Huh? This is the line that gets me… “At just one and a half inches thick the AI Nano may also be packing the most LED power relative to size than any other light in the aquarium hobby.”

Not even close… not by a mile. I see $50 worth of LEDs, $30 for a driver, and $220 for “fancy”. Sounds like a Mac to me.

LOL, I love my $299 Dell that I can dual boot OSX or Windows 7 on. Once a person understands that the insides of a Mac and the insides of a Dell are the same, you realize there is nothing stopping you from running whatever OS you want. If you like OSX over Windows, fine, but no reason to pay 3x the $ for the same hardware just to run the software you like, right?

Dear CaliReefer, 

Nobody likes a troll. 

Sincerely, Chayus

You can keep your ugly Dell and reef lighting, I’ll put this next to my Eames lounger and Knoll Coffee table on my ADA tank next to my MacBook Pro.. Why, not because I’m an elitist, not because I’m a brand whore, but because I don’t like ugly things. Brands mean nothing, appearance is everything and unfortunately some get it and the rest don’t. In my home we choose to only fill it with beautiful and extremely functional things, everything else does not come in or goes to the trash. 

Not to nit pick but you clearly have never manufactured or produced anything other then what you fiddle with in your basement/garage. To bring something to market there are much more in the terms of expenses then just making the fixture. You didn’t mention shipping, marketing or the most important of all DESIGN. 

Keep your 2¢ where they belong, in your ugly piggy bank next to the rest of your worthless thoughts.

Hahaha.. ummm, my computer sits hidden away inside a cabinet on my computer desk and my lighting sits in a canopy.. no one sees them, so why in the world would I spend 3x the $ on “pretty” when it isn’t even visible. When things are not even visible, I see no reason to spend $ on aesthetics. When they are visible, sure, I will spend a little time and $ making it look good, but I won’t spend 3x the money that the item cost just to make it look pretty.

I wasn’t aware trolls are people that go out and try and INFORM others that there are other less costly options to achieve the same goal. I thought they were people that post just to get a rise out of others. If I were a troll I would just say the AI fixture is a POS and leave it at that, but that isn’t what I said, I said you can get 3x the output for the same cost of you go a different route. I can make my DIY light look like this one in a matter of minutes, just take a piece of white plastic to the waterjet at work and cut out some pieces, glue them together and attach it to the light. $20 in plastic to make my “ugly” light look like an AI light (without the touch sensitive buttons, but since my light is connected to the internet, I have no need for touch sensitive buttons).

You’re thinking too much in the hardware side of things, Macbooks look awesome(physically) which is why I paid 3x more.  I know I wouldn’t be able to build something as nice as what AI is selling which is why I’ll just pay more for the convenience.

I wonder if this means the next generation Sol will feature a similar LED configuration.

The world does not revolve around your “hide everything and buy terrible looking items” mentality. Canopies look “old” and “dated” so most aquarists that are hip to anything choose to not go this route. The people who “actually” buy things and have money like things that look good.

Keep buying your low budge half assed gear and I’ll continue to own beautiful looking high end equipment with class and sophistication. 

Ninja edit J

Generally speaking, people who have good taste don’t purchase things that need to be hidden.

I’m an elitist because I choose to not have a hunk of dead tree cut into a box over my aquarium? No, it means I can think with my brain and avoid taking the easy or cheap route for a better look (personal opinion) and choice.

People who have poor taste always “hate” on people who are forward thinking or can afford/choose to afford more expensive “boutique” items.

You’d probably be jealous or “hate” if I drove a $180,00 Porsche Cayenne instead of a $30k VW Toureg, wouldn’t you?

If you want to inform people, start your own blog… I’m sure people would come form miles around for your “valuable” information. Just make sure you have some credibility before doing so.

Also you fail to realize that not everyone might have access to a “waterjet” or have plastic in stock.

Not to mention if you can produce such a quality light in such little time you may want to start producing them, AI can barely keep up with their demand now. You could be a million as you like to say “in a matter of minutes”!

I’d like to apologize to anyone who had to read through the nonsense, I’ve simply grown tired of the misinformed “informing” and got caught up in the banter. Become educated and earn some merit along with having credibility before trying to apply your twisted logic in a real world conversation. People like this are absolutely ruining the chance for any new hobbyist to make a choice for themselves. 

The world doesn’t revolve around you, there are other places besides your home town and its terribly hard to swim when your sea is filled with garbage. 

Huh? Nothing illegal about it as long as you purchase a license. Only thing is Apple will not offer you tech support.

John…I don’t know if it has a formal name. I know Jake calls it the “disco ball” effect as him and I have talked about it. 

At any rate, I’m talking about the rainbow of colors that the edges of shadows give off under the Sol units. I believe it is due to the lenses which make the light highly focused so when the light pass through the water and bounces off an object like live rock, the edges of the shadow have this strange spread of colors. Perhaps the wider lenses will fix the issue.

You’re so wrong it makes my head hurt.

You by law can’t install OSX on anything but a Mac machine per their user agreement. Its the law, you also can’t install a clean copy from disk without using other software to manipulate the disk image (ISO), this also goes against their user agreement and you break a handful of other laws. 

first time I’ve heard of that Clive…good info. I’m curious if it has to do with color sources why I don’t see the same effect with my Ecoxotic fixture that also has the colors spread out. 

With the Ecoxotic setups, the shear number of LEDs used and close spacing helps reduce the effect, but it is there. With the AI setups using higher wattage, and fewer LEDs, the effect is more noticable. Some people aren’t bothered by it much, like myself, but others go nuts over it.

When we designed the Ecoxotic Panorama fixture this was taken into strong consideration. We didn’t like the look so it made more sense to have more lower wattage LEDz and keep the aesthetics of the aquarium similar to what people are accustomed to.

Thank you for editing Mr. Ciotti. While I generally agree with what you had said, it was rough seeing someone I respect totally lose it. Yesterday, -1. Today +1. You even out. Greatly appreciated.

I don’t mind loosing my own mind form time to time, but I owe more to the hobbyists then to go out and be disrespectful. 

I’ll be the first one to admit my faults, I was at fault..

Glad it didn’t go unnoticed, thank you!

Anybody know if this unit will be compatible with big brother sol?

I feel that I have a pretty good grasp of most things freshwater, and we had started talking about nature aquariums, and some of the comments you made were rather amateur.

We had never talked reef set-ups, or anything related, so over the past year, reading the comments you have left, and your input on subject matter, its quite clear that you have a firm grasp of what you’re talking about.

Which leaves me to say, kudos to you on your Iron Aquascaper title and other freshwater achievements.