aqua illuminations vs acan

all other things being equal, does anyone have a preference for aqua illuminations vs acan led lighting systems?

Welcome to the site! I'm not sure on those systems. Do you have a link that shows them? there's a lot of ppl here that are way more experienced than I am with lighting.

I'm not sure either, but I've been wanting to try an AI setup.

Pete

Can you please link to which unites your thinking of. Each of those brands have a few different models so we need to know what your looking at so we can do an apples to apples comparison

Pete!!!

Can you also tell us a little about your setup so we can advise you better??

one difference is that if you want additional light, AI makes it easy, but since acans are in a fixture, cannot do. and i'm unsure if acans are hangable. one of the pluses on AI is that to clean or get a top down view, all you need to do is pull the hanging element away. i love my AI's. obvious??

thanks to all for responding. i'm comparing the ai super sol blue to the acan 104, which are shown and displayed on the respective websites (apologies for not linking, i'm up against an appt) i'm setting up a 150 gallon reef tank thats 48" long, 31" tall and 24" wide

Yikes! the acan 104 in 48" is about $2000! The AI is around $600 and for a 48" tank you would need two units. If we compare them as one acan to two AI's then they both use about the same amount of power (150+- watts). The acan also has 2/3 with and 1/3 blue leds of unknown brand (at least i couldnt find what brand) so if you like the blue look i dont think this is the one. On the other hand the acan with all the white leds will probably give higher PAR numbers then the AI's but is that really needed? The AI also has really nice control options, i dont know what you can do with the acan light.

If it were me picking between the two i would pick the AI's and the cheaper price would even allow you to get three of the AI's for less money the one acan.

i thought i was going to need 4 AIs @ 12" each such that the AI's would be more expensive. is that not right?

first off: pete! glad you found us!

not sure that you'd need 4..............anyone else better suited to answer Pete on this one wanna chime in?

Aqua Illuminations SOL LED Lighting :LED Lighting Systems

thanks for all the nice welcomes

here's a link to the units. since they're 12" i thought (and the shop i'm working with said) that i'd need four of the units to the left side near the bottom of the link

Your not going to need 4 of them. On a 4 foot tank two should be just fine. Paul (shmoliken) has two over a 75 (4') and they cover nicely.

so the additional width and depth in my 150 won't need more than on Paul's 75?

If the unites are centered (from front to back) on your 150 then thats only 3" on each side more then a 75. Each unit should easily cover 2 sq feet. The only way that i think you would need 4 units is if you were only going to keep high light SPS and even then i think that would be over kill.

If your willing to plunk down the cash for four of them then why dont you try 2 first and if your not getting the coverage you think you need then buy a third and see if that helps.

thanks again. a lot of consistent feedback suggesting that 2 AIs might be a better way to go vs 1 acan

well a correction. i HAD 2 over my 75 tank, then got a 3rd, arranged to suit my rockwork like this
-- I I
one vetical, and two horiz, over the main clam area. BUT the lights are 13 " above the water. my par is about 125 on the sand bed. i'd certainly say that 3 could work in your setup. maybe 6" above and a wider lens. call them, and tell them you don't want 4.
later on, get another if needed. btw, par at water level is over 900

Didnt know you added a third one Paul

yeah, tax refund,lol. i actually felt that with extra clams that it would be a good idea. i don't think it makes a difference in the spread as much as the intensity over the clams, as i had only a few shady spots using 2. love 3 though! i'd use 2 over a 3 foot tank.

Wow Paul, 3 ! thats a ton of light. did you have anything looking "under-lit" that made you go with a third? My neighbor is interested in leds over a 90 build, but whoa, would it need 3 Ai,s ? that would be around 2k right? ouch

hmmmmmmmmmm..........I still might go with 2 to start out............are you planning on adding a lot of clams or a lot of high-light sps Pete?