Luxdium Replacement LED Pucks for AI Prime & Hydra

[luxdium]

Thank you for the detail! Although I have not owned the Hydra 26HD very long, that lens seems fine. It's the 32HD lenses (AI 16) which seem to suffer and it is understandable since they are much thinner, etc.

On a side note, my Gold pucks are arriving today, unexpectedly! So, I'll be upgrading this evening.

Have fun! Feel free to reach out if you need anything.

 

[SPS2020]

Update: received Gold Lux pucks for one Hydra 26HD. The no-nonsense, but eloquent packaging and personal handwritten note are top shelf. Directions are spot on, impeccable. The profiles are easy to download and install. Overall technical information well presented in color on hard copy. I could not ask for anything more.

The Hydra 26HD is next to a Hydra 32HD (modified Saxby profile) over a 36" Acropora dominant tank.

My other tank, 100g, has four Hydra 32HD's (modified Saxby profile) with ATI Blue Plus and ATI Actinic T5's (both at 40%). This is only relevant to provide info on the accustomed spectrum.

Regarding the Gold Lux puck spectrum, it is very white in comparison to what I run with my Hydra 32HD's (modified Saxby profile). There are four pre-configured profiles offered, IIRC. I tried each and currently have it running a modified Ultra Blue profile (whites are turned down to 80% with the light producing 63watts. I almost went with the Blue Lux puck at the last minute but held off as I was reminded it had very little white and I did not want a "Windex tank". In hindsight, I wish I had tried the Cyan as it may have provided a bit more energy without too much white. If @luxdium would provide FTS of the same tank with the three different puck configurations, I feel it would be extremely beneficial in determining which to choose. As it is, one has to look at different tanks and corals and make a choice, so it is not apples to apples. I hope sales go well for this amazing company as they have really done their research and provide great insight on their product (designed and assembled in USA) as well as detail on the OEM Hydra 26HD puck which far surpasses anything AI have provided to their consumers.

 

[luxdium]

Update: received Gold Lux pucks for one Hydra 26HD. The no-nonsense, but eloquent packaging and personal handwritten note are top shelf. Directions are spot on, impeccable. The profiles are easy to download and install. Overall technical information well presented in color on hard copy. I could not ask for anything more.

The Hydra 26HD is next to a Hydra 32HD (modified Saxby profile) over a 36" Acropora dominant tank.

My other tank, 100g, has four Hydra 32HD's (modified Saxby profile) with ATI Blue Plus and ATI Actinic T5's (both at 40%). This is only relevant to provide info on the accustomed spectrum.

Regarding the Gold Lux puck spectrum, it is very white in comparison to what I run with my Hydra 32HD's (modified Saxby profile). There are four pre-configured profiles offered, IIRC. I tried each and currently have it running a modified Ultra Blue profile (whites are turned down to 80% with the light producing 63watts. I almost went with the Blue Lux puck at the last minute but held off as I was reminded it had very little white and I did not want a "Windex tank". In hindsight, I wish I had tried the Cyan as it may have provided a bit more energy without too much white. If @luxdium would provide FTS of the same tank with the three different puck configurations, I feel it would be extremely beneficial in determining which to choose. As it is, one has to look at different tanks and corals and make a choice, so it is not apples to apples. I hope sales go well for this amazing company as they have really done their research and provide great insight on their product (designed and assembled in USA) as well as detail on the OEM Hydra 26HD puck which far surpasses anything AI have provided to their consumers.

Ultra Blue unmodified, has a wattage rating (as reported in myAI) of 76W and has whites at around 32%. Since the LEDs are a little more efficient and power is allocated differently, they'll draw about 73W, and depending on the fan and the light's WiFi connection state at those settings, there can be spikes of 1.5W power draw.

Not exactly sure how the whites could be reduced to 80% when they start at 32%... Perhaps 0.80*32% = 26%? Even with that, the reported wattage in myAI would be 75W.

Thanks for the tip, we can definitely improve on the comparison of the clusters on the site and we're actually working on something, but with phone cameras and even SLRs, what you see on a screen, although close, is not a 1:1 representation of what you see in person as even the smallest amount of blue light will overwhelm image sensors and cause the images to get oversaturated with blue. The extent of this even varies depending on the phone camera make. A possible solution to this is to shoot with an SLR in RAW and apply color corrections in a photo editing app but even with that, you're manipulating the final image and we'd like to avoid this as much as possible.

