Kessil led
- Thread starter Fred walten
- Start date
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Bpb
2500 Club Member
In my research on this matter over the last year or two...an acro dominant tank lit purely by kessils in the long term is an extreme rarity. Could be they just don't work. Could be the learning curve on tuning them correctly for coral health is too steep and difficult to nail down. Who knows. I just know that after tons of searching, the vast majority of kessil tanks are either bare and on the new side with mostly just rocks and maybe softies... Or the occasional mixed reef of varying degrees of success. I can think of one or two tanks I've seen with decent looking large acro colonies lit by kessils
alton
Valuable Member
One of my LFS uses only Kessils on there display tank and the SPS do very well as far as growth and color. The only negative thing is the polyps do not grow on the bottom of the coral.
Matze
Active Member
Interesting, do you or they have an opinion on why the SPS don´t grow normally?
zoomonster
Valuable Member
Kessil's grow SPS just fine but with the same limitation of most other LED units which is dying back/brown out underneath particularly with bushy acro's. I've seen it in every LED tank I've looked at including mine. That's all attributable to lack on indirect reflected light you get with a fixture with a reflector and bulbs like MH/T5 that put out light 360. Shading can be limited by more lights i.e. I use 5 360WE's on a 6ft tank so there's overlap. 24x24 coverage is overrated and results in a lot of shading and excess shimmer.
I used MH/T5 (or VHO) for years including when I started my current tank. I eventually switched to LED when I had heat and power issues and really no noticeable change in color or growth other than the underneath thing. I don't like canopies but I may eventually go to one so I can mount the Kessil's along with some T5's on reflectors.
I used MH/T5 (or VHO) for years including when I started my current tank. I eventually switched to LED when I had heat and power issues and really no noticeable change in color or growth other than the underneath thing. I don't like canopies but I may eventually go to one so I can mount the Kessil's along with some T5's on reflectors.
BigJim
Well-Known Member
There was a similar thread about this a couple weeks ago. I posted the link below and you can see some pictures of my tank. Color and growth are not an issue but I agree with zoomonster about shadowing. I just ordered a canopy and will be adding four T5s to supplement my Kessils.
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/kessils-tapped-out.240731/page-2#post-2819857
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/kessils-tapped-out.240731/page-2#post-2819857
dbrewsky
Active Member
My experiences with Kessils is the coverage and overall intensity of the leds for a stand alone lighting solution. I used an apogee PAR meter and confirmed that numbers were way lower than anticipated in a very shallow frag tank. That said the Kessils have arguably the best spectrum on the current name brand leds available and do great with lower light corals.
I currently use mine as accent lights to t-5 and have never seen healthier corals than with this combination.
I currently use mine as accent lights to t-5 and have never seen healthier corals than with this combination.
Matze
Active Member
Thanks for the pointer! Really interesting.
From todays point of view, would you choose the Kessils again to start with?
Thank you
That's quite something, because in Germany the shops advertice the a360s as a pendant of a 400wmh fixture.
dbrewsky
Active Member
Thanks for the pointer! Really interesting.
From todays point of view, would you choose the Kessils again to start with?
Thank you
I was under the same impression that they were being considered direct replacements for MH and that the intensity was really high, however, my actual experiences with a variety of corals and quantitative data from the Apogee Par meter does not reflect this.
BigJim
Well-Known Member
I probably would unless I had more than $2k to spend on an ATI Powermodule hybrid. I love the color, shimmer and controllability of the Kessils and I bought them realizing I would probably add T5 at a later date.
dbrewsky
Active Member
This is what I did on my build. I considered the Powermodule, however, at the end of the day the Kessils are a better LED technology than the power module and by no means is the t-5 lacking in Par to necessitate using LEDS as a primary light source in conjunction with the t-5s. This combinations creates extremely beautiful, natural shimmer and some great dawn/dusk effects in conjunction with the ATI dimmable 8x54w fixture. I utilized some custom ball mounts to angle the Kessils to create some accent lighting effects and feel that the kessils will provide additional light spread once coral colonies mature.
My corals have never been happier, despite being in a new tank.
My corals have never been happier, despite being in a new tank.
Matze
Active Member
This is what I did on my build. I considered the Powermodule, however, at the end of the day the Kessils are a better LED technology than the power module and by no means is the t-5 lacking in Par to necessitate using LEDS as a primary light source in conjunction with the t-5s. This combinations creates extremely beautiful, natural shimmer and some great dawn/dusk effects in conjunction with the ATI dimmable 8x54w fixture. I utilized some custom ball mounts to angle the Kessils to create some accent lighting effects and feel that the kessils will provide additional light spread once coral colonies mature.
My corals have never been happier, despite being in a new tank.
Thank you for the explanation.
To not further derail the openers thread, would you mind to come over to my build?
I will write up my current statis and problem concerning light there.
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/225g-reef-in-the-basement.240439/
