Rapid LED

After some mroe searching I found the Rapid LED dimmable onyx fixture.

Dimmable Onyx by Rapid LED - Rapid LED

After originally looking at the AI hydra

Hydra » AquaIllumination®

It seems the Onyx is a way better fixture. 20LEDs vs 28LEDs and 399 + a 99 controller or 339 + a 30 controller. S0 20 LEDs for 500 or 28 for 370!!

Anyone have experiences to share with RapidLED as a company?? Maybe the onyx fixture itself? Yea the AI can dim a million channels, be controlled from a smartphone, and make a thunderstorm; but the onyx has 3 dimmable channels, blue, whties, and colors and is dimmable down to about 4%. I think I found a serious contender but was wondering what you guys thought about them, their spectrum of light, etc.

 

Anyone?

 

The onyx has more punch thats for sure but a few less colors and a different layout than the hydra. Having the clusters grouped like the hydra will give a slightly better color mixing versus the layout of onyx.

That said if on a budget and looking to save some cash the onyx looks like a great light. The AI will give you more control and fine tuning of each color but imo once you find a setting you like you most likely wont be adjusting it much after that so the extra control would only be good for initial setup.

I personally would spring for the onyx.
If you dont care about the extra control, the ai uses 2 kinds of royal blue and 2 kinds of violet 400nm and 415nm versus the onyx using just royal blue xte and semileds violet I think at 415nm

 

You can also buy the onyx fixture and make your own color combo.

 

Yea the AI has more control but do you really need to control every color seperate? I wish I could see one in person over a tank.

Does it mean anything that AI uses 2 kind of blue and violet?

 

pgh, are you still looking to use this in addition to your T5's or are you going all LED?

 

Kind of unsure. For the price of the onyx I might just get 2 and then only use 1 t5 light I the back angled forward with a purple bulb or something depending on whether or not the onyx had enough purple in it.

 

This is what I'd do. Reefbreeders are also nice fixtures. Nanobox are insanely beast, but can be expensive.

 

Marine Geek - Blog View - Which light system is the best?

check this out, it shows a 72g bowfront using the onyx fixtures.