Ai Vega - A Review (With Pictures)
 

Hello everyone, just wanted to share a review of the AI Vega.

I've been looking at changing my lighting out from T5 to LED for the past year, but hadn't found anything enticing enough to move me over. After exhaustive research I had narrowed it down to two fixtures. The Maxspect Razor or the AI Vega. After hearing a string of negative reviews from vendors and hobbyists alike, I decided to pass on the Razor and picked up the Vega.

First a little background.

I am currently running a 50G (36X18X18) rimless aquarium. Tank has been running for about 2 years now, and ran a single TEK 4 bulb fixture. I ran 3 ati blue bulbs and one new gen coral light (14K). I always found that T5 lighting (especially the blue) washed out the colors in the tank, and it always looked "inky" to me. For flow I am running two mp10's in ecosmart mode, which an ac110 for filtration. Aqua C Remora for a skimmer.

When choosing an LED fixture I wanted to go with something that was close to full spectrum to bring out as much pop from my corals as possible, as I've read about alot of unhappy LED users complaining that their corals loosing color over time. I also wanted to choose something that wouldn't have too much "disco" effect.

I have to say all in all, I am very impressed with the light so far. It has been running for 3 weeks now and in all my years of reefkeeping, I havent seen my corals react to anything as possitively or quickly as changing from the T5's to the LED.

When I first hung the fixture and fired it up I felt the light almost looked dim. But after a week I quickly realized that it definetly was not dim, but that the tank no longer looked washed out. The light is for sure much more focused and as such doesn't spill out everywhere making it look incredibly bright, but it is REALLY bright where it counts... In the tank.

I chose to pick up one fixture for the time being and see how it does, and as I said above, so far am impressed. I have it hung about 9 inched above the water, and feel I have adequate coverage, with dimming only being slightly noticeable in the top corners. To compensate I re-aquascaped to have most of my rockwork in the center of the tank.

Setting up the light with the new wireless controller was a breeze, and am currently running a 10:00 am sunrise with 3 hour ramp and sunset begining at 8pm for total shutdown at 11:00pm. For intensities I am running all channels at 100% except the whites which run at 85% max, this achieved the color I am happiest with. Alot of Vega users say that with the red and green channels maxed it creates disco, but I cannot see it, the only place I notice separation of the green and red is areas of very deep shadow. Perhaps if you had alot of high rockwork with big overhangs it would be noticeable, but it really doesn't bother me.

As far as coral health, well I've never seen my corals happier, or more colorful, polyp exension where there was none, and growth like you wouldn't believe. Some may be asking if I changed my T5's regularly, and yes I was faithful at changing them out every 8-10 months.

My only complaint thus far is that when my light is cooling off in the evening the fan get noisy for about a minute as it begins to idle down, and I am currently talking with AI to resolve this. Time will tell how the corals fare in the long term and I will keep updating as time allows. On a final note, I do think I will eventually add a second fixture, just to fill the tank out more, not so much for extra brightness. That being said here are some photos of the tank with the Vega. These are comepletly unedited photos, with the white balance set so that it acurately reflects what the eye sees. Thank you for reading this and enjoy!

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8235/8...8b1a6221_c.jpg
IMG_0121 by rstar26, on Flickr

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8087/8...ecef4812_c.jpg
IMG_0157 by rstar26, on Flickr

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8474/8...50bb5a7a_c.jpg
IMG_0165 by rstar26, on Flickr

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8467/8...556fa5b7_c.jpg
IMG_0146 by rstar26, on Flickr

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8046/8...37eaec1a_c.jpg
IMG_0169 by rstar26, on Flickr

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8085/8...b6771744_c.jpg
IMG_0172 by rstar26, on Flickr

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8194/8...d14f3651_c.jpg
IMG_0115 by rstar26, on Flickr

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8224/8...4c91fb2e_c.jpg
IMG_0131 by rstar26, on Flickr

