Partially Submerged Posted September 17, 2015 Share Posted September 17, 2015 While we are talking about intensity, is there a verdict on how powerful the Prime is? I have one over a 20x20x12, and I added a Par30 as a spotlight soon after I got the Prime because I felt my monti and birdsnest could use the extra boost. The Prime never felt awfully strong to me, but maybe I am mistaken. My acans and ricordea haven't been doing so well lately, and I am wondering if they don't like the extra light. I have the Prime at around 80% Quote Link to comment
Horerczy Posted September 17, 2015 Share Posted September 17, 2015 Sounds like too much light increase too fast Quote Link to comment
Cove Posted September 17, 2015 Share Posted September 17, 2015 I had a funny experience, my LPS did better than my SPS under my prime. My parameters are on point as well :/ My settings were actually quite high. 80% across the board 25% on white, red, and green. Quote Link to comment
Partially Submerged Posted September 17, 2015 Share Posted September 17, 2015 Thanks. I took the Par30 off. My problem with the Prime is that to my eyes, it doesn't look very bright unless I turn up the whites, which aren't cool enough for my taste. So it's either good color or good brightness for me. But the intensity definitely seems to be there. My (easy) SPS are growing well. Quote Link to comment
Horerczy Posted September 17, 2015 Share Posted September 17, 2015 Common led issue. Lime LEDs are the best fix but to the best of my knowledge only Nanobox and ReefLL use them in fixtures so far. Quote Link to comment
Partially Submerged Posted September 18, 2015 Share Posted September 18, 2015 Interesting. Do you happen to know if the Prime's different color LEDs all have the same output of usable lights? In other words, do the four blues provide the corals with as much energy as the four whites? Quote Link to comment
Weismana Posted September 20, 2015 Share Posted September 20, 2015 With the Ai prime in the easy set up mode you can select the percentage of light for start up and at night. My question is if you set up the lights for night view they will never fully shut off using the easy mode. How can you get the blue lights to come on at night but shut off completely by midnight? Thanks. Quote Link to comment
Naturalreef Posted September 20, 2015 Share Posted September 20, 2015 I just hooked up my two primes last night on my frag tank. They both buzz and I had the same problem when I had the hydra 52. I had to wait 6 months until they came out with new drivers and then they sent me new boards to swap out and it was silent. It's not too loud and I know AI will take care of us when they get new drivers. They really have great customer service. Pluses: Small form factor Incredibly bright built in wifi and software( you can tell Ecotech had some input on the software with the kelvin settings which I LOVE) Hanging kit is sweet! I can angle both lights towards each other to prevent shadowing on corals. Great price! We are finally starting to see better pricing on led's with healthy competition out there. I plan on selling my maxspect razor and buying two more primes for my fusion 20. Not enough coverage with the razor nano and shadowing. Any good ideas on cable management? First time using wire hanging and the slightest cable movement misaligns the lights with each other. Quote Link to comment
Normang Posted September 22, 2015 Share Posted September 22, 2015 I just got off the phone with Aqua Illumination, and spoke with Brad. It was a very pleasant experience. I called regarding the mount dropping or sagging. I tried putting the rubber bands near the ball joint, as well as other mods that were stated here on this thread but nothing seemed to work. I decided to call them and see what they could do. He took down my information and said he would send out a complete new upper kit to replace in inop one I had received. It should take a few days to get here. I know it sucks buying a $30 mount and not having it work properly but AI seems to be doing the right thing and providing good CS. Now lets hope this replacement works as it's suppose to. Quote Link to comment
jabeuy Posted September 25, 2015 Share Posted September 25, 2015 Just read through the thread...wow. I have a 72"x30"x22" tank coming. Doing mostly LPS, with some encrusting montis in the mix. Thinking of lighting it up either with 4/5 primes or 3 hydras 26s. I know 4 primes will cover the 72" length, but I'm concerned about the 30" width since on their website it shows near 0 PAR around that point. Can any prime owners chime in on it's real life coverage? Thanks Quote Link to comment
thedon986 Posted September 25, 2015 Share Posted September 25, 2015 With the Ai prime in the easy set up mode you can select the percentage of light for start up and at night. My question is if you set up the lights for night view they will never fully shut off using the easy mode. How can you get the blue lights to come on at night but shut off completely by midnight? Thanks. You will have to do that adjustment through the manual mode. Just play around with the web-based interface and you will get it pretty quickly. Quote Link to comment
jedimasterben Posted September 25, 2015 Share Posted September 25, 2015 Just read through the thread...wow. I have a 72"x30"x22" tank coming. Doing mostly LPS, with some encrusting montis in the mix. Thinking of lighting it up either with 4/5 primes or 3 hydras 26s. I know 4 primes will cover the 72" length, but I'm concerned about the 30" width since on their website it shows near 0 PAR around that point. Can any prime owners chime in on it's real life coverage? Thanks The Prime is a very poor choice for that tank. You'd need two rows of them, with at least 5 in each row. The 22" height puts you at around 28" depth with 'standard' hanging height, so you're looking at ~40 PAR at the bottom of the tank directly under the array. Quote Link to comment