 

[Oregon Grown Reef]

Update: received Gold Lux pucks for one Hydra 26HD. The no-nonsense, but eloquent packaging and personal handwritten note are top shelf. Directions are spot on, impeccable. The profiles are easy to download and install. Overall technical information well presented in color on hard copy. I could not ask for anything more.

The Hydra 26HD is next to a Hydra 32HD (modified Saxby profile) over a 36" Acropora dominant tank.

My other tank, 100g, has four Hydra 32HD's (modified Saxby profile) with ATI Blue Plus and ATI Actinic T5's (both at 40%). This is only relevant to provide info on the accustomed spectrum.

Regarding the Gold Lux puck spectrum, it is very white in comparison to what I run with my Hydra 32HD's (modified Saxby profile). There are four pre-configured profiles offered, IIRC. I tried each and currently have it running a modified Ultra Blue profile (whites are turned down to 80% with the light producing 63watts. I almost went with the Blue Lux puck at the last minute but held off as I was reminded it had very little white and I did not want a "Windex tank". In hindsight, I wish I had tried the Cyan as it may have provided a bit more energy without too much white. If @luxdium would provide FTS of the same tank with the three different puck configurations, I feel it would be extremely beneficial in determining which to choose. As it is, one has to look at different tanks and corals and make a choice, so it is not apples to apples. I hope sales go well for this amazing company as they have really done their research and provide great insight on their product (designed and assembled in USA) as well as detail on the OEM Hydra 26HD puck which far surpasses anything AI have provided to their consumers.

Really glad you got the lights before I did. I am running the Hydra 32HD's with the BRS AB+ spectrum and I feel like they provide more than enough white. I purchased the Gold clusters as well for my Prime HD's that I use for supplemental peak lighting, but I was able to change my order to the Blue pucks since I am running the HD's with a full blue spectrum as of right now.

*Edit: I was going to get the Cyan, but I changed it to the Blue pucks after consulting with Luxdium.

 

[SPS2020]

Ultra Blue unmodified, has a wattage rating (as reported in myAI) of 76W and has whites at around 32%. Since the LEDs are a little more efficient and power is allocated differently, they'll draw about 73W, and depending on the fan and the light's WiFi connection state at those settings, there can be spikes of 1.5W power draw.

Not exactly sure how the whites could be reduced to 80% when they start at 32%... Perhaps 0.80*32% = 26%? Even with that, the reported wattage in myAI would be 75W.

I'll double check the profile and include screen grabs tomorrow.

 

[SPS2020]

Really glad you got the lights before I did. I am running the Hydra 32HD's with the BRS AB+ spectrum and I feel like they provide more than enough white. I purchased the Gold clusters as well for my Prime HD's that I use for supplemental peak lighting, but I was able to change my order to the Blue pucks since I am running the HD's with a full blue spectrum as of right now.

*Edit: I was going to get the Cyan, but I changed it to the Blue pucks after consulting with Luxdium.

I look forward to seeing how you like the Blue pucks. When I inquired with Luxdium about changing to Blue, they convinced me to stay with Gold (indicating there was almost no white). My gut told me Cyan from the onset. Oh well.

 

[luxdium]

I look forward to seeing how you like the Blue pucks. When I inquired with Luxdium about changing to Blue, they convinced me to stay with Gold (indicating there was almost no white). My gut told me Cyan from the onset. Oh well.

The ultimate choice between the three really comes down to how much white you prefer. If you want more full spectrum with a punch, Gold is your best option. If you prefer complete power to Blues with minimal white (ie. 10% white), then Blue. If you want something in the middle, then Cyan. Of the three, although Cyan comes the closest to replicating the Cyan spectral distribution of an ATI Blue Plus, this may not be desirable for those who prefer "a less Windex look," as the "Windex" blue colors begin at 480nm and end at 575nm. Perhaps personal aesthetic preferences bias this one way or another. Though, if the goal is to blend them in with existing lights (ie. a stock 32HD), Gold provides the most versatility. However, if you wish to use them as a supplement to bring out more fluorescence (by tuning them so they're mostly blue) as @Oregon Grown Reef mentioned in a PM, without much "Windex," then our Blue variants may be a better choice.

