Kessil LED vs Halide T5

[clover128]

That’s why I like my A360WE/T5 hybrid so much. I get all the greatness from T5s ultra diffuse light, but I also get the sweet sweet look of the Kessil shimmer. With the T5s muting the shimmer a bit, I think it looks as close to diving in the ocean as I’ve seen.

Im planning a new tank and doing lots of research. Im leaning towards your setup for those exact reasons. Im not sure just how controllable the kessil is via an apex fusion. But I think the kessils look the most natural of all the leds I’ve seen.

 

[Ztrain]

Im planning a new tank and doing lots of research. Im leaning towards your setup for those exact reasons. Im not sure just how controllable the kessil is via an apex fusion. But I think the kessils look the most natural of all the leds I’ve seen.

It'll work fine you just need to make sure you get the Apex to Kessil cable. If you don't have a Jr. you should be fine the Apex have 0-10 volt ports on them, If you have a Jr you need to buy a control module. Basically one channel will control your intensity and the other your blue to white spectrum.

 

[clover128]

It'll work fine you just need to make sure you get the Apex to Kessil cable. If you don't have a Jr. you should be fine the Apex have 0-10 volt ports on them, If you have a Jr you need to buy a control module. Basically one channel will control your intensity and the other your blue to white spectrum.

Ok thanks. Ill be getting an apex, but I hadn’t heard of the apex-kessil cable.

 

[Ztrain]

Ok thanks. Ill be getting an apex, but I hadn’t heard of the apex-kessil cable.

Yes the Apex ports are like a phone cable and the Kessil controllers and lights look like a headphone jack. The signals are the same but you just need the cable with the correct connector on the end.

 

[Velcro]

Well, I’m glad it’s so easy to ignore people on this site. So sick of having to roll my eyes every time the LED hater shows up.

 

[iemsparticus]

This is the Fusion settings for my Kessil A360s. The orange is the intensity and the blue is the color. Very easy to manipulate.

 

[BoomCorals]

Ok so here is what I wanted to share.

Back in February I bought a no name brown frag. It was brown with brown polyps. And then some more brown. And, it has been that way since I bought it. First it was under Radions for 4 months. It stayed brown, and no new growth. Then, it went under SB Reef lights for a few months. Brown and no growth. Next it was under Kessils for a month or two. Brown brown brown.

It has now been under T5 lighting for 1 month. And not only are colors starting to show up on the skin, but it has actually started to encrust at the base (first new growth since I've had it)

I have been one of the biggest advocates of LEDs. I did these coral growth experiments with pretty much every major brand of LED out there over the years, pitting them against each other in my own personal comparisons in an effort to find the "best" LED. I've been using LED for 10 years since my first Radion G1s. I've never had problems growing coral under LED. I've had beautiful tanks with LED, big colonies, grown nicely. So to be honest, when I started this experiment, my expectation was that T5/Halide would probably be a little better in growth and color. The results thus far have been unexpected to say the least. One of my local customers who stops in all the time, just changed their own tank from LED to T5 after seeing the changes my frags went through first hand. Will continue to update on the frags for several more months.

 

[madweazl]

Was this one under the T5 layout you mentioned a few posts up? I forget now but thought you were running the Kessils around 35% color (?); do you think increasing that to something like 50-60% (I'm guessing closer to what your T5 layout is producing) would produce similar results? Beautiful coral regardless.

 

[BoomCorals]

Was this one under the T5 layout you mentioned a few posts up? I forget now but thought you were running the Kessils around 35% color (?); do you think increasing that to something like 50-60% (I'm guessing closer to what your T5 layout is producing) would produce similar results? Beautiful coral regardless.

This one is currently under the T5 layout above yes. And in fact, the color (to my eye) of the T5 is identical to what I was using for the Kessils. Not to mention, BRS showed that turning the color dial on the kessils doesn't actually change the spectrum much anyways.

 

[rtparty]

Love the progress and updates @BoomCorals! You ready to retro T5s to all of your LEDs? [emoji6]

 

[BoomCorals]

Love the progress and updates @BoomCorals! You ready to retro T5s to all of your LEDs? [emoji6]

No combos. I’d just replace the LED with T5. I have one LED frag tank still. After this experiment is over I may change it to T5.

 

[madweazl]

This one is currently under the T5 layout above yes. And in fact, the color (to my eye) of the T5 is identical to what I was using for the Kessils. Not to mention, BRS showed that turning the color dial on the kessils doesn't actually change the spectrum much anyways.

It actually raises cyan through red quite a bit but it's hard to see because the plots stay fairly flat; you'll notice the blue peaks are lower compared to the rest of the curve though (they haven't gone down, the rest has gone up).

