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AI Hydra Edge 44 Freshwater INCOMING vs Week Aqua z250

Fly_casual

Fly_casual

New Member
Joined
23 Apr 2025
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9
Location
California
I have the new AI hydra edge 44 freshwater arriving on Friday. I was all set to buy the week aqua z250, but then came across all of the posts, experience and recommendations that @Wookii and @oreo57 have made regarding the aqua illumination series. So when taking a look at AI again I see the brand new hydra edge light (point source plus an additional led array), the whites are 6500k and 2300k channels per a promo video), plus tunable rgb, i liked the mounting options as well and decided I had to try it.

I figured I'd tag you guys here since you probably have some interest in this light or possible know something about it, but I could give you some hands on experience with it if you like. Ill also see if I can get any specs on the leds from the materials that come with the light.

I am curious if the hydra edge can mimic an rgb only light (like other rgb lights that also include white diodes like chirhios etc) my sense is .....maybe....but i cant find any published info on the rgb clusters or the white clusters for that matter, so I might also get the week aqua z250 .....for science. .... and for $100 on ali express i can justify that as an experiment I guess.

Like you @Wookii, I do like shimmer (the sun hit my tank one day years ago and it was the most beautiful ive ever seen it, and ive been chasing a "warmish" point source light ever since) and currently run a kessil tuna sun x360, but I have wanted to see what the rgb hype is all about AND want warmer whites as well. I've not had a lot of interest in an rgb light since all the photos look unnatural to me, but everyone says it's like going 1080p to 4k. I have my doubts, but needed an additional light and was gonna give it a whirl....tbd now.

My original plan was just to see what my kessil looked like in combination with a week aqua z250 or T90 (but really dont want a silver can given my setup/aesthetics), if they could enhance each other or if it would look bad, etc.

I have a hunch the edge will work out for me and get me what I was looking for. . . What are your all thoughts these days on wrgb lights versus AI primes and/or the edge?
 
Fly_casual said:
I have the new AI hydra edge 44 freshwater arriving on Friday. I was all set to buy the week aqua z250, but then came across all of the posts, experience and recommendations that @Wookii and @oreo57 have made regarding the aqua illumination series. So when taking a look at AI again I see the brand new hydra edge light (point source plus an additional led array), the whites are 6500k and 2300k channels per a promo video), plus tunable rgb, i liked the mounting options as well and decided I had to try it.

I figured I'd tag you guys here since you probably have some interest in this light or possible know something about it, but I could give you some hands on experience with it if you like. Ill also see if I can get any specs on the leds from the materials that come with the light.

I am curious if the hydra edge can mimic an rgb only light (like other rgb lights that also include white diodes like chirhios etc) my sense is .....maybe....but i cant find any published info on the rgb clusters or the white clusters for that matter, so I might also get the week aqua z250 .....for science. .... and for $100 on ali express i can justify that as an experiment I guess.

Like you @Wookii, I do like shimmer (the sun hit my tank one day years ago and it was the most beautiful ive ever seen it, and ive been chasing a "warmish" point source light ever since) and currently run a kessil tuna sun x360, but I have wanted to see what the rgb hype is all about AND want warmer whites as well. I've not had a lot of interest in an rgb light since all the photos look unnatural to me, but everyone says it's like going 1080p to 4k. I have my doubts, but needed an additional light and was gonna give it a whirl....tbd now.

My original plan was just to see what my kessil looked like in combination with a week aqua z250 or T90 (but really dont want a silver can given my setup/aesthetics), if they could enhance each other or if it would look bad, etc.

I have a hunch the edge will work out for me and get me what I was looking for. . . What are your all thoughts these days on wrgb lights versus AI primes and/or the edge?
Click to expand...
Interesting leds.. Except for the likely blue (clear white) most leds look like photo conversions. Like lime. Even a pc red though red leds are red.
CREE??

Screenshot 2025-04-23 165245.png
 
I shall have to research what all this means. Would you say these look like different LEDs than were in the previous hydra or prime?
 
Fly_casual said:
I shall have to research what all this means. Would you say these look like different LEDs than were in the previous hydra or prime?
Click to expand...
I have no idea but I wouldn't be surprised.
Led manuf. create new or expand product lines.
And if light designers can keep their led choices to the same product line it just adds efficiency.

Like not getting blues from seoul semiconductor, whites from CREE, violets from Semi..ect

to explain a bit on the "photo converted " thing.
See when you make a green led it, for whatever reason, is no where near the efficiency of say a royal blue led.
So they built "lime" (and mint and pc-amber but I digress) which takes the efficient royal blue led and adds a green phosphor.
Even if it is slightly less efficient (photons/watt) than a pure royal blue led it turns out is is more efficient than a green led.

CREE for some reason kind of went hog wild on this concept makeing pc-blue, pc-reds, ect.
some do spread the color out a bit. red leds are pretty spiky so a pc-red may spread that out.

The XE-G platform is consistent across all colors in key LED
design parameters, including package size, PCB footprint, anode/
cathode orientation, optical source size, optical source location
and ESD protection. This consistency makes it easy to reuse core
design elements, such as PCBs and optics, across a wide range
of designs.
XLamp Element G (XE-G) LEDs are optimized for directional
lighting applications that benefit from multi-color LED designs
Click to expand...
 
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What I’m curious about now is how it handles spectrum blending compared to something like the Z250, does it feel cohesive, or more layered? If the Edge pulls that off smoothly, it might actually beat Kessil in flexibility while keeping some of that natural shimmer
 
Well, I hope to be a source of subjective info with kessil fresh, ai fresh, homedept/diy, and others. Not here to talk about plant growing propemsities, just color rendition and artist preference
 
Color mixing (and i mean that in a way I've only learned from
Having a kessil vs other lights is very very bad. Purple red green shadows....yuk. surprisingly I thought I'd get a better warm lighting renderition than I did. The best being some
5500k 95cri screw ins that I ran. Then kessil (can't get warmer without something going funky, based on my eyes).
 
But I will say looking at the tank, it does magnificently everything else. The tank looks very nice. If shimmer (obtainable with cheap lights and high surface agitation) and color mixing (why do my shadows from my driftwood
Look like 3 different colors?l)
) mean nothing to you, great light. Def looks fab from
The couch. I mean it's popping, separation in colors across the flora and fauna is nice. Point is, if you are aquascaping with shadow detail in mind, id pass.
 
See that? Not with kessil. With every other light I tried you do, and if someone here can direct me to point source light that doesn't do this, let me know. Im gonna resell or return the aqua illumination. And im gonna try my kessil / week aqua combo. Kessis couldn't combat the rgb shadow so no synergy there
 

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