I understand this may be causing some confusion, so I'll measure various settings under a spectrometer and note how they compare.

 

[Oregon Grown Reef]

I look forward to seeing how you like the Blue pucks. When I inquired with Luxdium about changing to Blue, they convinced me to stay with Gold (indicating there was almost no white). My gut told me Cyan from the onset. Oh well.

I decided after I saw your post that I can easily use the 3 Hydra 32s to provide the white light since they're not even close to being maxed out. I can use the Blue clusters to provide supplemental peak lighting at a wider band of uv/blue spectrum. My thinking is as it also increases the par, it would a little more accurately mimic when the sun is at its highest point. I'm excited to try it out.

 

[Oregon Grown Reef]

 

[luxdium]

Here’s a little background of what makes an “ideal spectrum,” an overview of some popular settings in other lights, and our spectra:

Coral have a variety of photosynthetic and accessory pigments within their tissue which work to harvest light and even protect the tissue from oxidative stress. To deliver higher quality light, we must deliver light that covers their pigments’ absorption curves. While coral species and even individual specimens may have different optimal absorption curves, they all share a commonality in that the pigments of greatest concentration are chlorophylls followed by the carotenoids.

(Pigment contents among seven coral species studied)


Without diving into any of our proprietary software packages or employing creative graphical design programs (i.e. Photoshop), let’s have a look at some of the spectra of contemporary and historically successful lights using UPRtek’s uSpectrum spectral analysis suite. UPRtek is a well-respected high-end spectrometer manufacturer. (They’re the same company that makes the spectrometers used by BRS.)

uSpectrum features a library of pigments such as chlorophyll a, chlorophyll b, and carotenoids (eg. beta carotene) which we’ll use for this analysis. To collect spectrometric data, all lights were tested in dark rooms, in open air, under the brightest points of their light fields (hotspots). The main reason we test in open air and not underwater is to negate environmental variables which can influence the results (some tanks may have less reflectivity than others).



Spectrometric Data Test Setup (we laser align and test thermals as well):

Plotting the absorption curves of chlorophyll a, b, and carotenoids, we see a broad region of activity between 400 and 500nm and some activity between 500-600nm, thus making a simplistic “reference spectrum.”

-Light Tests-


Here’s our first light, the AI Prime 16HD. We chose this light because it’s the newest light in our collection, its board was manufactured in the 12th week of this year and conforms to AI’s published spectra. The 16HD and 32HD also have comparable spectrums.


Setting 1: BRS Recommended (6/5/2020)
(UV: 166% VI: 166% RY: 125% BL: 125% GR: 10% DR: 10% ML:0% CW: 65% )

Setting 2: Saxby (@2:50PM)
(UV: 52% VI: 62% RY: 99% BL: 91% GR: 8% DR: 10% ML: 0% CW: 41%)

Our next light, the 26HD. This light is also brand new (<4 hours of use, never over a tank), was assembled in August 2019, and conforms to AI’s published spectra for the fixture. Except for the Deep Red LEDs in the Hydras, the Prime HDs use the same diodes.


Setting 1: BRS AB+ (9/27/2018)
(UV: 118%, VI: 101%, RY: 82%, BL: 65%, GR: 6%, DR: 5%, CW: 19% )

Setting 2: BRS Custom Settings (4/10/2020)
(UV:110, VI: 110%, RY: 115%, BL: 115%, GR: 10%, DR: 10%, CW: 50%)

Some Well-known Bulbs:

ATI Blue Plus:

ATI Actinic 03:

By crowdsourcing data collection with others who have spectrometers we also have data for several other lights:

Hamilton 20000K (telegraham):

Radion XR30 G4 (AB+ Template) (telegraham):

Radion XR30 G6 Blue (AB+ Template) (ReefMoonshiners):

ATI Straton (LPS-SPS Preset) (ReefMoonshiners):

-------------
And finally, LUX Engine


LUX Engine Gold Reef Daylight:

LUX Engine Gold Optimized III:

LUX Engine Gold Ultra Blue:

LUX Engine Blue Reef Daylight:

LUX Engine Blue Ultra Blue:

LUX Engine Blue Optimized III:

LUX Engine Cyan Reef Daylight:

LUX Engine Cyan Optimized III:

LUX Engine Cyan Ultra Blue:

When coming up with LUX Engine’s spectral distribution, we paid careful attention to making the spectrum as broad as possible, while still allowing it to be dynamic enough that you can customize it how you like it, whether it’s the settings you program or even the diodes in the layout you choose. As a result, the layouts are capable of perhaps the widest spectra in the industry and are tuned for optimal spectral distribution.

