Aqua Illumination SOL super blue- Controller set up

Hello again,
Today's episode is about the controller set-up. This is the most important part of your light installation as the controller is what really gives you the ultimate power to control and customize the color, timing, and even weather effect of your reef tank.
Drs. Foster and Smith will ship this new controller if you order it along with the light.

Controller basics: left square is select/enter, right square is escape/back
Up and Down arrow allow you to go through items
left and right arrow allow you to adjust attribute/value in these items.

Caution: Don't plug in the fixture until you have this set up, the fixture will run at its full intensity until this controller is programmed to link to it. I recommend you set all lights at 50% intensity and then increase/decrease as needed after you have connected them.

Step 1 is lighting. You can choose to go to the custom lighting set up to set the hourly color % of each light. Or you can cheat and do a simple set up by designate a sunrise and sunset time. The ramp time is a cool feature no other lights can offer- mimic sunset or sunrise in a slow-progressive way.

After pressing enter, you will come to this screen. You can choose the amount of energy you want to dedicate to each of the three colors offered in SOL super blue. You can also choose the % of light in the nite/lunar mode. I choose 3% royal and 1% blue to give it a slightly brighter look.

Or you can also pick the light condition to resemble some of the world's most famous tropical waters ranging from Fiji to Great Barrier Reef, Florida Keys to the Philippines.

If you keep arrow down on the main select menu, you will come to screen#2, the cloud icon is for weather effects.

You can "test drive" it  by start now. And you can set the chances of severe weather to happen, how often, and the time range it will take place. You can also choose to have lightning or not. If you are sitting in your room you can tell the storm is coming when all of a sudden all lights dims down to deep blue, to mimic heavy cloud.

The lunar cycle is another cool feature to allow your tank as natural of a light experience as it can.

Once you set up the lunar cycle, your tank will actually go through the cycle by having a few brightest nights with some totally dark nights to mimic the lunar cycle.

If your previous lighting system is less intense than this light, you can use the coral acclimation program to gradually increase the intensity of your light to where you eventually want it to be.

Now, to actually activate all of your settings, you must choose which light and what channel your fixture will be one (if you have multiple units) This controller can be use to control AI vega wirelessly, Sol and Nano with wire or wirelessly with an adopter sold separately.

Besure to pick the correct unit for your setting to function properly. You can now plug in your fixture to see it lit up, and make any necessary adjustment now.

Aqua Illumination Sol Super Blue LED Part 1

I finally did it! spent $500 on this new lighting system! The Aqua Illumination Sol Super Blue LED

I was trying to cut corner and being cheap when I first set up my 92 Corner. I bought the cheapest Metal Halide+T5 system available online at that time- The Odyssea from Aquatraders.com.
Don't get me wrong, I got exactly what I paid for- not a whole lot of coral growth and not so pretty color.

So I then bought some LED system try to make the color "pop"
The color looked a lot better after that but the coral growth was still painfully slow.
So then I decided it's time to step into the 21st century.

I first saw this fixture at the local aquarium store. They hung four Ai Sol super blue over their coral frag tanks and the color looked amazing. I then did some research and read some reviews online then decided to give it a shot.

Placed the order on Drs. Foster & Smith online pet supply store. The order was placed late Saturday night and even with standard ground shipping I received it Tuesday morning. I am very pleased with the shipping time.

The coolest part of this light is the ability to program sunrise, sunset, lunar cycle, and weather. So the controller is a must (see above). I will go over details of the controller and its functions in my next post.

The controller looks like of like an old generation ipod nano. It comes with a simple velcro and screw so you can mount it near the tank. The power cord comes with a USB cable and adopter. My only complain is the connection between the USB cable and adopter is rather loose. So you must make sure all components remain stable and that no one trips over the cords or it'll just fall off.

The light is surprisingly a bit heavier than I thought, and also larger when compare to the photos online. I do like its sleek design, it definitely add value to the overall appearance of the tank. The hanging kit is optional, depends on how many units you are purchasing and how is your aquarium cabinet built, you might be able to skip it since the fixture itself does come with screws that can conveniently offer easy hanging option.

Alright guys, I will save the best for last. Tomorrow I will go over how to program and set up this light over the tank, and then I will wrap up the final post with some awesome photos to show off what this light can do.

Hungry Rosy Bubble Tip Anemone

Hungry RBTA

Although my RBTA has been doing fairly well including splitting and growing, they seems to be always very hungry despite the every other day meal of a whole dinner shrimp.

I am debating to upgrade my light just for them. But again I do like the flow in the water look versus the stubby little bubbly tentacles (even though that's what most people get them for).

Jumbo Duncan Coral

The Largest Duncan Coral I've ever seen is right here in my fish tank. Duncan coral (Duncanopsammia axifuga) has become very popular in the aquarium trade recently. Not only it is pretty to look at, it is also very easy to maintain, grows fast, and can be readily propagated with little to no effort. I have originally purchased my three head duncan from the local aquarium store, each polyp at the size of 1 inch across. That remained true for a short while. The duncan coral has grown to be a monster after about eight months in my fishtank. It has grown a few more heads since then. The most important part, each head has ballooned to be at least 3 inches across each with long sweeper tentacles up to 4 inches. 

Most people thought it is a colony of anemones before I explained what it is to them. I keep my duncan under 250W metal halide with 2X24W Actinic T5, 2X24W Colormax T5, and 2 strips of 12W Magenta and 420nm LED with moderate water flow. The one thing I have to say though, I feed each head half a shrimp (the kind you eat in your dinner) weekly, and they LOVE it! The only maintenance I have to do is actually trimming the sweeper tentacle that stings the surrounding corals. I use my metal tongue to just "snip" the extra long ones off.