I have a SPS dominated mixed reef tank and right now it is lighted with reef breeders led. It does the job but it seems like I dont get good growth. So I am thinking of upgrading to either Kessil 360we or ATI T5s. Also, seems like many people are getting rid of their Kessils, why?
Kessil 360 or T5s
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Crabs McJones
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Honestly, i'd do the Kessils WITH T5's. The reason people get rid of their kessils is when you do an SPS heavy tank, people claim the single point light sources cause shadowing and some parts of the coral don't receive light and cause weird growth patterns or parts of the coral to die off. So to combat that add the T5's for suppliment coverage, so you get the power and color blending and shimmer of the kessils matched with the blanket coverage and color blending of the T5's. Been running 4 T5's with a kessil AP700 for a while now and never been happier
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Crabs McJones
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I'm running 4 t5's with a kessil ap700 over my 40 breeder. So two A360's with 4 t5's would be perfect If you're looking for a great fixture that isn't expensive and can acoomidate your A360's check out the Aquatic Life T5 Hybrid fixture. It has 4 T5 bulbs and two brackets that the kessils mount into. I currently use the same fixture with my AP700
DangerDave
Valuable Member
I'm using the same set up as Crabs, just the 61" fixture with two AP700. The T5 bulbs really compliment the Kessils well. My corals were doing well, and with the led shading taken care of, they're doing even better! The brackets for the A360 units are included with the fixture.
Best of luck, how ever you decide.
Dave
Best of luck, how ever you decide.
Dave
Thanks for the feedback fellas. I checked out the fixture and surprsingly they are not that expensive. Was originally planning of getting a powermodule, but I think couple hundreds more I could get a hybrid of Kessils and T5s.
mcarroll
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I'm not against new lights, but growth issues are very unlikley to be related to lights.
Growth issues relate to nutrient limitation or chemical instability A LOT more frequently.
If this is off-topic, feel free to ignore me, but if you're interested in sharing system details and recent test results (including light levels as well as nutrient levels) maybe we can point you in a better direction.
I also agree that the lights are probably not what is holding you back growth wise.
I also think the reason you see so many people selling lights is really because we in this hobby, myself included, enjoy playing with new equipment. Yes kessil only can have shading issues, but realistically most the systems I see selling them or switching the stony coral are not anywhere near the size it would matter yet. Of course that isn't everyone so no one get upset by that!
For those with goosenecks you just have to move the light every week a inch or so....
I also think the reason you see so many people selling lights is really because we in this hobby, myself included, enjoy playing with new equipment. Yes kessil only can have shading issues, but realistically most the systems I see selling them or switching the stony coral are not anywhere near the size it would matter yet. Of course that isn't everyone so no one get upset by that!
For those with goosenecks you just have to move the light every week a inch or so....
On my 45g shallow, I plan to run either x4 Kessil 360's combo'd with 4 t5 bulbs or 2 radion xr30's with 4 t5 bulbs. I think that is just enough. Sounds overkill but I'm after the spread and spectrum.
Bpb
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Agreed. New lights are fun but that’s not your problem. If those couldn’t grow corals, Adam at Battlecorals wouldn’t use them on his propagation tanks. I’d look elsewhere for growth problems. He runs his at 100% all channels and just hangs them 24” over the water. All channels on. All channels off. No fancy programming or staging.
+1 for T5s with A360s to give you the best of both technologies.
I have 25 lagoon with two T5s, and one A360 and my main display tank has four T5s and four A360s. I’ve measured PAR several times and I can see why people have moved away from A360s only for SPS dominate systems unless you have them spaced properly across the tank.
Good luck with you new setup!
I have 25 lagoon with two T5s, and one A360 and my main display tank has four T5s and four A360s. I’ve measured PAR several times and I can see why people have moved away from A360s only for SPS dominate systems unless you have them spaced properly across the tank.
Good luck with you new setup!
mcarroll
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Yes. Or at least take off some of the competing demand for that nutrient, if that's possible.
For example, taking GFO or carbon dosing offline. If you can't remove some of the demand, then you have to increase the supply. In the short term, dosing N and/or P fertilizers is often the best way.
What do your nitrates actually test at now?
Nitrates reads between 20 - 40ppm. I have several acro frags and 2 of them shows signs of STN. Checked for pests and I did not find anything.
Right now I am running a biopellet reactor plus couple of bags of chemipure and a bag of purigen in the sump. Should I take out some of them or maybe start dosing Phospate?
mcarroll
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That's about what you'd expect with high nitrates and no available phosphates.
Nitrates kinda super-charges photosynthesis and actually raises the coral's demand for phosphates in more than one way.
Without PO4, you get lost tissue as the coral deals with the damage in a way other than repair.
If I didn't say it already, take any carbon dosing offline (vodka, "vsv", pellets....anything) as well as any other "extra" nutrient removers like GFO, bio-blocks, etc.
Once those are offline, if you want you can wait a day or two to see if there are signs of recovery.....or if you have a phosphate fertilizer like Seachem or Brightwell available now, I think I'd probably go ahead and dose up your phosphates to at least 0.03 ppm. 0.10 ppm might be more ideal to begin with since there will probably be a surge of uptake once "some" is available. There's basically no risk to an overdose, so just calculate your doses and measure carefully as you would with anything else – no worries needed. Test at least 24hrs after dosing to see what's still left in the water, and re-dose as needed. You could also re-test in as little as 30 min to an hour if you wanted to see what early consumption was like and re-dose as needed then, but that's going above and beyond.
Nitrates kinda super-charges photosynthesis and actually raises the coral's demand for phosphates in more than one way.
Without PO4, you get lost tissue as the coral deals with the damage in a way other than repair.
If I didn't say it already, take any carbon dosing offline (vodka, "vsv", pellets....anything) as well as any other "extra" nutrient removers like GFO, bio-blocks, etc.
Once those are offline, if you want you can wait a day or two to see if there are signs of recovery.....or if you have a phosphate fertilizer like Seachem or Brightwell available now, I think I'd probably go ahead and dose up your phosphates to at least 0.03 ppm. 0.10 ppm might be more ideal to begin with since there will probably be a surge of uptake once "some" is available. There's basically no risk to an overdose, so just calculate your doses and measure carefully as you would with anything else – no worries needed. Test at least 24hrs after dosing to see what's still left in the water, and re-dose as needed. You could also re-test in as little as 30 min to an hour if you wanted to see what early consumption was like and re-dose as needed then, but that's going above and beyond.
aurora.k
Active Member
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Wow, this is my first time in this part of the forum and I came here for this - this is the EXACT answer I needed - how to pair Kessils and T5. This forum is awesome.