How white this looks depends on how much white the clusters are set to and also the cluster variant. Since more power is distributed to the more useable colors, there’s a negligible performance penalty when adjusting the whites (controlled by the slider that controls the center LEDs, typically the blue channel). As always, this can be set to personal preferences, though wavelengths produced by white are important for the proper expression of chromoproteins, especially in some SPS.

 

[SPS2020]

Ultra Blue unmodified, has a wattage rating (as reported in myAI) of 76W and has whites at around 32%. Since the LEDs are a little more efficient and power is allocated differently, they'll draw about 73W, and depending on the fan and the light's WiFi connection state at those settings, there can be spikes of 1.5W power draw.

Not exactly sure how the whites could be reduced to 80% when they start at 32%... Perhaps 0.80*32% = 26%? Even with that, the reported wattage in myAI would be 75W.

Maybe we are talking about two different things, for the Hydra 26HD I see 137% for Cool White for the Ultra Blue preset:

 

[luxdium]

Maybe we are talking about two different things, for the Hydra 26HD I see 137% for Cool White for the Ultra Blue preset:

That's actually the percentage the blues are driven at.

If you want a little less white in the Ultra Blue, you can just turn that blue slider down a little until you like the way it looks. We redistributed the power in the clusters this way to reduce the performance drop when whites are dimmed.

 

[Oregon Grown Reef]

That makes sense. The clusters have different layouts, so the sliders will control different color leds.

 

[SPS2020]

That's actually the percentage the blues are driven at.

If you want a little less white in the Ultra Blue, you can just turn that blue slider down a little until you like the way it looks. We redistributed the power in the clusters this way to reduce the performance drop when whites are dimmed.

Excellent, thank you!

 

[luxdium]

An update on pre-orders. We've scaled up production a little more and most pre-orders with Primes should go out by the end of the coming week, so keep your eyes peeled for an email update if you pre-ordered one.

We're also working on taking photographs of every setting and cluster configuration over the same system and creating an improved selection guide on the website. Hopefully, this should make choosing clusters a little more seamless.

Until then, here's Gold with the Ultra Pop template

 

[chopper320]

Any more reviews on these lights? My 26HDs are going on 7 years old so I’m trying to decide if I want to invest in new lighting or go this route.
This seems like an interesting option.
My tank is sps dominant. I’m assuming I would want the Golds. I currently run the BRS ab+ and I’ve been pretty happy with coral growth and color.

 

[Zoajohn]

Any more reviews on these lights? My 26HDs are going on 7 years old so I’m trying to decide if I want to invest in new lighting or go this route.
This seems like an interesting option.
My tank is sps dominant. I’m assuming I would want the Golds. I currently run the BRS ab+ and I’ve been pretty happy with coral growth and color.

Would also like to see some user pics/feedback

 

[shakacuz]

i’m just crossing my fingers that they’re working on making an update for the 32hd’s

 

[Hooz]

Would also like to see some user pics/feedback

I've been running Lux Gold pucks in 4 lights (2 tanks) for 2 years now. I've grown anemones, softies and a TON of LPS under the lights. I'm setting up a third tank now that will have a hybrid Lux/ReefBrite setup and will be focused on SPS.

What do you want to know? What all would you like to see? Several of the pictures on the Luxdium website are of my tank(s).

 

[SPS2020]

Any more reviews on these lights? My 26HDs are going on 7 years old so I’m trying to decide if I want to invest in new lighting or go this route.
This seems like an interesting option.
My tank is sps dominant. I’m assuming I would want the Golds. I currently run the BRS ab+ and I’ve been pretty happy with coral growth and color.

I'd highly recommend giving them a shot and agree that the Gold pucks would be a good choice. They have preset files you can download to make configuration a breeze. FYI, the Gold pucks are what I am using to mimic a modified Saxxby setting.