I drank the Kessil Koolaid!

slayerhellfire · Feb 24, 2018

Don't get me wrong kessils are great lights but they have to be used in certain applications and enough of them

Reefing-Around · Feb 24, 2018

Triple the water volume and yes, lighting requirements change. Kessil is proven to grow corral and you CANNOT beat Kessil shimmer with any other LED. Many sucessful aquariums running both 160's and 360's.

madweazl · Feb 24, 2018

slayerhellfire said:
Don't get me wrong kessils are great lights but they have to be used in certain applications and enough of them

They can be used in any application and of course you need "enough."

Two A360WEs

The above was measured with an Apogee MQ-500 and their full spectrum sensor (Apogee doesn't make an LED specific PAR meter). It is a 75g tank that measures 48x18x21 (LxWxH). Almost 200 PAR on the sand bed (15"-17" depth) where there is overlapping coverage. As mentioned earlier, they're mounted five inches above the water. And again, you have to take advantage of what these lights are good at (fantastic spread); mounted 8" above the water, about 30% of the light they're producing is falling outside of the tank and at 12", that is 50%.

Edit: All measurements taken at 60% color.

Midrats · Feb 24, 2018

I was wondering when the first naysayer would rear his head .

slayerhellfire · Feb 24, 2018

squareriggersailor said:
I was wondering when the first naysayer would rear his head .

I am not a naysayer lol, Ive had kessils for the past 4 years, just didn't like the PAR reading is all...

slayerhellfire · Feb 24, 2018

madweazl said:
They can be used in any application and of course you need "enough."

Two A360WEs

The above was measured with an Apogee MQ-500 and their full spectrum sensor (Apogee doesn't make an LED specific PAR meter). It is a 75g tank that measures 48x18x21 (LxWxH). Almost 200 PAR on the sand bed (15"-17" depth) where there is overlapping coverage. As mentioned earlier, they're mounted five inches above the water. And again, you have to take advantage of what these lights are good at (fantastic spread); mounted 8" above the water, about 30% of the light they're producing is falling outside of the tank and at 12", that is 50%.

I think it was this one he used
MQ-510 FULL SPECTRUM UNDERWATER LED PAR METER

slayerhellfire · Feb 24, 2018

madweazl said:
They can be used in any application and of course you need "enough."

Two A360WEs

The above was measured with an Apogee MQ-500 and their full spectrum sensor (Apogee doesn't make an LED specific PAR meter). It is a 75g tank that measures 48x18x21 (LxWxH). Almost 200 PAR on the sand bed (15"-17" depth) where there is overlapping coverage. As mentioned earlier, they're mounted five inches above the water. And again, you have to take advantage of what these lights are good at (fantastic spread); mounted 8" above the water, about 30% of the light they're producing is falling outside of the tank and at 12", that is 50%.

I was not getting these readings with my 2 360w over a 4 foot long tank and my tank is 12 inches high.

madweazl · Feb 24, 2018

slayerhellfire said:
I was not getting these readings with my 2 360w over a 4 foot long tank and my tank is 12 inches high.

A portion [or all] of that was due to the mounting height; you lose a significant amount of PAR as you raise the light (and waste a bunch of it outside the tank as well).

Edit: and the MQ-500 I used and the 510 you used (if correct) both use the full spectrum sensor; I had to apply the immersion correction where the 510 does it automatically in the unit.

slayerhellfire · Feb 24, 2018

madweazl said:
A portion [or all] of that was due to the mounting height; you lose a significant amount of PAR as you raise the light (and waste a bunch of it outside the tank as well).

Edit: and the MQ-500 I used and the 510 you used (if correct) both use the full spectrum sensor; I had to apply the immersion correction where the 510 does it automatically in the unit.

Yeah I had mine about 6 inches above my water line, not sure why the reading were low, the lights were directly in the middle where all my scape is. The reading was alot lower any higher up than that. But in my 40 nuvo my stuff grew like crazy not sure if it was just easier to focus the direct light or what

Midrats · Feb 24, 2018

I just lowered mine to 5" and 5% intensity 50% color is brighter than 50% intensity 50% color at 8". I'm only using a lux meter so not as advanced as all you PAR meter people, but the reading almost doubled at 5". I really like the lack of light spill but I'm not sure the LPS in my little Reefer Nano can handle it.

madweazl · Feb 24, 2018

Max PAR is also achieved right around 60% color.

madweazl · Feb 24, 2018

squareriggersailor said:
I just lowered mine to 5" and 5% intensity 50% color is brighter than 50% intensity 50% color at 8". I'm only using a lux meter so not as advanced as all you PAR meter people, but the reading almost doubled at 5". I really like the lack of light spill but I'm not sure the LPS in my little Reefer Nano can handle it.

When I was running a mixed tank, I used 40% intensity on a 12 hour photo-period. Intensity ramped from 0% (actually 11% on my controller) to 40% over the course of six hours and then back down to 0% (10% where they turned off). Max PAR was only achieved for about three minutes a day and everything did great.

Midrats · Feb 24, 2018

Maybe I will leave it at 5" and leave the intensity as low as it will go and observe my livestock, then gradually increase.

madweazl · Feb 24, 2018

squareriggersailor said:
Maybe I will leave it at 5" and leave the intensity as low as it will go and observe my livestock, then gradually increase.

If everything is doing well, you'd be crazy to change it.

Scottsquatch · Feb 24, 2018

The Shimmer on kessils is absolutely incredible, but I'm digging my SB reef lights for now. I would love to get the shimmer someday though...

Midrats · Feb 24, 2018

madweazl said:
If everything is doing well, you'd be crazy to change it.

Thanks for reigning me in! Everything is as it was.

vetteguy53081 · Feb 24, 2018

I run 5 with the supplied cables. I run them 8" over the tank at 25% with twin radions6

Hunter Gaines · Feb 25, 2018

Ben Seaver said:
It’s that exact tank that made me decide to switch to kessils..lol. Small world.

That it is my friend

tank o tang · Feb 25, 2018

Drank some of your kool aid. Just ordered 2 ap700's for my 180gal. Plan on getting 1 more in 2 weeks. Should be a big difference compare to my reefbreeders v1 that I'm using now.