AI Lighting review for 2021

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 Hi friends! 


Today I am going over Aqua Illumination's current lineup of lighting. Their flagship products, the AI Prime and the Hydra 32 HD, are one of the most popular in the hobby and for good reason. 


There are very few differences between the two products. The Hydra 32HD is essentially 2 AI Primes housed in one body. The AI Prime has 16 LEDs per puck while the Hydra has 32. The only other difference I could notice is the blue and UV channels on the primes are a little bit weaker. As in, when I had all of the lighting programmed to the same intensity and color, the Primes needed the blue and UV higher in order to reach the same effects. All in all, it was not a big deal and does not change the rating on the product.

 

Coral growth- 10/10

Coral coloration -10/10

Ease of use - 7/10

Quality - 9/10

Price. - 7/10

Total: 43/50


I rate these lights really high. It grows coral really well if you program it to the proper spectrum. The coral look absolutely beautiful under the lighting. It makes a lot of fluorescent coral "pop". The quality on the units are very sound as well. My only gripe with quality is I do not feel like the mounting equipment are up to par. 

The main cons I have with the unit are the ease of use and the price. The app mostly works, but I have encountered some annoying bugs that have caused me to put a lot of hours into fixing the schedule. It could benefit from a better UI and easier controls. I need my phone held sideways to expand everything and still it is too small sometimes. The price is great if you compare it to other units in the market. It tends to be cheaper than most high end LEDs. But everything in the reefing community is marked really high to begin with. Setting you back $200 per puck seems hard to digest if you are getting into the hobby. Companies can do much better about making this hobby better. I feel like pricing should be a key focus on the next line up.

-FFF

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