AI Lighting choice.

brendokae · Jan 28, 2023

Hello, I was hoping some experienced reefers can help me with a lighting question. I am pretty new to reefing and I have a 3 x 2 x 2. to start me off I have i bought a second hand old 16 AI Prime. I want to upgrade and get the required coverage for a 3-foot LPS tank, I was thinking of getting a new 16HD prime or the new Blade Gro. If I go down the two Prime path that a 16HD will look the same as the old prime or will have the same light color. The other way I was thinking of going is getting a new Blade Gro. If I go with the blade path, is it worthwhile integrating the old prime. somehow. I guess the question is do I get better coverage with the blade, and will it have the equivalent par than two AI Primes. The other thing is I like bluelight glow of fluroescent coral do you need a Blade Glow to get that.

DanyL · Jan 28, 2023

To get the appropriate coverage over 3ft you'll either need to go with 4-5 Blades, 3 x 16HD or 2 x blades + 2 x 16HD.
You can also switch to 2 x 32HD.

Also note:
- There currently quality control issues with the blades, so if this is your path I would wait a couple of months and see how things go.
- Hydras are notorious to have different colorations between same models, enough to be noticeable.

That is, if you go with AI.
___________________________

If budget is a concern I would look into switching to 2 black boxes which are way more capable than the Hydras.
And for 3ft you might even get through with a single ReeFi Uno 2.0 Pro, with way better spectrum and quality than all AI's offerings combined.

mike550 · Jan 28, 2023

@brendokae I had two AI Prime 16s over my 4x2x2 for a while and it worked out fine for soft corals and LPS. So I think two 16s over your tank should be fine. The challenge will be how much light reaches the sand bed.

BRS has some great videos on setting up the 16s for various tanks, lighting profiles, etc

mrpontiac80 · Jan 28, 2023

brendokae said:
Hello, I was hoping some experienced reefers can help me with a lighting question. I am pretty new to reefing and I have a 3 x 2 x 2. to start me off I have i bought a second hand old 16 AI Prime. I want to upgrade and get the required coverage for a 3-foot LPS tank, I was thinking of getting a new 16HD prime or the new Blade Gro. If I go down the two Prime path that a 16HD will look the same as the old prime or will have the same light color. The other way I was thinking of going is getting a new Blade Gro. If I go with the blade path, is it worthwhile integrating the old prime. somehow. I guess the question is do I get better coverage with the blade, and will it have the equivalent par than two AI Primes. The other thing is I like bluelight glow of fluroescent coral do you need a Blade Glow to get that.

I have a waterbox 65.4 aio. Those display dimensions are roughly 4’ x 15” x 17” . I started with two AI prime 16 HDs. I added a third pretty quickly. I then eventually bought a par meter and realized I wanted to upgrade the lights.
I replaced those with a reefbreeders photon and never looked back.
I like AI…. The app is super user friendly…. However, the reefbreeders was a whole new world of coverage, and par availability. The app is nice, and the light is 100% silent. I honestly have never heard it, unlike the primes, I always heard the fans and at times they can get noisy.

Erik the Red · Jan 30, 2023

mike550 said:
@brendokae I had two AI Prime 16s over my 4x2x2 for a while and it worked out fine for soft corals and LPS. So I think two 16s over your tank should be fine. The challenge will be how much light reaches the sand bed.

BRS has some great videos on setting up the 16s for various tanks, lighting profiles, etc

I also have a 3x2x2 tank and I have 2 AI Primes. Would it be possible to know a few more details about the schedule you used and how much power as output?

Tamberav · Jan 30, 2023

brendokae said:
Hello, I was hoping some experienced reefers can help me with a lighting question. I am pretty new to reefing and I have a 3 x 2 x 2. to start me off I have i bought a second hand old 16 AI Prime. I want to upgrade and get the required coverage for a 3-foot LPS tank, I was thinking of getting a new 16HD prime or the new Blade Gro. If I go down the two Prime path that a 16HD will look the same as the old prime or will have the same light color. The other way I was thinking of going is getting a new Blade Gro. If I go with the blade path, is it worthwhile integrating the old prime. somehow. I guess the question is do I get better coverage with the blade, and will it have the equivalent par than two AI Primes. The other thing is I like bluelight glow of fluroescent coral do you need a Blade Glow to get that.

They will not look the same.

In fact, sometimes primes of the same generation do not look the same due to quality control issues.

You will need more then 1 blade for a 2 foot deep 2 foot wide tank.

If you find another older AI prime you can upgrade both your primes to the Luxdium pucks to get two lights that look the same. They are very nice, likely better then the prime 16. This is probably the most affordable option too since you could use your current light and the puck upgrades are not too costly.

There are two older models of the prime... AI Prime and AI Prime HD and newest AI prime 16HD. You need to have the AI Prime HD (13 leds) to upgrade... to know if it is the right one, you go into your settings and if you can go over 100% on any given color (just turn the others down so it can divert power to the led you are trying to turn up) then you have the HD (hyper drive) model and you can upgrade it.

Products

Luxdium designs and builds the ultimate upgrade path for your lights. With a simple cluster swap, LUX Engine takes your aging AquaIllumination fixtures to new levels of spectrum and light output.

www.luxdium.com

more info here:

Luxdium Replacement LED Pucks for AI Prime & Hydra

The AI Prime and Hydra line of lights are arguably some of the most popular LED aquarium lights the hobby has ever enjoyed, and a new company is planning to extend the lives of older models. Luxdium has been in pseudo stealth mode for over a year creating the first replacement LED pucks for...

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OrchidMiss · Jan 30, 2023

DanyL said:
To get the appropriate coverage over 3ft you'll either need to go with 4-5 Blades, 3 x 16HD or 2 x blades + 2 x 16HD.
You can also switch to 2 x 32HD.

Also note:
- There currently quality control issues with the blades, so if this is your path I would wait a couple of months and see how things go.
- Hydras are notorious to have different colorations between same models, enough to be noticeable.

That is, if you go with AI.
___________________________

If budget is a concern I would look into switching to 2 black boxes which are way more capable than the Hydras.
And for 3ft you might even get through with a single ReeFi Uno 2.0 Pro, with way better spectrum and quality than all AI's offerings combined.

Agreed with the AI hydras being 2 different colors. I have 2 32HDs on my 55, and one is definitely more cyan and the other is definitely more magenta, even on the exact same settings (controlled via the app). It doesn't really bother me anymore, but in certain photos and at certain times of the day, it is really noticeable.