Coralife Aqualight Pro

[Justin]

I picked up one of the new Coralife Aqualight Pro fixtures. 2x150W HQI w/ 2x96W actinic & 3x1W Moonlight.

The unit construction is top notch. The components are easy to acess should the need arise, and the included legs are awesome. Albiet a pia to install. This fixture is easily on the same level as the AquaMedic fixtures, if not better.

The light is a crisp white, just as I wanted, and it is more intense then any 175W Mogul on the market, and I have tried pretty much everything.

At the end of the day, these fixtures are well worth the purchase. Anyone considering any 175W mogul fixture should give these fixtures serious consideration.

The only negative I have with them is the placement of the moonlights. The center one is not on center, as most tanks have a center brace there. However because it is off center, and there is no bulb in the same spot on the other side of the fixture, the moonlight does case an uneven glow. This could easily be remedied via adding a single moonlight into a position that puts light into the dim area however, this may make the tank too bright. I may just end up unplugging the third moonlight anyways, leaving the two on each end to do the duty. 3W is starting to get bright as it is.

I will post back here in a bit as an update.

[Justin]

After the burn in period, there was a slight loss of intensity as one would expect with any bulb. However the spectrum has remained unchanged!! Seems like some great quality bulbs. I will post back long term to keep people posted.

[aznufo]

u use photometer for the intensity? what exactly were the lumen-values?

[robbyville]

hi Justin,

Great info, and thanks! I have always used my actinics for pseudo "moonlight", what is the difference, is it simply intensity?

Thanks again!

Rob

[Justin]

To measure the light I used the light meter on my digital camera. I can't remember the exact values now, but the loss was slight. Less then SE bulbs, by far.

As far using Actinics for moonlight, I would worry about it being to intense. The 3 LEDS are nothing compared to the actinics.

[Orion80]

i have the same unit and all my corals even sps just love it
also looks cool, but has anyone figured out a way to hang the unit properly instead of useing the legs, makes it a real pain in the but to get in my tank.

adie

[Justin]

They make a hanger system that is retractable on aircraft cable. Looks nice!

[Salty Steve]

I also have this unit, and I like it but was told after I bought it that I could not keep SPS because the 150's were not intense enough. Has anyone tried SPS with this fixture? If so what kind and what results?

[Justin]

If you keep Montipora digitata and other easy ones, you will be good.

[AJ_77]

Depends on how deep your tank is Steve - what size do you run? You can always get creative with coral placement and make the best of it, and hang the fixture as close to the water as you can get away with. There was a 75gal tank of Evan's running 2x150 DE and it was one of the best-looking tanks around - loads of nice SPS. I'll see if I still have a picture.

Here it is, the one on the left. :biggrin:

http://members.shaw.ca/reefs/2tanks_collage.jpg

[wayner]

That was the unit I sold Evan, Aqualine Busche Aquaspacelight, 2 150 10K HQI with 2 24W Actinics, I had no problems at all keeping color in my sps, clams did great, everything did great, why did I sell it, cause I'm stupid!, had to try the latest & greatest thing at the time the RADIUM.

I think I remember Nate at Big Al's telling me that Coralife is working on a 250W DE unit.

[Griffin]

Heya - just a question on bulb setup - i picked up the 72" model with 3x150W HQI w/ 4x96W actinic & 5x1W Moonlights. They work awesome. Would it be benificial to change two of the actinics to 2 10000k 96watt pc's???????? That way i could shut off the HQI's and run just the pc's before the moonlights come on. Do the HQI's require that much in actinics?? Just looking for an opion - cheers and thanks guys

Rich

[Griffin]

Anyone have an opinion on the above question - taking out two of the bulbs to put in 96w 10000k bulbs. ????????? :biggrin:

[trilinearmipmap]

Can anyone tell me about light spillage with these units?

If it is mounted with the legs on top of the tank, how much light spills over and causes "glare" into the room around it?

Also does anyone have the front-to-back dimensions?

With the legs, how do they work, is there a way to move the fixture up or back out of the way to work on the tank?

[Griffin]

Sorry - i can't tell you about spillage of light as i mounted mine inside a canopy after cutting out air flow holes to match the ones on the unit. The 72" is 72"Lx15"Wx2.75"H - the only thing that changes on the dimensions is the length - width and height are the same on all. The legs can only be moved the length of the unit for positioning on your tank - no side to side or back and forth and i guess for access you would have to remove it or get the cable hangers that is also available. Sure you can't see mine in the canopy but it made life easy for mounting, access to tank and a plug and play unit is all i had time for - Hope this helps
Have a Great New Year all

Cheers
Rich

[GregJ]

Hey Justin, I was thinking of getting the 48"coralife . Do you have any pics of your tank so I can see what it looks like?

Thanks

[sumpfinfishe]

I recently asked a LFS rep there opinion on the pro setup. There reply was that it was a nice system but it does have one major fault.
The housing in which the MH's are kept in have very poor ventilation, this is running the bulbs much hotter than they were intended for. After just a short time on the market, people are returning these units due to increased yellowing of the bulbs, which is most likely from the high heat exposure.
It's too bad that Coralife didn't study this design a little more :confused:

[Carl]

Hey Justin (or anyone), what is the update on your aqualight pro? I was thinking of going that route but sumpfinfishe's post has me concerned.

[s dubay]

I just purchased one anyways,even though i read the post and thought good and hard about it.I came to the conclusion on researching these lights on numerous boards that this is THE ONLY negative comment i have read on these lights.I set mine up 2 days ago and my xenia started to pump for the first time in 3 months also my ricordia got HUGE.This light kicks a**.I would highly recomend it to anybody.

[s dubay]

Also forgot to mention that i am using the legs that come with it so it is about 3 1/2 inchs above my tank and it only raises my temp 1/2 degree throughout the day,i am very happy about that.

[Justin]

Rich,

Don't believe everything you hear. This Aqualight unit has a fan, and that is more then I can say for Giesemann or Aquamedic, some of the industry's most acclaimed fixtures. I don't see how this unit could run hotter then those without a fan. I would go back and talk to your friend and ask him how many units he has sold, my guess would be not many, he sure dosen't sound like he knows what he is talking about. I guess he has never seen an AquaMedic or Giesemann in action. They are WAY hotter then Coralife fixtures. DE are designed to run hot, they burn out and lose spectrum fast if you cool them strongly. This unit actually runs cooler then some other manufactures PC only fixtures. If anything they would have cooled it too much.

Too bad you formed a negative opinion based on falsehoods...