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8049/8...9b525893_c.jpg
IMG_0145 by rstar26, on Flickr

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8504/8...618d0e2a_c.jpg
IMG_0142 by rstar26, on Flickr

Pictures look amazing! Whatever you are doing, its working!

tanks looks amazing man , now you need my deltec 500 skimmer on there to really clean the water and take out the remora pro. lol:lol:

Looks good, although I'm confused about one of the reasons you chose the fixture that relate to "not too much disco". My impressions of the Vega color is that it's pretty much the worst fixture when it comes to this effect, curious which fixtures you passed on for this reason. You can actually even see the effect clearly in the pictures. Also be careful not to run the lights too high, most of those corals have low light requirements and the AI units use pretty narrow optics that can create hot spots and burn sensitive corals.

If you like disco ball effect you bought the right light for sure

As I stated above, the two main fixtures I was considering were the Maxspect Razor, and the Vega. I was also considering the Mazzara P and the SOL. I nixed the SOL because I wanted the additional color right away, and the Mazzara because my brother has had a lot of problems with his. The budget I had set for myself was around $800. After numerous PM's from various vendors and hobbyists alike mentioning a very bad effect that the Razor gives, and the fact that it is not modular I decided against it. I'll admit the only fixture I had seen myself was the Mazzara. I largely relied on fellow hobbyist advise, as I'm sure you can vouch first hand that the availability of most of these lights, even to just view is fairly limited in Saskatoon.

I'll also admit that I have very limited experience in any LED lighting, so my perception of what is and is not disco could be out to lunch, but to my eyes, I really cannot see much distinction between the red and green, more so the white and blue, but I don't find it unappealing in any way. The camera may be better picking up the separation, and I imagine if I ran an overflow which would greatly increase the surface agitation, this effect may become more pronounced.

Ultimately my choice came down to quality (AI from my research released a quality product, with good support) Spectrum without having to modify, price, and finally support, as this fixture was available locally, and I could have that backing. I've learned to value Baysides recommendations over the years and so decided to go this route.

The recommended height for this fixture is about 5" AWL and I am running it at 9" to get the spread over the whole tank. I am watching the corals closely and have not notice any burning or anything yet.

I hope this answered some of you questions, and thanks for reading!

A very controversial line hihi ;)

Not everyone can see the disco in various fixtures. Some fixtures are more proned to this separation than others but is still dependant on the person. Also, some people simply don't mind the disco/separation despite it being visible.

For example, most people can not see the disco effect with the new GHL Mitras so they will simply say it is not there. Well, perhaps to their eyes it's not because they don't see it, but that doesn't mean it's not there :-) I can clearly capture it with my camera much like you've captured it here with your camera and I am one of the few people who can see the separation on that fixture as well.

At the end of the day, if the light looks good to you, that's all that matters regardless of what people say about disco infernos.

Hmm, never put 2 & 2 together on this, but you've sparked an idea. Most people can't notice visibly anything faster than 60 frames per second -- which is also the point where most camera's stop motion from blurring (with the correct ISO obviously).

I also have 2 Vega's and can't notice disco ball effect (even with Red+Green at 100%) with my eyes, but my plain camera does easily...

I'll put my D200 onto the tripod later and play with exposures to find out where the camera can (and then can not) see the disco effect...


I'm sure that the people who notice the disco effect have a higher or lower internal frame rate in their retina's -- It'll be curious as to which it is :D

People say they cant see it with the GHL because they dont wanna see it. They're justifying the price they paid for them.

I love how it looks, the photos are incredible.

no doubt the tank looks great as do your photos. I'm curious as to whether your own eyes see your green toadstool for example as the camera did with the purple areas. obviously the toadstool has no purple in it.

I think the purple hues in the flesh is brought out by the "deep blue" light and is a tone that is in the coral itself, as to the eye the coral does appear that way. I have a close up of it on my pc at home and will post it tonight"

edit: It could also be caused by some shadowing. Ill investigate tonight and report back.

obviously i'm a moron then lol. that's one sweet looking toad!

