Brown SPS with AI Sol Blues?

[acroholic]

atlweb;688220 wrote: I noticed some members were unhappy with their units or were simply wanting to upgrade. I have decided to go with 2 over my 50 gallon- so I figure if someone is willing to part for a reasonable price... I may be willing to pick up a unit or two from them. If not... I may just order the new Phoenix.

I'm just testing the waters to see what's out there. Lemme'no!

You know, lighting is such an important part of your tank, I would go with what I think would be the best lighting. You always run the chance of inheriting the same type of problem.

I wouldn't let couple hundred dollars stand between me and what I think would be best. For the same price as a used Sol you can get an eshines LED that works great with SPS.

I think the issues AI Sol Blue owners are running into are resulting from not using enough White in their makeup, and having too much blue bias in their settings. For example, if you have your whites at 50%, and your blue/royal blues at 75+%, then you effectively have a 1:4 or better white:blue ratio, not the 1:3 it comes with.

I have three tanks lit by a total of 11 Sol Blue Modules. Right after I got mine, I used another Member's light intensity ratio and severely biased my settings towards the blue, like 40/70/70, whichever percentage I used, my blue/royal blue was 25% or more than whatever white setting I had. I had browning of my SPS corals like others did.

I recently switched to a straight percentage in my AI Controller settings, with a stepped photoperiod that mimics (as closely as I can) the intensity reefs see on the Equator, with all stepped periods of equal intensity, like 40/40/40, 45/45/45, up to 70/70/70 at noon, then back down. I have seen colors returing to my montiporas and few SPS that I have left. I lost a bunch of my SPS corals in an unrelated incident.

 

[atlweb]

Is eshines site currently undergoing maintenance? I am not familiar with their lights. All I could find if they used to be for plants but are now getting into the reef side of things as well?

I can definitely see the white to blue balance being a problem for a lot of AI owners. Fortunately for me... I actually like the look of more white than blue.

Essentially, I'd like to go with a brand that is going to be around for a while, looks slick, and will keep my corals happy. I see a lot of people with the AI Sols that have had good success even with SPS, and if people are willing to let them go for a good price... I feel like having two would achieve my above goals without breaking my tank too much.

If one Radion could do the job, I'd be willing to shell out the extra bucks for that. Essentially I am looking for an LED light that I know will get the job done, and look good over my tank. I have yet to find that clear answer, but I am open to learning about different brands and options that could achieve these goals.

However, if there are other companies that have a better quality unit, I am certainly open to it.

 

[acroholic]

atlweb;688235 wrote: Is eshines site currently undergoing maintenance? I am not familiar with their lights. All I could find if they used to be for plants but are now getting into the reef side of things as well?

I can definitely see the white to blue balance being a problem for a lot of AI owners. Fortunately for me... I actually like the look of more white than blue.

Essentially, I'd like to go with a brand that is going to be around for a while, looks slick, and will keep my corals happy. I see a lot of people with the AI Sols that have had good success even with SPS, and if people are willing to let them go for a good price... I feel like having two would achieve my above goals without breaking my tank too much.

If one Radion could do the job, I'd be willing to shell out the extra bucks for that. Essentially I am looking for an LED light that I know will get the job done, and look good over my tank. I have yet to find that clear answer, but I am open to learning about different brands and options that could achieve these goals.

However, if there are other companies that have a better quality unit, I am certainly open to it.

Crewdawg and purplegorilla are knowledgable about the eshine units. Purplegorilla owns 4 of them and his tank kicks butt.

 

[schwaggs]

Could you setup your AIs to run 100% white for the PAR and use the controller to tweak it back when you are viewing the tank? This way you would get the best of both worlds, high PAR all day (when you are not viewing the tank) and awesome color when viewing the tank.

 

[acroholic]

Schwaggs;688281 wrote: Could you setup your AIs to run 100% white for the PAR and use the controller to tweak it back when you are viewing the tank? This way you would get the best of both worlds, high PAR all day (when you are not viewing the tank) and awesome color when viewing the tank.

The AI controller has 14 Timer settings on it. I currently use timers 1-6 dawn to noon, timer 7 is noon, timer 8-13 are noon-dusk. Timer 6 runs 1.5 hrs at 65/65/65, timer 7 runs 1 hr at 70/70/70, and timer 8 runs 1.5 hours at 65/65/65. I could bias the white on these settings to like 90/65/65, 100/70/70, ant 95/65/65 for timers 6,7, and 8.