Two AI primes for a 29 gallon?

I have the opportunity to get two AI primes for my 29 gallon reef tank. (Softies lps an sps) the tank is 30 inches from side to side and 14 inches from front to back. I will get two because I don't think that one will have enough spread for all 30 inches. Has anyone used these lights? What to set them on when I first get them to acclimate my corals to the light? I'm really excited to try a full spectrum light since I have been using two current USA marine orbit lights and a blue led light that I built. Any advice on these lights would be greatly appreciated

 

As you know I use Radions, but AI should have an acclimation setting I would think like the Radions, I think I read about it, in their lights that you can use to slowly ramp them up. With that being said I don't fully trust these modes and presets. I'd much rather just bump the % down myself and watch it, maybe that's just me preferring to tinker. I'm sure there is nothing really wrong with them, I just want the most control. I'd personally probably start around 30-40% or so and bump it up 5% each week or every ~4-5 days if things are looking good. I see no reason to have them over 50% starting out even raised above the tank. The closer they are to water surface the smaller the % you will need. I'm telling you these LED fixtures are BRIGHT and very intense. You can burn coral quick if you aren't careful. I would set your spectrum to how you want it color wise and just adjust overall % intensity.

I've had my Radion for like a year now at least and I have yet to push it past 80% total and it only hits 80% for 3-4 hours of the day leaning towards 3. Might be able to hit 100% now but I just haven't seen a real reason to.

 

I agree with Slug. I just got a single Radion set up on mine. The lfs didn't have the right stand so I set it right on the glass. I have it at 20% and that's a little too much to have anything centered directly under it until I get the stand, hopefully Thursday. I know because I had put a Kenya Tree in the middle right underneath the light. When I came home from work the coral wasn't looking good so I moved it. All my other corals are doing just fine however.

 

MORE POWER!!!!!

 

Tomorrow is prime day!!! I'm going to be picking up two aI primes and the mounting kits. I just don't know what to set the lights on to acclimate the corals so that I don't bleach them out. I'm running two current USA marine orbit strips and a diy blue led light strip so I imagine that the primes will be a lot brighter. Any help would be appreciated




The more I think about it, I kind of don't want to spend $450 on two lights and the mounting arms if I don't have to haha. There is a full spectrum 165 watt chinese black box that is available from a Facebook group I'm in. I'm just not 100% sure I want to drop that kind of cash if I can get good results with the other light at less than half the price

 

Legitimate argument and reasoning. I think we all feel that way with stuff. Like I posted before in another thread, some of the Chinese fixtures seem to work very well and people seem to be happy with them. A lot of times it's probably the same or similar technology and parts used in the bigger commercial fixtures. I don't know how much they vary model to model so I can't really say how much better they are or if they would stack up to an AI/Radion/etc. See if you can find some first hand results and opinions.

Ecotech is offering 10% off on both Radions and AI models currently however if that may sway your decision one way or the other. Offer is good until Aug 31 so you have a little bit of time to decide. Would still be looking at $358 for the lights and ending up around $400 with the tank mount arms but you could also DIY a hanger out of conduit or something if you want to save cash.

Just letting you know, to make the decision harder of course. Them marking down the lights signals to me that something new may be about to come out. They do the same thing with the Vortech pumps, all of the products are MAP prices so when you see them drop it's very uncommon and usually tells us something new is on the horizon.

 

If you look on Facebook for "chinese black box proof group" they have tons of pictures from people who have had good luck with these lights. They have a group but set up with that group and have worked with a manufacturer in China to build a light that has a good full spectrum.
The only big difference that I see is that the primes have uv bulbs and the chinese boxes don't. I'm not sure how much of a difference that makes

 

I just bought one of the Chinese lights so hopefully this works out. It was 133 including shipping, so I'm going to buy a much needed protein skimmer with what I saved

 

I bought a reef octopus bh-1000 from amazon last night. I have a 29 gallon tank, so I figured that it might be smart to have a skimmer that is rated for a larger tank than I have just as an insurance policy. Has anyone used this skimmer?

 

My chinese light arrived yesterday! It works really well. Full spectrum and all.

 

I just got the new AI Prime HD, I think it's more than enough for a 29.