jabeuy Posted September 25, 2015 Share Posted September 25, 2015 The Prime is a very poor choice for that tank. You'd need two rows of them, with at least 5 in each row. The 22" height puts you at around 28" depth with 'standard' hanging height, so you're looking at ~40 PAR at the bottom of the tank directly under the array. Thanks for the input. Man...the guys who are making my tank recommend the Primes and actually have clients using them for the same size tank. Looks great to the eye with 4, but I can't comment on the PAR. Why is lighting so hard?! Quote Link to comment
jedimasterben Posted September 25, 2015 Share Posted September 25, 2015 Thanks for the input. Man...the guys who are making my tank recommend the Primes and actually have clients using them for the same size tank. Looks great to the eye with 4, but I can't comment on the PAR. Why is lighting so hard?! Lighting actually isn't hard (edit: well, when you cut through all the BS from lighting companies, that is), but people make it out to be. If they're recommending the Prime for this sized tank (and so few of them), I'd be careful about taking their advice on, well, anything. Quote Link to comment
Normang Posted September 26, 2015 Share Posted September 26, 2015 I just got my replacement part from AI. They replaced the entire upper part of the mount and it came with a new ball joint. The cutout where the ball goes is a lot smaller in this one. I thing the problem with the old mounts is the specs for machineing the groove where the ball joint sits was too large, which was preventing the washer to tighten against the ball joint. My light has been sitting flat for the past 30 hrs. Yeah it sucks I had to go through all this trouble but at least they are fixing it. 1 Quote Link to comment
jabeuy Posted September 29, 2015 Share Posted September 29, 2015 Lighting actually isn't hard (edit: well, when you cut through all the BS from lighting companies, that is), but people make it out to be. If they're recommending the Prime for this sized tank (and so few of them), I'd be careful about taking their advice on, well, anything. I got a prime for my pico tank. It's great! But you're right Ben, don't think even 4 primes will light a 72x30x22 well at all. I'll give it a shot once the tank comes in though haha. Also took a video going through some settings on the prime: Quote Link to comment
schgr.cube Posted September 29, 2015 Share Posted September 29, 2015 So why does the iOS app not have that color spectrum contro? I have to go on my computer to do that. Wtf AI? Quote Link to comment
schgr.cube Posted October 3, 2015 Share Posted October 3, 2015 Also, has anyone else had problems with the light not connecting to the app or computer, or losing its settings? I keep coming upstairs at night and the light isn't following the schedule that I have, instead it will be on whatever last manual setting I had it on (usually 18k). I tried resetting it completely and re-adding it, but still happening. It seems to be stressing out my fish, and might be the cause of some of my glass algae. Quote Link to comment
pdiehm Posted October 5, 2015 Share Posted October 5, 2015 I updated the app, and my prime disappeared. won't come back. the light schedule still works, but I do everything through the web. the phone app, while nice was not all that easy to fine tune. Quote Link to comment
schgr.cube Posted October 5, 2015 Share Posted October 5, 2015 Yeah, I had a lot of issues with connection and stability on the Prime, even after setting back to factory. Tried to exchange it, but no luck, they said it would take a month. This made me realize how much it sucks relying on technology only to run your lights, without having any sort of mechanical control over it. I ended up returning the light and bought a Kessil A160WE (which is incredible so far!) Quote Link to comment
phillyclownfish Posted October 6, 2015 Share Posted October 6, 2015 I have been running some SPS under my AI Prime. I have had one piece for almost two weeks and another frag for about a week now. So far everything seems well. Running the SPS about 12" to 15" away from the light. Will post pics to my build thread sometime this week. Quote Link to comment
BluCrab Posted October 14, 2015 Share Posted October 14, 2015 I'm thinking about adding one to my 29 BioCube. This weekend is FJW's Anniv Sale and I'll get $20 off the price. So that'll pay for the arm bracket. Currently I have a Kessil A150 Ocean Blue and a marine land blue strip (with a dimmer) for moon lighting. No control at all, both set on timers. Thinking of either replacing the A150 and using that light as a refrugium light, or running both the Ai Prime and A150. tank has mostly zoanthids and mushrooms. So what do yall think? Run two lights or just a Ai Prime? Quote Link to comment
BluCrab Posted October 15, 2015 Share Posted October 15, 2015 I gets no love! : / Quote Link to comment
Drew11 Posted October 15, 2015 Share Posted October 15, 2015 Prime should be plenty for what you're trying to grow 1 Quote Link to comment
phillyclownfish Posted October 17, 2015 Share Posted October 17, 2015 Been about two months with my first SPS frag under the prime. A little bit a growth... Quote Link to comment
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