Aqua Illumination The Great Debate Continues

[seth the wine guy]

Acroholic;700814 wrote: Yes, but what is your point?

My point is where you steer the conversation away from. AI's coverage claims and performance charts, graphs, and recommendations. You, yourself have openly admitted that you had to purchase more units than AI recommended to you.

Acroholic;700814 wrote: I was recommended six units by AI for my 300, and that was not enough.

I'm not sure how you justify that but that's none of my business. You are an analytical guy who seems to pride himself on details and accurate information. That's one of the reasons I had respect for threads you've had in the past.

At this point, we are going in circles. You have your opinion and I have mine. Neither of us is going to waiver and the thread has lost its intrinsic value to anyone else on ARC. I'm happy to continue the conversation somewhere that doesn't clog the boards with personalities. (Instead of principals.)

In the meantime, keep coming back.

I'll see ya at the next meeting.

Edit:

vista;700821 wrote: 09/07/2011: I started hanging AI over tank (36x18x25) after totally broke down

You're getting some killer color. I'll reach out to you for more info. Thanks for posting.

 

[seth the wine guy]

vista;700821 wrote:
I just did a quick snap of some corals just about 2 months under 2 AI LED. For SPS, I am running 50W/75B/75RB for 4 hours. I'd probably tune up 75/75/75 or 75/80/100 or low the lighting rack.

Those are some great colors! I'll reach out to you for more info. You are running the same White to Blue ratio I was for a long time.

BTW- What camera are you using? I can't seem to get good photos no matter how fancy the camera. Are you shooting through the glass or from the top? If you're taking it through the glass are you cutting the flow before hand?

Thanks for posting.
Seth

 

[acroholic]

Seth The Wine Guy;700860 wrote: My point is where you steer the conversation away from. AI's coverage claims and performance charts, graphs, and recommendations.

No, actually, you stated "you and I both know you GREW those with MH." Of course I did, as did anyone raising SPS prior to LEDs if they didn't have T5s. How do you use this as a segway to accusing me of steering conversation away from AI's claims? Sorry, but your thought process from telling me I grew my corals with halides (yup-guilty) to accusing me of ignoring AI's coverage claims, performance charts, graphs and recommendations eludes me.

I don't have the technical background to analyze lighting charts, etc, but I can read their unit # recommendations chart.

Maybe that is where the disconnect is. Maybe the difference is I can forgive a mistake on the verbal unit # recommendation from AI because I bought nine originally, so actually needing nine is not a surprise to me. I called them back and got the "you need six units" verbal recommendation after I had taken delivery of the nine I ordered and set them over the tank, but had started seeing how many people were thinking they didn't need as many units as they originally thought, which led me to switch to 6 and brown corals. I bought nine based on their chart sizing, and you bought based on a verbal (or email?) recommendation. I put the extra 3 (of the original 9) on another reef, then added them back when it became obvious 6 wouldn't support SPS color.

Here's their recommendation chart below. My tank is 12-36" tall, L72" x 36"W with the units <12" AWL (10" AWL right now). Their recommendation per the chart is 12, and I am using 9. I'm using the number of units I originally thought I needed, so it is not a big deal to me.

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Seth The Wine Guy;700860 wrote: I'm happy to continue the conversation somewhere that doesn't clog the boards with personalities. (Instead of principals.)

In the meantime, keep coming back.

You keep coming back too Seth. And remember, it is progress, and not perfection.

 

[seth the wine guy]

Acroholic;700889 wrote: And remember, it is progress, and not perfection.

Trust me, that's my favorite line to tell my wife!

 

[acroholic]

MvM;700612 wrote: Man, not sure what your vendetta against AI's is. I bought 2 from the beginning. I knew that one would not be enough. If you read any post that pertained to the coverage of one fixture, you'd know that. I'm sorry that AI apparently gave you bad advise, but if any reef related company was held liable for bad advise, few would survive....

Edit: And you said you wanted pics, not opinions.....

Matt,
I use two modules for my 100 rimless, which is 30 x 30 x 24 like yours. I run the units at 50/50/50 for 4 hours a day, with slightly less intense settings the rest of the photoperiod. This is an LPS/softy/BTA tank. Seems to fit the bill quite well, and the coral colors are great.

