seen my 80/20 mount with my AI Nano:

 

 

I slid the Vega right in and it fit perfectly (I raised the light a bit until I can figure out how my corals respond with intensity/spread etc.):

 

 

I still have to tinker with the lights but right now it's looking more purple than I'd like...and that new controller is frustrating as hell...

[pschom]

Update firmware!

[rbaby]

Scared to detach my controller and start all over =D

[pschom]

It's fine. If I can do it you can. The light will stay at the same level while the controller is unplugged. You can't mess up the controller, but if that happens you can use the button on the back of the vega to turn the lights up and down.

 

But all u have to do is follow the instructions on that YouTube video. You'll be happy you did because when I saw the 'list' of options I was like WTF. The interface is much better!

[nicholc2]

It truly is very easy. SO simple. It would be very difficult to mess it up really. Don't be afraid, you'll be glad you did!

[pygmy angel harem]

How many watts does the Sol run and how many does the Vega run?

[cdavmd]

Well its probably never going to be repeated but heres my solution to mounting the AI Nano LOL! I have been using a slimline LED for a about 3 years on this 20 x 20 tank. Recently noticed corals not doing as well and it seemed darker. I looked carefully at the light and 7 of the LED's were out.

 

I ordered an AI Nano for this tank but due to the fact that the tank is braced there was no way short of cutting the brace to mount the AI Nano Arm ( which by the way is a piece of cheap plastic compared to the awesome light fixture).

 

Scratching my head and searching the various forums for a solution left me frustrated. I was looking at the tank considering how much I had liked the clean look of the Slimline model and figured..."why not mount the nano to that"

 

I unscrewed the slimlines bottom plate, removed the lenses from the lights, and drilled two holes to mount the NANO to the plate. Re-attached the plate and presto....AI NANO on a Slimline arm. Works for me.....and by the way LOVING THE AI NANO!!