It is a pretty incredible piece, and my favourite in the tank!

"vendors and hobbyists alike mentioning a very bad effect that the Razor gives"

I have ordered this light (not paid for) and I am interested to know what you heard and what bad effect it gives?

Thanks, I was just curious on the reasoning since you mentioned it. The reliability of AI products seems to be really good so it's an obvious choice if the so called disco effect isn't something that bothers you. While a Radion might have a nicer effect and better programming at the end of the day the reliability just isn't there, so given your budget I think you made a decent choice, especially since you could add another one if needed with going to much over.

It seems like you can notice the "disco" coloration in the sand bed... I could be wrong but i noticed it right away. Doesnt look bad though and your tank looks beautiful

Disco effect is caused when different colored LEDs are spread out on the fixture.

So when one color is shadowed by something, another color appears in the shadow from a different angle. The reason radions have less of this is because they've only got 2 picks and the LEDs are clustered close together.

I think this is more an anomaly of the camera capturing it because it is not as noticeable to the naked eye. Also When I took these pictures there was some cyano in the sand which is highlighted by the red LED's.

I was told from multiple reputable sources that the color separation is terrible with this fixture, and that on paper the specs look great but in application are really terrible. Also the clusters have all the LEDs on a single board so if one goes you need to replace the whole board. The price point is nice for this fixture, but I decided modularity (is that a word) and better spectrum outweighed price. AI's new controller is also excellent and offers many options.

I would just say make sure you see a tank running the Razor before you purchase one. I find the light output to be very low. Its a very small fixture. Having said that it might be fine on smaller shallow tanks.

Question about the controller
 

I am looking at buying a couple of these fixtures but am a little weary. I heard from that if the controller loses communication with the fixture the light will turn on 100%. Have you had any problems with this?

They resolved this 'feature' many many months ago with a firmware update. The current firmware works really well. I have now 2 vegas and 10 hydras, and 4 controllers. (not all in use, and some are going to a buddy's house), but I'm very happy with the product!

I have been running the maxspect razor 160w version , I actually really like this fixture. I switched over from HOT5 . The tank I run it on is 36x20x20 I run it 6inches above the tank the light covers my whole tank no dark spot's, and I only run it at %50white and %70blue and I get more than enough light. Also a local fish store here was running a maxspcet razor and a radion gen2 light , and he has now fully switched over to maxspect. Just my 2 cents. I would buy another maxspect over the radion , just from seeing them both on a tank at the same time I preferred the look of the razor. It's only $100 difference so not a big deal for me. However going to try the kessil pendant light looks pretty nice.

Also tank looks great :biggrin:

Thanks for the quick response Craig.

Nice tank. How about an update.

I like your bi color angel I had one a few months ago but it never ate

Hello Everyone! It's been a long time since I've been on here so I thought I would post some update shots. It's been nearly a year since I got the LED fixture and I am still greatly enjoying it.

I've really been slacking on tank maintenance for the last 6 months as I've been busy with work and my kids, but am reconnecting with the hobby. I've been battling a bubble algae outbreak for a while now so please don't mind it.

The leathers are looking angry because I fragged them a few days ago but are healing well.

As for the light, all the corals I have are doing great. The most notable change is with the birdsnest which was just a tiny frag on Jan 24 of last year, it's now roughly the size of a softball. I am still debating adding a second light however I don't feel like the tank is missing out on anything without it. Any questions please do not hesitate to ask.

Full Tank from Jan 2013
http://i.minus.com/jfzv8TJ9rMpGN.jpg

Full Tank Dec 2013
http://i.minus.com/jbquvrAd2XLnNR.jpg

Birdsnest from Jan 2013
http://i.minus.com/j3TfbUtgzSXt2.jpg

Birdsnest Dec 2013
http://i.minus.com/jbz39BqX5rHbqp.jpg

A few other random shots.

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