Any AI Hydra users?

[koa25]

So I am debating between getting some more Sol Blues or trying the Hydras. Or if the Vegas are worth the plunge. Is anyone running the Hydras. I know Zack was talking about making the swap. Anyone actually do it? I'd like to hear ajy hands on experience with them. Greatly appreciated.

[Scutterborn]

Tagging along.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk 2

[Zack]

My two shipped today so I'll let you know how i like them!

[koa25]

Cool. Appreciated Zack. They have frosted lenses to help diffuse light and have less of a disco effect and all the lenses are 80 degrees right? Am I reading that right? How is the frosted lenses going to effect par?

[Zack]

I don't have a par or a vega so I won't be able to tell you that answer for sure, but yes, they will reduce disco effect. There is a picture on reef geek I believe of a peice of paper under sol, vega, and hydra, and the hydra has a much better color rendering then the vega and sol. The new lenses are the same TIR lens type used by the radion G2 and radion pro and those lenses help get more par out of the fixture (somewhere around 15% if I remember reading correctly).

The one thing I don't like about the hydra is it uses the sol heatsink, which is pretty lame in y opinion. This won't affect me but it will affect people who have the EXT rail system (new version) as the vega heatsink has slots to fit the EXT system perfectly.

After talking to there tech support guy there are a bunch of awesome things they fixed from the old controller to the new one, but as for the unit itself, there aren't much reviews online, here's the best one I saw:

http://www.3reef.com/forums/led-aquarium-lighting/upgraded-ai-sol-superblue-hydra-147953.html

I'm going to post a much better review when I get mine, as I know there are a ton of people who are curious about the unit.

[koa25]

Appreciate the input and I look forward to your review for sure. Seems like the par readings are half of what the sol does from what I can gather. Would you mind sticking a meter under it and getting some numbers? I know the the benefits of a fuller spectrum won't be present in the par readings. But still a good way to judge. Guess they are offering 50 degree lens for more punch where needed. Definitely keep us posted.

And my response:

Thanks for the speedy response!

Were the par graphs given using all 40 degree lenses? I know my SOLs have 4x 40 on the center and 4x 70 degree lenses?


Also, does the frosting affect par at all? I know these are the TIR lenses, which I thought increased par, but I'm curious as to how the lenses frosting affects the par output.

[Zack]

Yeah man, I'll try and get a par meter for that!

I emailed justin at ai about the lower par numbers on the hydras page (about half the par of the sols) and here's what he said:

Hey Zach,


The PAR on the Hydra is actually pretty good. It isn't by any means as much as the Sol but that is given with the lenses that are used. The sol has 40 degree lenses, however the hydra has all 80 degree optics which create more spread and even distribution. On a 28" tall or less aquarium, the hydra is the light of choice in my opinion.

Sent from my iPhone

[ramsey]

I had four sol white's over my 185G and got PAR numbers. The PAR was VERY high, overkill IMO. I suspect that even though the numbers will be lower, they'll still be more than sufficient. Given the choice, I'd gladly take a full spectrum light with more spread over high PAR numbers. I have SOL whites, blues and a radion pro. The full spectrum of the radion adds A LOT more than I got with the SOL's.