Aqua Illumination - THE GOOD THE BAD THE UGLY

[ripped tide]

There was no warranty card in either of my boxes... I bought one from a member(yeah I'll eat the cost on that) but bought one new. They didn't give me a card

 

[izoid]

A warranty should still be valid even if you don't return the card. There may be additional incentives if you do return it but I do not believe they can void the warranty as long as you have proof of purchase. In fact, I sold a controller to a member and he had issues with it. He called AI and they sent a replacement without any warranty card or receipt.

 

[wmboots]

Seth thanks for the informative thread, I was toying with the idea of going to LED's on my new tank but after reading this I will stay with T5's

 

[acroholic]

frdagaa;753157 wrote: I've had good luck with my AI's, but I decided to $$$ and get a "full package", meaning 4 units for a 48" length tank. I'm very pleased even if my wallet isn't quite as happy.

When I got into this hobby, I kinda decided it was going to be a money pit and on decided to err on the side of more $$ on equipment. I figured skimping on equipment to save some $ for critters would backfire in the long run. I think I was right.

One thing about the AI's that is VERY IMPORTANT and I screwed up on -- you MUST return the warrantee card right away to get their full warrantee/customer support. I never return those cards...always kinda thought they were marketing scams, and that there were laws to protect you anyway... but I WAS WRONG. Luckily I've had no equipment failures, and when I had a simple issue, now out of warrantee, the company's tech service helped me out well for free. But if one of the lights goes down, I'm eating the cost when I could have been still in warrantee fi I'd returned the card .......

You can register an AI product online. When I had them I did all of mine online. All you need is the Serial #. Took a couple minutes. Never filled out the cards.

 

[ripped tide]

izoid;753196 wrote: A warranty should still be valid even if you don't return the card. There may be additional incentives if you do return it but I do not believe they can void the warranty as long as you have proof of purchase. In fact, I sold a controller to a member and he had issues with it. He called AI and they sent a replacement without any warranty card or receipt.

That's good to know. I DO have the receipt

 

[acroholic]

izoid;753196 wrote: A warranty should still be valid even if you don't return the card. There may be additional incentives if you do return it but I do not believe they can void the warranty as long as you have proof of purchase. In fact, I sold a controller to a member and he had issues with it. He called AI and they sent a replacement without any warranty card or receipt.

+1. Like the product or not, they are very good with warranty Issues. As good as EcoTech any day.

 

[ripped tide]

Dave, having both fixtures, which has the highest par at 24" and which has the best spread?

 

[acroholic]

Ripped Tide;753209 wrote: Dave, having both fixtures, which has the highest par at 24" and which has the best spread?

I definitely think the Radion has the best spread at 24", but I couldn't tell you which one has the best PAR, as I never measured them myself. IME the AIs would be much more directional at 24" from the bottom of the tank, even with the 70 degree optics installed all the way around.

Again, outside of one's opinion on the AIs, one thing to remember about a single AI (Sol Blue in this reference) vs a Radion is the Sol Blue is not as powerful a light as a Radion. In terms of wattage drawn, A Radion pulls 1.75 or so times the wattage of an AI (at 100%). Radion pulls 138 watts and AIs pull 75 watts.

Based on the above, I would guess the Radion would have a higher PAR just from the fact that it is a more powerful light when compared 1:1 with AI. The exception to that might be if you measured PAR in one of the AIs intense areas from their 40 degree optics, as they are mixed in the Sols.

 

[seth the wine guy]

rpolino;753122 wrote: Seth I see you are still trying to give your Ai's a chance. If they don't work what is the next lighting you plan on buying?

Looks like I will do a MH/LED mix. If not, it will be T5/LED. In construction stages now.

 

[cjsparky]

Acroholic;699511 wrote: The Sol Blues have 70 degree optics on the outer 4 pucks, and 40 degree optics on the inner 4 pucks. Cannot rember which, but one of the optics has a dot on the surface to distinguish it from the other. You can buy them from AquaIllumination a their website store. I have a big bag of the 70 degree optics if you need some. I'll sell you some for $5 each if you want. I bought them to convert my AIs to all 70 deg optics, but converted back.

Acro, Do you still have these optics, have a total of 8 of them, and are you coming to the June meeting at Jenns shop?

CJ

 

[acroholic]

Cjsparky;772679 wrote: Acro, Do you still have these optics, have a total of 8 of them, and are you coming to the June meeting at Jenns shop?

CJ

I sold all the optics on RC a long time ago...sorry.

 

[cjsparky]

No worries!

Edit:

Seth The Wine Guy;754455 wrote: Looks like I will do a MH/LED mix. If not, it will be T5/LED. In construction stages now.

I am interested on which one you wind up going with. I would think T5/LED's would give you some sick color options...

CJ

 

[seth the wine guy]

Update since I've had a recent issue.

As for the quality of the AI hardware. I just had all three power supplies fail within a couple weeks of each other. Don't know how long they are expected to last but I figure it's worth mentioning. Had to order three new ones today for $150. I almost considered just putting that money toward a new type of LED fixture but I just don't have the time to labor over it.

As for the use and performance, I have been using three of them as supplemental lighting for about a year and a half after using them as the primary lighting source. The real horses that have been pulling the plow have been two 400w MH fixtures. I mainly run the blues while the halides are running because I really like the look of 14k Ushio's with the Blue and RB LED's. I started with 20k Radiums but if I used any blue LED's at the same time it looked smurfed out. The two blue LED's really help bring great pop to any LPS and zoa's so that how I landed on the combo of 14k MH and Blue/RB LEDs.

 

[ringo®]

I think the lenses they're putting on these are getting to the point of silly (you would need a really deep tank at least).

 

[grouper therapy]

AL1;901907 wrote: Great post! After reading this I think I might give the reef brite mh hybrid a try with a 400w and 2 xho led strips. I should get the best of both worlds, anyone research these or have personal experience. Btw currently running 2 mm led units over a 93 cube...sorry to hijack, but it is a great thread and I have been frustrated/ going crazy over lighting. Im headed more towards sps and would like good growth and color. I'm willing to pay just want good results</em>

That's me as well. I'm gonna lean toward a hybrid myself I think.