Any Feedback on AI Vegas

[reefs4life]

Hey guys, I was considering switching out my LEDs for something new and I was looking into AIs. I like the fact that they are American made of course but I am not impressed with their new fixture, at least from what I see in terms of LEDs. The AI Sols seem like a far better choice for my size tank. The Vegas don't seem like they offer much for a larger tank and I had the assumption that the Vegas were going to be like Sols but with the added colors and such. Unfortunately it doesn't seem to be that way since there are only 4 white LEDs (which is what throws me off the most) and just 20 total LEDs. Now I know that the whites are not going to be all the light but when you think about it they are the ones producing the bulk of the light. Yes there are 16 other LEDs but I don't see how they can provide the same amount of light as their Sols, unless they weren't designed to be better. Plus, to have just 20 LEDs on a $500 fixture don't seem very ideal in my eyes. Regardless of all that I have stated I would still like to see and hear what people have to say about these new lights.

 

[tosiek]

People should just be receiving them this week. You won't see reviews or good feedback for at least a few months.

The white LED's on the Sol are a much better LED. The Vega white LED's are XM-L LED's putting out double the lumens of the standard XP-G whites they had before on the SOL. I forgot exactly the relationship, but with the power output and lumen jump, the 4x XM-L whites outperform the 8x XP-G whites. I haven't checked the other LED's that they added to see where they got their power jump from 75W on the SOL to 95W on the Vega.

Also, with this fixture or any of the new "color" fixtures your getting more "usable" light as far as spectrum/wavelength go. All in all better over the SOL's or any of the white/blue fixtures.

I've yet to see any good par graphs on the Vega's so I can't tell you if par ratings match but I do hear that par readings do become a little inaccurate when your dealing with the green and red LED's as well as some of the blue wavelengths. It shows less PAR but has a much better usable light factor so your seeing less par but getting more out of the light.

 

[masterswimmer]

The new Vega's are not designed for deeper tanks. They will have less par at the same depth than the Sol's put out. The Vega's are designed more for tanks 20" and shorter.

Russ