Owners of AI SOL or other AI LED light fixtures.

Still looking around at LED lights for my 75. I want it to be a soft coral, LPS dominated tank, with a few SPS. I've been looking at the AI Sol, but I want to know if any of you have been able to mount the AI's the long way across the top of your tank, while still having the mounting brackets from the back? For $399.99 this fixture seems really nice when compared to many others at the same price. Do you even like your AI's? I really dig that cloud effect, but not the lightning storm. I can only afford one right now, so only half my tank will be reef.

 

Get a HO T5 fixture and have your whole tank a reef tank. I'm not big on LEDs after the research I did, it seems like no one really knew what layout and spectrum to use and it was almost hit or miss in some tanks.

 

Really? I hear a lot of happy people with their LEDs. How long do T5s last? And aren't they on their way out?

 

I decided on a t5 fixture and just got it in, there are metal halides but seem too much for what you'd keep. T5 bulb life is about 10 months to a year, but they're setup and forget. It seems leds take a lot of play with what intensity you run them at, and a bad mistake is bleaching. I have not seen long term effects of LEDs. I have seen long term effects with t5.

 

Thanks but, we'd like to go with LEDs. We used compact florescent lights on our first reef and had to buy new lights every 6 to 8 months, at $35 for 18 inch lights for a 10 gal nano. So T5s sound the same and more money. Halogen lights are definitely out of the question. I appreciate your comments, but I don't understand how people still haven't seen long term results with LED reef. There are plenty of videos on youtube of LED reefs.

 

I don't have the brand you mention in yout title.

I've had my LED's for about a year- they are hung though, not on any mounting legs

 

I have AI SOl Blue fisxtures on my tank, and I love them. I keep mostly softies, LPS and some SPS corals under them. They run very cool...pretty much 0 heat transfer...you can custom adjust the light spectrum, the bulbs should last 10 years, they use very little energy...about 70 watts per fixture. I would definately suggest them to anyone in the market. I have 4 of them over my 250 tank and it is more than enough...I run them at about 80% power. I used to have a 120g tank before I upgraded to my 250, and I ran that one with only 2 fixtures...vs. an 8 bulb T5 lighting system that I replaced. I know the upfront cost is high on LED, but having done T5, MH and LED now on various tanks, I would never do anything other than LED again.

 

Thank you! I feel why go backwards when tech in only moving forward. I've read and seen one video where people are turning their LEDs down past 50%, after they used a par meter. So I can only imagine how much longer the LEDs will last and how much less energy they will consume.

 

Having owned a multitude of LED fixtures over the years, I can attest that LED are moving forward. However, the fixture you are asking about is very dated. I ran AI Sol's over a frag tank, and had to add T5HO lighting to supplement the lack of spectrum they provided. Thatgrimguy (search him) did the same. I switched to Radions, and had much better success...but never had that "out of the box" success that one can achieve with T5 or MH. I am now running a MH setup, with LED supplements just for actinic viewing. IMO, there are many other fixtures that can provide more bang for your buck than AI Sol's can. The AI Vega has come out, and has supplementary spectrums that the Sol's lacked.

 

check out this site. looks exactly like what you are looking for. Custom Hanging Bracket - Modular LED.ca