Yet none have seen what the Kessil AP700s can do. It's a shame that you group things together like this and generalize. It's unfair because you are missing out on the best advances in lighting to come out in years. It's ok though, not everyone is meant to be a pioneer with new technologies and who wants to spend so much money on something that hasn't "proven" its self. However I feel compelled to speak when I see all fixtures grouped together as LEDs. Who here would say that all T5s are T5s? I guess any old T5 bulb and fixture, reflector, ballast will do right? Why not, it's T5s and they are "proven". I don't have any LEDs, just the Kessil AP700.
Not sure I can read your tone here, but I've seen the AP700's in action. I have a friend that runs them. He ran two of them to start with and after probably six months he added T5 retro's in front of and behind the AP700's because of some shadowing, the same reason I added T5's to my Hydra's.
They are all Light Emitting Diodes whether they are clustered or single, or if they have radion, kessil or AI stamped on them. I don't believe we are including Chinese made LEDs in this conversation, I've only heard Radion's, Hydra's and Kessil's mentioned so far.
To say not everyone is meant to be a pioneer is a bit unfair. For most people, if you want results, you emulate what other people have done to achieve success, especially when it comes to lighting. Who wants to throw money at something and hope it works?
PAR, PUR, and spectrum are things that someone coming into the hobby isn't going to understand right away, so finding out what others have done to succeed and using that knowledge as a building block and improving on it is how you win at it.
I personally have an "old" T5 with "old reflectors" and yes, I consider it a T5. It works, that's all that matters, the corals grow great under it, the spread is good, par is in a very acceptable range.
Some disadvantages of T5s is they do not do the shimmer effect, they are not as energy efficient as LEDs and sometimes the ballasts can become noisy.
Will they improve upon LEDs and eventually phase out T5s? I absolutely believe they can do it, I would never deny technological advancement. They have diffusers, and focusing lenses for them and in the near future someone will hit a grand slam with it.
I don't have T5s, I don't have LEDs, I have a mixture that works great for me. Kessil AP700s didn't impress me enough to run out and buy them as soon as they were fired up, or 6 months later, and the controllability with the app was lacking. So that's my opinion on them, and it's just MY opinion. Will, Kessil improve upon them, absolutely.
