Is my AI Prime running on borrowed time?

[Ryley]

I have been running an AI Prime (not HD or HD16) since I first set up my Fusion 20 in January of 2016. The light has been running more or less every day since then with the exception of a 4 month hiatus at the end of 2020 when the tank was shut down. The tank was restarted at the beginning of 2021. The light seems to be working properly other than a bit of increased fan and driver noise. From what I have read the only led channel that I might need to be concerned about is UV (tend to melt the lenses sooner or later). After essentially 6 years of non-stop use how much more useable time do you think I can realistically get out of this light? Radions are currently on sale which doesn't seem to happen too often and I was thinking it might be a good opportunity to retire the AI Prime from my display. I'm sure it would still work well as a refugium light or something else down the line. Thoughts?

[DaJMasta]

Depends on how bright you run it.  If you're running full power, yeah, the LEDs are probably lower output and different spectrum than they originally were and by a decent amount.  Not that it's about to fail or anything, but it will continue degrading and getting farther from the original spec.  If you've been running it at like 50%, while some aging has happened, it may be good to go for a bit yet - the degradation of LEDs is mostly tied to heat generation, not time in use alone, so LEDs driven at a lower power level heat up less and sustain less damage and aging.

I think Radions are on sale usually maybe 2-3 times a year?  Black Friday is the other one I think is pretty common, but the AI Prime 16HD is also one sale if you wanted to stick with AI for whatever reason - it's about as programmable as the current generation Radions, but if a single AI Prime was enough for your tank, a single XR15 may be pretty overkill in terms of total output.

[Jakesaw]

9 hours ago, Ryley said:

I have been running an AI Prime (not HD or HD16) since I first set up my Fusion 20 in January of 2016. The light has been running more or less every day since then with the exception of a 4 month hiatus at the end of 2020 when the tank was shut down. The tank was restarted at the beginning of 2021. The light seems to be working properly other than a bit of increased fan and driver noise. From what I have read the only led channel that I might need to be concerned about is UV (tend to melt the lenses sooner or later). After essentially 6 years of non-stop use how much more useable time do you think I can realistically get out of this light? Radions are currently on sale which doesn't seem to happen too often and I was thinking it might be a good opportunity to retire the AI Prime from my display. I'm sure it would still work well as a refugium light or something else down the line. Thoughts?

The light seems to be working properly other than a bit of increased fan and driver noise

 

Have you blown dust out of your fan. This may be source of your noise if it hasn't been cleaned.  Increased heat would reduce life of the light fixture.

[Ryley]

Thanks for the reply, the blue and uv channels have typically been run at maximum output with the white running somewhere between 20 and 40%. The light has been capable of growing corals but the spread on a 2ft tank is certainly pushing its capabilities. I recently did a PAR test of the tank and the values came back a bit lower than I would have expected but still not terrible for softy or even LPS corals. 

[Ryley]

Just now, Jakesaw said:

The light seems to be working properly other than a bit of increased fan and driver noise

 

Have you blown dust out of your fan. This may be source of your noise if it hasn't been cleaned.  Increased heat would reduce life of the light fixture.

Yeah I took it apart and gave the fan a good clean when I restarted in 2021 and blow out the dust periodically through the year. The driver seems to only make noise when a channel is running at a reduced percentage, particularly the whites. From what I have read this is fairly common in the earlier gen primes.