The Advanced LED System from SolarMax will be more than a little familiar in design and build to current owners of the AI LED from AquaIllumination. That’s because the Advanced LED System is clearly inspired by the performance leading AquaIllumination LED light and this is reflected in how SolarMax designed the triple lens, the triple LED puck and the narrow driver board. What is different about the Advanced LED System is the finish and polish which is not nearly on the same level that C2 dev puts into their AI LED light. Although the Advanced LED System begins by imitating the beloved AI LED, it does break from the mold by having a few options of fixture color, lenses and LED colors right out of the gate. The ALS can ship with 7 different colors including blue, red, green, yellow, grey, white and black. The lenses are available in 30, 45, 60 degrees and even an oval lens. Finally the LED pucks can ship with all white, all blue, combos of blue and white as well as a puck that has two white LEDs and one UV LED. The Seoul Semiconductor LEDs are an affordable and decent quality LED but they won’t be putting off anywhere near the amount of light as the XP series Cree LEDs of the AI LED. Also, like the AI the ALS is modular and linkable although it is only available in a strip of four or six triple LEDs. We don’t know how much the Advanced LED System from SolarMax will cost but we suspect that by the time it lands on US shores, the ALS will cost half as much as an AI LED for less than half of the performance, at which point it makes more sense to pony up for the real McCoy. Perhaps this imitation will encourage C2 Development to come to market with an AI LED which is half the size in either a linear or square form factor, either one of which would be very welcome to fulfill the needs of the LED nano reefing. For more information on the Advanced LED System visit the SolarMax website and follow the break for more pictures of the familiar internals of this LED light.
