New aquatic life led combo fixture

[DFlip]

I haven’t seen much about this new fixture on the internet. Aquatic life’s website along with BRS and an announcement on reefbuilders is about it. Has anyone heard anything or gotten to see one yet? I decided to grab one from BRS, it should be here by the weekend.
I was putting together my own version of the reefbrite strip/puck hybrid for the 80 shallow but decided to change it up. With that said, I have two brand new 48“ reefbrite pro blue strips for sale.

 

[jcook54]

I haven't heard much about it but I do look forward to more folks getting it. I have the older version and it's great! The biggest complaint I have its that the lights can't be angled and it looks like that issue has been fixed.

 

[Adam]

Please post up your review on this fixture after you get it. I'd like to see what you think and some pics.

I'm going to move this to product reviews.

 

[hzheng33]

following....

 

[bhodges82]

I dislike that they call this a hybrid fixture honestly. It's a supplemental led fixture, if you add led light to go with your led lights it's not a hybrid at all. I got turned off from it just because of that marketing phrase they use, it's a scam. I don't see this fixture doing much.

 

[DFlip]

Definitely not a hybrid. “Combo” makes more sense in my opinion.

 

[DFlip]

I don't see this fixture doing much.

What exactly do you mean? Not doing much as far as sales and gaining market traction, or not doing much as far as performance as a supplemental coral light?

Not having received the unit yet I really can’t offer an opinion, but I would hope that two programmable 78watt 144 led fixtures over a 4ft tank would contribute a notice output. That’s 156 watts with built in programmability angled inwards
Unfortunately I won’t be able to contribute par data until my build progresses a bit more (unless someone wants to swing by with a par meter one day), but I will take some photos for everyone in the meantime.

 

[scottw]

I dislike that they call this a hybrid fixture honestly. It's a supplemental led fixture, if you add led light to go with your led lights it's not a hybrid at all. I got turned off from it just because of that marketing phrase they use, it's a scam. I don't see this fixture doing much.

Hit the nail on the head. What part of that is a hybrid? LED when most people run LED doesn't = a hybrid (zero chance you are fitting in a halide inside of that fixture, so again, it is not a hybrid. Wasteful IMO.

 

[Adam]

Hit the nail on the head. What part of that is a hybrid? LED when most people run LED doesn't = a hybrid (zero chance you are fitting in a halide inside of that fixture, so again, it is not a hybrid. Wasteful IMO.

If I can get the same effect from adding led bars to my tank as I would from T5's, well, then, I won't have many T5's left and no bulbs to change.
I agree on this fixture though. I'm still interested in the review to learn more about it.

What I don't understand is why so many led companies are using 525nm green? I mean 64 of them on this one! Why not follow the trend of tech and use 490nm mint/cyan?
And with this light having 32 620nm red, it makes no sense. Should be 8 to 16 red and the same mint, then add in some 420nm true violet and maybe a few closer to UV. 405-410nm

Maybe Aquatic Life knows something with the setting that will emulate T5 Blue+, I don't know and I don't see any reviews for them yet.

 

[DFlip]

I think we can all agree that the naming isn’t too accurate. They could really stretch the definition and say hybrid refers to strip versus puck style fixtures, I guess. But as for marketing it makes sense, it puts this product into the hot selling category that it’s meant to be in. Seeing as we’re all pretty much on the same page and it doesn’t affect the performance at all, I don’t see a need to discuss semantics any further.

The light was delivered earlier today, I’ll put up some photos tonight.

 

[bhodges82]

What exactly do you mean? Not doing much as far as sales and gaining market traction, or not doing much as far as performance as a supplemental coral light?

Not having received the unit yet I really can’t offer an opinion, but I would hope that two programmable 78watt 144 led fixtures over a 4ft tank would contribute a notice output. That’s 156 watts with built in programmability angled inwards
Unfortunately I won’t be able to contribute par data until my build progresses a bit more (unless someone wants to swing by with a par meter one day), but I will take some photos for everyone in the meantime.

In terms of sales, there are a lot of options already available that do what this light fixture does. As far as performance, I can still get more light from 4x48" t5 bulbs, the wattage listed is for all channels at 100% and this one is programmable. Programmable in my opinion means easier to mess up, the longer I'm in this hobby the less I want to tinker with certain things. On and off work just fine for me. If I was going to add more light to my tank I would do with reefbrite or the orphek strips, you get what you pay for with these two companies.

 

[DFlip]

Got a few moments to check out the light tonight. Packaging was pretty nice and overall compact. Assembly sucked though. The screws were tiny and the allen wrench was useless. Once together it seems decent though. When you download the app and hook up to the lights it’s asks you for a password without any other info. You have to watch the YouTube video to get the password, which is the same for everyone; I found that strange and annoying.

I liked the color presets which are supposed to mimic popular T5 options. Having never used T5s I can’t weigh in on the accuracy. The addition of the red lights really made the fish pop when I put the fixture over one of my running systems. Definitely has a discoball effect when placed on the tank rim (especially the reds); maybe that lessens when mounted at the appropriate height. The app comes with the ability to set a simple schedule or customize it more intricately. It has randomized lightening and rolling cloud cover features which was fun and new to me. Not sure how impactful they are in terms of coral growth but novel to say the least.

 

[DFlip]

Here are the different preset options.
This weekend I’ll use my real camera to photograph the differences between them. The camera phone tries to compensate for exposure and white balance so it wouldn’t show what the eye sees.

 

[Cook]

Thanks for posting this, I'll be interested in your results. I have two of the now older Aquatic Life Hybrid T5 systems and I do like them. I only use the T5's for 3-4 hours a day though with the rest of my light being LED so I get a lot of life out of my T5's before I need to replace them.

 

[DFlip]

A few photos that may or may not shed some light on this new fixture (ehh ehh….shed some light? I crack myself up). I’ll do two posts with different lighting all shot under the same controls, showing some AI sets for reference. Unfortunately I do not have any T5 fixtures to shoot as a comparison. I can say that these lights are no where near as blue/purple as the reefbrite actinic strips. Those reefbrite pro strips are wonderful power-filled strips that make the world fluoresce, but ultimately Im going for a 12-14k spectrum on this new build. Maybe the 50/50 RB strips would be better suited? I digress. NEW 48” Actinic Reefbrite pro strips are for sale… if I ever post a listing.

 

[DFlip]

I included the Lubbocks fairy wrasse in each photo for an additional reference. I do enjoy how the added red spectrum makes him pop. (Fish look like crap under windex blues)


AI PRIME 16HD (single puck mounted 10” over 36x18x16” aquarium)

5500K
10K
14K
20K

 

[DFlip]

As a reminder, you may mix and match spectrums/intensity/clouds, lightening, other novelties between the front and rear bank on this fixture. I did NOT do this.
36x18x16 aquarium. Light mounted directly on rim, no ambient or AI light present.

”ALL”

 

[DFlip]

“BLUE”

 

[DFlip]

“BLUE +}

 

[DFlip]

last one was actually “BLUE + CORAL”