AI Sol Blues - Hate them

Reeferforlyfe · Mar 19, 2012

Posted By MXC207 on 03/19/2012 10:17 PM

I don't agree with any of this at all, just my opinion. I have 2 AI sol's over my 75 and I wouldnt trade em for nothing. I love the way it looks and I dont think it has that much shimmer. Isnt that why everyone likes MH anyways cause of the shimmer? Maybe its the height of the lights over the tank or something. But I find my Ai's to have just as much shimmer as a MH and nothing more. Love em.
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Me too /DesktopModules/ActiveForums/themes/_default/emoticons/smile.gif even tho they fried some of my corals lol

kyro · Mar 19, 2012

Im really not sure what you guys are talking about. I have these lights myself and notice no shimmer and have also installed about a total of 40 modules on custom tanks for clients and nobody has said anything negative about the look after I get the color dialed in. How high are you running your lights? what level are each diode set to?

Nemesis · Mar 20, 2012

ok, just my opinion and that of the rep from AI. The radion is overpriced plus it has a major design flaw . Who sucks salt water air up into a fixture? Plus they run them so hard they will burn out really soon and use more power than the sol.(I was told that at macna) I agree that mh is superior to leds only in light intensity compared to the sun. In terms of saving money on power and chillers to cool the tank down from the heat transfer from the halides , leds are better. The last bit I love the shimmer, I guess disco I like disco balls. LOL

PotRoast · Mar 20, 2012

I mounted them 16" above water line and was running them at 75% across the board. I have a lot of water movement in the tank, so surface agitation could be an issue.

I was running half my tank (4 feet) with t'5's, and turned off the other half and replaced with two AI's. So when the lights were on half the tank was lit by t'5's and the other half by LED's. I can assure you there is a dramatic disco ball effect in on the LED side of the tank. The T5 side has no shimmer period so the differences are stark from side to side.

The disco ball effect is much less evident in my frag tank (where I have the AI's permanently mounted). But there is very little surface agitation and the tank is painted black and absorbs a lot of the effect. However it is still very evident and honestly could give me a headache if I stared too long. I hope after a couple weeks I can ignore it. I am keeping them regardless. I am just not convinced at all that I want these mounted on my display tank.

blackx-runner · Mar 20, 2012

Posted By Nemesis on 03/20/2012 07:52 AM

ok, just my opinion and that of the rep from AI. The radion is overpriced plus it has a major design flaw . Who sucks salt water air up into a fixture? Plus they run them so hard they will burn out really soon and use more power than the sol.(I was told that at macna) I agree that mh is superior to leds only in light intensity compared to the sun. In terms of saving money on power and chillers to cool the tank down from the heat transfer from the halides , leds are better. The last bit I love the shimmer, I guess disco I like disco balls. LOL
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So you think the AI rep is a good source of info on the Radion fixture? Not saying he is right or wrong, but I bet some of his claims are not entirely true or accurate. I love my AIs, but if the radion were priced a little bit closer I would definitely give that fixture a shot over my tank before making too many opinions on it.

Waverz · Mar 20, 2012

Posted By blackx-runner on 03/20/2012 08:06 PM

Posted By Nemesis on 03/20/2012 07:52 AM

ok, just my opinion and that of the rep from AI. The radion is overpriced plus it has a major design flaw . Who sucks salt water air up into a fixture? Plus they run them so hard they will burn out really soon and use more power than the sol.(I was told that at macna) I agree that mh is superior to leds only in light intensity compared to the sun. In terms of saving money on power and chillers to cool the tank down from the heat transfer from the halides , leds are better. The last bit I love the shimmer, I guess disco I like disco balls. LOL
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So you think the AI rep is a good source of info on the Radion fixture? Not saying he is right or wrong, but I bet some of his claims are not entirely true or accurate. I love my AIs, but if the radion were priced a little bit closer I would definitely give that fixture a shot over my tank before making too many opinions on it.
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I've got one in my "cart" deciding if I want to hit the order now button or not. I would really like to try something besides a SOL on my tank but the huge price tag is pretty hard to get over.

kyro · Mar 20, 2012

I have seen both the AI and Radion in person and side by side. Overall Im not impressed by the radion at all for the extra cost. The only cool thing about it is the programming. Everything looks weird to me the lightning storm isnt as good. sunrises and sets. Also compared side by side the AI blows it out of the water with available par. There is quite a bit of discussion on the use of red light as well in the fact that it may stop some corals from growing...quite interested to find out what people discover there. I love ecotech powerheads but im not sold on the Radion.

Reeferforlyfe · Mar 20, 2012

Posted By kyro on 03/20/2012 09:54 PM

I have seen both the AI and Radion in person and side by side. Overall Im not impressed by the radion at all for the extra cost. The only cool thing about it is the programming. Everything looks weird to me the lightning storm isnt as good. sunrises and sets. Also compared side by side the AI blows it out of the water with available par. There is quite a bit of discussion on the use of red light as well in the fact that it may stop some corals from growing...quite interested to find out what people discover there. I love ecotech powerheads but im not sold on the Radion.
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I just read up on the radions, and wow I must say that a fan on the bottom of the fixture facing the water is a huge deterrent for me(plus I got 5 AI Modules already) but what the heck?. What happens when water gets sucked up in that bad boy. Poof!

mthomp · Mar 20, 2012

They been out for awhile now and I have not read or heard of any issues with the fan placement. My thing is what s the best bang for my buck. I was not overly impressed with the red and green LEDS, but I did like the amount of control you have over them. The controller you get with the AI is not half bad, you have a simple too use interface that still allowed you a lot of control of the units, In the end I felt the AI gave me a better value.

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