AI Sol users - Share your %s and timer schedules

I just got my new AI Sol Super Blues this week and I'm overwhelmed (in a good way!) by the programability of the units. I just have no idea where to set my %s for each light and what kind of schedule I should be running, so I look forward to anyone that can share your experience with your Sols and what you're running them at, Thanks!

 

What kind of lights are you upgrading from? did you have a chance to make a PAR graph of your past setup? How many fixtures did you get over what dimensions tank. Also, what's your mounting height and did you swap any optics?


As a rule you wanted to start low and increase no more than 5% each week (I also extended time by a half hour every month to where I am now). You can easily bleach corals with AIs if you don't slowly acclimate.

I started at all 30% and over the course of the last 3 months I am now running RB 95% Blue at 70% and white at 85%. I ramp each up over a half hour starting at 2pm RB then 2:30 B and at 3 the white's power up so I'm running my Day setting by 3:30pm. At 10:30 my white phases out over a half hour then I leave a half hour to look then the Blue phases down at 11:30-12 then I leave a half hour to look and then from 12:30-1 RB ramps down to my nighttime setting (3%rb 1%b 0%w) currently I'm not utilizing the Weather profile and I control mine through an APEX.

If you cut the light blue down you will cut out more of the Windex look (where the tank looks like a bottle of windex lol)

 

Thanks for the info on how you have yours running, just looking for different options, the ai controller has 14 timers available so I guess I was just trying to get an idea of what all of these would be used for?

Here's a little more background- Mine are on a brand new tank so I have nothing that needs to acclimate to them (although I am kind of worried once I start stocking corals, will I need to acclimate from the lfs lights to mine?). The tank is 65g (36x24x18) and I have 2 units mounted ~10 inches above the water and I have not changed out any optics.

I have definitely noticed the "Windex" water, when I first plugged them in, the controller hadn't shipped yet, so they had the factory settings and I was like "Man are these blue... what did those people over at 3reef talk me into with the super blues??" now that I have the controller though I have cranked it down to be more aesthetically pleasing

 

At that height I wouldn't worry with swapping any optics. But you should be aware that the center of the light is tighter and causes a hotter spot. It's typically visible on the sand bed. So when you are placing corals, be aware of that.

The "windex" is the light blue led, the royal blue gives the most flouresence to your coral. I really like the look of my settings. I would say it's close to a 14K with some actinic supplementation.

You will need to acclimate the corals from buying new, what type of lighting does your LFS use and if you can find out there distributor. You can acclimate by either starting with the coral low in the tank and moving it up. Or if you buy a lot of corals all at once like I did, go ahead and start low and move the % up over a couple months.


14 timers could get eaten up pretty quick. 3 colors up and down is 6, night and late night could be 2 more, plus day settings.. and then if you get into have weird day ramps (for a while I had my white slowly ramp up during the day and then back down so the tank started dark blue and then all day ramped to a pretty yellow look then back down and never just sat at a certain color) It just gives you room to be creative... The thing for me when I used this setting was that I found times I like the tank the most and kept waiting for that time. In the end I just set it to that basic setting for the duration of the day timer. I have never used the AI controller so I'm assuming all of that is possible with it.

 

Keep in mind I like mine blue...

10:00 AM RB-50%, B-50%, W-25% -- 4 hour ramp up

4:00 PM RB-25%, B-20%, W -0 % -- 4 hour ramp "down"

8:00 pm RB-0%, B-0%, W-0% -- 2 hour ramp "down"

I Like the gradual ramp up to the 50,50,25. Then it stays like that for 2 hours, and drops down to "dusk" over 4 hours with the blues and no whites, and slowly ramps down for 2 hours until it turns off.

 

Wow that's really blue ! I definitely like more white, my first set up was :

8 to 11 0/0/0 to 25/20/20 180min ramp

11 to 12 25/20/20

12 to 1:30 25/20/20 to 85/70/80 90min ramp

1:30 to 2:30 85/70/80

2:30 to 6 85/70/80 to 50/30/40 240min ramp

6 to 8 50/30/40

8 to 9 50/30/40 to 15/30/30 60min ramp

9 to 9:30 15/30/30 to 0/10/10 30min ramp

9:30- 10 0/10/10 to 4/4/4 Lunar 30min ramp

And after researching and reading a little more (another forum has about 15 pages of peoples experiences) I simplified it a little so I don't burn out any corals I will need to acclimate and am now at :

8 to 12 35/30/30 240min ramp

12 to 2 35/30/30 2 to 6 20/15/15 240min ramp

6 to 10 8/6/6 240min 10 4/4/4 Lunar 15min ramp