- Hey, it's Thomas here.
And today, we're gonna be checking out
AI's Prime Freshwater LED fixture.
And we're going to talk about
how this is arguably one of the most affordable
and one of the best options out there
for those who are trying to achieve
that warmer, tropical, shallow-water look
for their macroalgae-dominated reef tanks.
Plus, we'll take a look at
how one of the greatest microalgae artists is out there
is using both the Reef and Freshwater fixtures
to create an incredible microalgae display.
Microalgae-dominated saltwater tanks,
also called marine planted tanks,
are steadily gaining in popularity
as more and more interesting
and captivating algae species become readily available
for hobbyists to pick up for their aquariums.
The thing is though,
similarly to freshwater planet tanks and fresh water plants,
a lot of those really beautiful
and colorful ornamental marinealgae look their best
under a whiter lighting source,
even on the warmer end,
which has pushed a lot of reefers
or saltwater aquarists who want to try their hand
at a macroalgae-dominated display
to using fixtures or lighting options
that were really designed for freshwater tanks.
Unfortunately,
the majority of planted aquarium lighting options
are lagging behind
what the reefer's community has come to expect
from our light fixtures.
Things like form factor, shimmer, app control
and mounting options are more limited
on the freshwater side of things,
with the exception of when a saltwater
or rethink company decides,
hey, I think we want to make a freshwater light fixture.
A great example of which is AI's freshwater version
of their popular Prime Led Light.
It's a compact puck style pennant with all bells and
whistles that reef aquarium lights are known for
like slick mounting options, app control
with lots of customization,
a broad spectrum focused on photosynthesis.
Overall,
coming together to be a very affordable little fixture,
especially given everything they've managed
to pack inside of it.
So let's get this one out of it's a little cardboard case
and take a closer look.
In the box,
you'll find the AI Prime Freshwater led light fixture,
the power supply, the screen removal tool,
as well as the quick start guide.
The Prime Freshwater is available in both black and white,
and it's a pretty small fixture
coming in under five inches by five inches
by one and a half inches thick,
but it still draws 55 Watts from the wall,
giving it enough punch for a single Prime Freshwater
to cover a microalgae dominated tank
with the 24 inch by 24 inch footprint,
when mounted around 13 inches off the water.
For smaller tanks,
you want to bring the fixture closer
to the surface of the water to minimize light spill,
meaning even higher par numbers, which has no issue.
Thanks to all of that app control in the AI app.
If you happen to have an 18 inch cube,
you'll want the fixture around 10 inches off the surface,
or for a 12 inch cube,
only eight inches off the surface of the water.
Thankfully, AI has a few great mounting options
that make any of these heights easy enough to achieve.
You can pick up either a hanging kit
for suspending the light from your ceiling
or a wall bracket,
a slick flexible gooseneck in either 12 inches or 18 inches,
like the one that I've got here,
or my personal favorite option, the aluminum tank mount,
which is lightweight, easily adjustable,
has an angular uniform look,
and still allows
for the prime to be pivoted, tilted and angled
to best suit the needs of your aquascape.
For those out there,
looking to add a Prime to one of the smaller footprint tanks
I was mentioning earlier,
all three of those mounting options
are going to work really well.
But if you're looking to add a Prime
to one of the larger footprint tanks,
this suspension kit is definitely the best
of the three options,
because it will allow you to raise the light
that extra couple of inches.
So you get the best spread possible.
When it comes to spectrum,
the Prime Freshwater is no slouch.
Packing in six cool white, four warm white, two blue,
a single photo red and a single green diode
along with one dedicated moonlight diode,
which provides a wide daylight spectrum
with strong peaks in the blues and reds
while keeping those blue and red bands nice and wide
with a well-rounded hump between them
in the greens and yellows
to create that bright, full spectrum daylight appearance,
which is going to do a fantastic job
of mimicking that warm tropical shallows look
that really shows off the incredible reds, blues,
purples, and greens
that ornamental microalgaes are known for.
Plus, you're going to get that led shimmer along with it
to add that dynamic, twinkle to the tank.
Like I mentioned earlier,
the Prime Freshwater is controllable through the AI app
and has lots of customization options
from building out a full schedule
with ramping sunrises and sunsets
to moonlighting and even your own custom spectrum.
But if you just want to keep things simple,
the app's easy setup in schedule mode makes it very simple
and straight forward.
You can also simplify making a custom spectrum
by choosing a Calvin or color temperature
that looks good to your eye
rather than messing with all the individual sliders.
Or you can even leave all sliders at a hundred percent
cause that spectrum looks great.
And then just use the two finger drag
to set the intensity.
The AI App does a pretty great job of making it as simple
or as complex as you'd like it to be,
which is a really smart move.
It basically makes it a very flexible tool
regardless of a reefers experience level.
Now, for those of you out there who might be thinking,
but what if I want to keep macroalgae and coral,
then which prime am I supposed to use.
For you fine folks,
I have a couple of different solutions.
First of that you can definitely use a Prime Reef or Sol
for your microalgae needs too.
They'll definitely grow and do super well.
But if you really want to see as much of
that natural algae coloration,
you can always do what microalgae master
and BRS Reef Pack member tigahboy did
and use one of each
to create your shallow water macroalgae section,
and then beside it
a beautiful turquoise shallow water reef section,
all in the same tank.
You can see how cool of an effect it really is
in this photo.
It's just in its baby phase,
but seeing the tanks tigahboy has pulled off in the past,
it's definitely going to be one to look out for.
So if you want that beautiful, warm, tropical,
shallow water look to your Marine planet tank
with all the bells and whistles without breaking the bank,
you can pick up a Prime Freshwater led for yourself
by clicking right here.