ATI Dimmable or Kessil 360WE with Apex Jr

Bearded Fish Man · Jun 9, 2016

Big debate here so I would like to hear from both sides, the LED tech junkies and the T5 seasoned guru's... I have a 20 g Nuvo and I have about three weeks left on my cycle. It's time to buy a light in a couple weeks. I have heard great things about both fixtures but I am going to be running an SPS dominate tank. Can I get some advice please as this is a hard decision for me. Kessil with new Kessil mount or ATI Dimmable T5 4x24'' bulbs that's proven to work. "Growth and shadowing is my main concern".

$464.00 for ATI Dimmable with built in controller
$498.00 for Kessil with out controller

Reefing Madness · Jun 10, 2016

cjd · Jun 10, 2016

Let the war begin!..... my vote is for T5 . Kessils are great leds if you are willing to work around the shadows they cast, they give a very "real " look to your tank. I am still building my 75 gallon and I choose ATI dim fixture for this build . I have been using leds for the past 6 or 7 years and I wanted to go back to old school , just to see for myself if anything changes for me. Now if everyone in my family would stop having birthdays or graduating or getting married or lost a tooth I can get this thing BUILT!

RyanCSGO · Jun 10, 2016

I have the Kessil and I love it. however if I was going sps dominate I would probably go with the T5 imho. my tank will be lps/softies once complete, MAYBE 1 or two sps pieces.

Martin H. Lawton · Jun 10, 2016

Kessil!

shred5 · Jun 10, 2016

Owning all these plus working in the lighting industry I have some input.

First of all dimming t-5 is not good, go non dimmable. Fluorescent lamps are not made to be dimmable. Breaking them in is no fun either.

T-5 is still better lighting source than led but led is closing fast as leds add more UV to the spectrum and leds, reflectors and lenses improve. T-5 is still in my opinion the most universal lighting and it is fool proof.
I have finally seen some decent colored sps tanks with leds. I think right now it is a tie with the benefits of leds may outshine the other technologies even if they provide better lighting.

I just switched one of my t-5 fixture over to Kessils and right now I love them.
Kessils are a great fixture but does have a flaw, it is will require more fixtures than what you think. Their cluster is so tight and since they only use on cluster they fall to self shading more than other fixtures with two or more pucks of lighting. This may not be a issue with a small tank or you may think of using two of the smaller ones.

Their major advantage is they have one the lowest peak into UV because they make their own leds at 380 nm which is good if you are going sps if not it means very little.

Personally I think right now the Vervve may be the best led fixture for the money. Vervve does not go as low as Kessil into the UV range at 380 but has other advantages.