Edit to add: I have a feeling the Coral+ is negatively impacting coral coloration in my setup and will replace it with another Blue+ here pretty soon. Under Kessil only, this coral had a beautiful green growth ring but that faded out and has remained white with the addition of the T5s (this coral is pretty high up and directly under the Coral+ at a depth of about eight inches). Who knows what it "should" look like though LOL.

 

[rtparty]

No combos. I’d just replace the LED with T5. I have one LED frag tank still. After this experiment is over I may change it to T5.

I think that's a smart move personally. Especially when money is on the line for you.

I think a 6 bulb Sunpower could be in my future if I ever need/want to change from my Spectra.

 

[clover128]

Well, I’m glad it’s so easy to ignore people on this site. So sick of having to roll my eyes every time the LED hater shows up.

Yeah, everyone will have different opinions about what “look” they prefer and it’s all personal preference. I’ve grown corals with MH/compact fluorescents.....T5s....etc. But Ive been out of the hobby a while and though I prefer the shimmer effect of MH over kessil, but it’s all trade-offs. MH are power pigs, $$$, heat pigs, and lack control.

Anyway, I agree it’s nice to pay attention to what matters to each of us!

BTW: BoomCoral : nice job coloring up that acro, it certainly is not brown anymore, gorgeous!!

 

[madweazl]

From this morning:

If the swap of the Coral+ to Blue+ has no affect, the additional PAR the T5s added to the mix are the likely culprit for the color shift. It was receiving about 105 PAR and now gets about 230 PAR. Growth rate has remained the same and if it turns out to be the intensity that is responsible for the coloration change, I'll purposely find a location with lower PAR in the new tank for it because I loved the lime green it had.

The pink in the two examples was about the same, the lower image just wasn't rendered very well.

 

[A. grandis]

Man, I love those corals!!! ;Wideyed
Thanks for the pictures and report!
Grandis.

 

[rtparty]

MH are power pigs, $$$, heat pigs, and lack control.

Isn't it funny how this is different for all of us?

Power pig? A proper LED setup is watt for watt the same as MH. @jda has some very good info regarding all of this. If you can get away with half the power with LEDs, you could have cut your MH in half and gotten the same output and results.

Heat? I need all the heat I can get in a 68° basement.

Control? Ramping up and down does nothing for the corals

 

[clover128]

Isn't it funny how this is different for all of us?

Power pig? A proper LED setup is watt for watt the same as MH. @jda has some very good info regarding all of this. If you can get away with half the power with LEDs, you could have cut your MH in half and gotten the same output and results.

Heat? I need all the heat I can get in a 68° basement.

Control? Ramping up and down does nothing for the corals

Hmmm... power pig, maybe not AS bad as I thought....but they do lose out:
http://www.stouchlighting.com/blog/led-lights-versus-metal-halide
Efficiency

LEDs are very efficient relative to every lighting type on the market and extremely efficient relative to incandescent bulbs. Typical source efficiency ranges 37 and 120 lumens/watt. Where LEDs really shine, however, is in their system efficiency (the amount of light that actually reaches the target area after all losses are accounted for). Most values for LED system efficiency fall above 50 lumens/watt.

Metal Halide lights have average efficiency (75-100 lumens/watt source efficiency). They lose out to LEDs principally because their system efficiency is much lower (<30 lumens/watt) due to all of the losses associated with omnidirectional light output and the need to redirect it to a desired area.


As far as a 68F basement, not everyone is so lucky. I'm not at the moment!
Control? personal preference .... but the oceans ramp up.....down....moonlight....repeat! I'd like to emulate her
plus it looks cool

 

[rtparty]

Lumens per watt is totally useless for our application. Even PAR is showing to be semi useless at this point.

Again, I hope jda will chime in since I don't want to misquote the info he has. To sum it up, it shows that MH, T5 and LED have the same output per watt for our usage. Pretty interesting stuff and I hope he sees this

 

[oreo54]

I have been one of the biggest advocates of LEDs. I did these coral growth experiments with pretty much every major brand of LED out there over the years, pitting them against each other in my own personal comparisons in an effort to find the "best" LED. I've been using LED for 10 years since my first Radion G1s. I've never had problems growing coral under LED. I've had beautiful tanks with LED, big colonies, grown nicely.

So you have a "one of" and this means?...............sorry, just a little sarcasm for a monday..
no offense is intended. just curiosity..

Anyways a bit more info would help.. Which tubes and power?

At this point if you want to further your experiment place it back under an LED.. you know how to fix it if it goes south..