Hydra VS Hydra 52

I'm shocked by the lack of detailed information on AI's site. In trying to just look through their information to answer your question, I don't see any information on how many channels there are, how dimming is functioned, it's all very high level information and zero detail.

Besides the fact that one fixture pulls 95W and the other135W, basically the hydra 52 is double the LEDs except for the CWs and RBs which are quadrupled.

The difference to me is that in the 52 has 4 identical "pods", and the regular hydra has 4 pods and 2 total types in a 1-2-1 arrangement (the middle 2 are the same and the outer 2 are the same). I would expect that the 52 has a better overall look to it in the tank.

How many of these are you planning on getting?

 

Hydras run with each color on their own channel. With a controller you have full dimming control over each and every color, so you can configure them to your liking. With the 80 deg frosted lens the color blending is really well so you don't see any banding of the different colored LEDs. I switched from 4 AI sol blues to 4 AI hydras on my 250 deep dimension and I am really pleased with the hydras.
I actually still have the SOLs hanging in the same fixture, as soon as I get a hold of the club par meter I am going to do some real comparisons throughout the tank.