 

[mvm]

Acroholic;700924 wrote: Matt,
I use two modules for my 100 rimless, which is 30 x 30 x 24 like yours. I run the units at 50/50/50 for 4 hours a day, with slightly less intense settings the rest of the photoperiod. This is an LPS/softy/BTA tank. Seems to fit the bill quite well, and the coral colors are great.

What optics? I switched to the 70 optics, but am thinking about going back.

 

[acroholic]

MvM;700953 wrote: What optics? I switched to the 70 optics, but am thinking about going back.

I've always had the standard optics on these units. I switched the optics out to all 70s over my 300 gallon, but when I started using the higher intensities, I switched back, so now I have a big bag of 70 degree optics I'm not using.

 

[thanhreef]

love Milli under blue

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Here is my AI setting
ramp period 5 minutes each
1pm: 0 0 30
2pm: 0 30 50
3pm: 25 50 50
4pm: 30 60 60
5pm: 50 75 75
8pm: 25 50 50
9pm: 0 75 75
11pm: 0 0 60
11:30pm: 0 0 30
12am: 0 0 2

 

[seth the wine guy]

rpolino;751061 wrote: Just chiming in trying to get some help.

I have a 54 gallon corner tank, originally I had 250W metal Halide Hampton tech from 2009-2010. During this time I had good color and great growth with my SPS.

Bio-load: is usually 3-4 fish.
Coral Mixed
Filter 20gallon sump, GFO, Reef octopus skimmer.
Calcium 420-450
Mag 1400 -1500
Alk is right about 8.5dkh
Phosphate - Undetectable

Top 3 are usually fairly steady since I added a doser.

I am very good about doing a minimum 5 gallon H20 change every sunday as well as changing the filter sock. (IO Reef Crystals)

Light Schedule:

10am: 20w 50b 70rb 110 minute ramp
2pm: 75w 75b 85rb 240 minute ramp
8pm: 5w 50b 70rb 10 minute ramp
10pm: 0 w 25b 25rb
11pm: 1 2 3 lunar

Lighting: 1 AI Sol Blue

In the time frame when I had my Halide I was able to get SPS growth and encrusting montipora to grow very well and fast. In the last year i have unfortunately lost all SPS.

I am left with just the frags I keep buying in order to try and re grow in my tank.

My lights are Center of the tank and I do keep all SPS within the 40 Degree LED'S for stronger lighting.

What I have left now is a Green slimer frag (Now STN'ing i believe from the base up). Lime in the Sky stag which is doing good and growing just doesn't have the great color as when I bought it. 2 blue sps frags unsure of the name.

All frags I have purchased in the last month except the lime in the sky purchased in January.

When I bought the 2 blue and green slimer SPS i had amazing polyp extension now I get none.

Orange plating montipora which I just sold because it actually grew out of control.

So basically I really have no established SPS left and only zoas, palys, and many other LPS. Which are doing very very well.

In the past I have had people suggest adding another Light, but I don't believe that will help as long as I keep the coral close to the center. Right now I have Zoas, xenias, and chalices on the outside of the tank and they are doing fine.

At this point I am thinking of abandoning SPS in a whole but I am willing to listen to peoples suggestions to try and grow the hard coral with these LED's.

I am attaching some pictures of my setup. I turned the white light up so the blue doesn't cause blurring also pics taken from a phone.

You will be able to see the one Stags new growth. I would say since January about 1"

Please ignore the dirty tank went to a coral swap last week and just had to buy everything.

I hate to hear that you fell into the AI trap. I know of several people that have ditched these after defending them at first. It's my observation AI vastly overstate their performance numbers. You will need at least one more unit for sure to grow any serious SPS. I would also not dim the modules at all. Run them wide open after your corals have adjusted to LED lighting.

 

[seth the wine guy]

More of my AI experience can be found http://www.atlantareefclub.org/forums/showthread.php?t=60741&highlight=aqua+illumination&page=2">here</a>.

I loose track of all my "nice" things to say about these guys. Maybe one day I'll consolidate it all.