Thursday, June 20, 2013

AI Hydra versus Vega

The long-awaited AI Hydra LED lights have finally arrived. Was able to borrow an AI Vega for comparison. The Hydra's LED mix has a wider spectrum with violet and UV LED's added while losing the  couple of higher-spectrum blue LED's and a couple of royal blues. Additionally,  the center white LED is a 3W on the Hydra versus 5W on the Vega. The lens on the Hydra is also textured for better color blending. There are numerous other differences as well... including a $100 cheaper price tag; which I definitely like.
From my understanding, the Vega better simulates a shallow reef being that it's brighter and has higher-spectrum LED's: which makes the it better for SPS tanks. The Hydra with it's violet and UV LED's better simulates a deeper reef and should work great for mix-reefs.
On to the review... I really like these new lights. Being one that LOVES blue-color lighting and fluorescing corals, I am really enjoying the addition of the deeper-spectrum LED's. They sure do a great job making the corals GLOW! The Vega's lens does give the light a sharper look, but I must say that I have a strong preference for the Hydra's LED mix. Both lights do cause a noticeable 'disco effect' on the sand bed
: even with the lights being about 11" above the water level. I think my strong surface agitation contributes quite a bit towards that issue. Personally, I don't really care for the red and green LED's: they will never be used at more than 25% and I think it further worsens the 'disco effect'. Instead of having white/red/green LED's, I would have preferred a simple mix of warm and cool white LED's (like what are on the MaxSpect Razors). It has only been a few days but so far the corals are responding very well and I am very happy with the new lights. Time will tell how they fair with the more sensitive acroporas.
The AI Rail Kit is a great idea, but poorly executed. The short legs included were fairly useless. With 3 fixtures over a 5-foot tank, I was getting A TON of shadowing and very poor coverage. I guess they don't really expect anyone to use the legs. Since I didn't want to hang the lights, I decided to fabricate a set of mounts to elevate the fixture by about 8". I am pretty happy with the way they turned out: aesthically and functionally.

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