Kessil Lights: Why is everyone selling them?

[GoVols]

I think users who add T5's to leds fixtures these days ruining the sharp look of Leds's, do it because they feel something is missing(coverage, colors, growth), and/or they feel corals looked better with T5's in the past.

+1...

 

[GoVols]

How's this, but he's moved his reef over to the GHL's
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1783476&page=80

oop's... ;Eggonface

(lol)
Looks like Slief fired back up 8 of his a360w's.

 

[dragon99]

Just watched JF's 700G tank video and noted MH & Fluorescent VHO , still the Standard ? beautiful corals !

He's pretty big on T5's right now with Reefbrite LED's. The 700 is down to only 3hrs per day of MH.

He definitely likes the deep blue sea look.

 

[bif24701]

I agree with some part, although MH fixtures add T5's and /or Leds to add blues for taste, as MH alone needs no strength from T5 in regards to coral needs. T5 users(myself included) added leds because t5's alone can give a flat and boring look compared to leds, so its nice to get some shimmer, knowing though the T5's will cover all coral needs that could be missing from some leds fixtures.

I think users who add T5's to leds fixtures these days ruining the sharp look of Leds's, do it because they feel something is missing(coverage, colors, growth), and/or they feel corals looked better with T5's in the past. Again, not jabbing at Kessil vs other brand leds, I just think someone buying a sleek looking AP700 doesn't do it thinking "I can't wait to add T5's to this!"


That is also what I am also looking for. We all know LPS tanks can flourish with leds alone. Sps heavy long-term success is ultimate led test we all expect to see them pass.

But you are jabbing Kessil and making assumptions that are ridiculous. Your saying that T5s ruin the sharp look of LEDs but not MH? ‍

 

[GoVols]

I believe Kessil will come out with a new fixture soon. Like I had posted here before, they should come out with something similar to the radions(two pucks and smaller fixture) allowing the hobbyist to place lets say two units over a 48" tank. The AP700 has tremendous coverage but Kessil stretches it out too much so some corals get shadowing requiring the T5's.

I think all led manufactures stretch there spread specs per unit too much, except for Philips.

(lol)
The day we can hang our flat screen led tv's over our reefs... we'll be there.
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We need a 12" AP550 and a 32" AP1400.

 

[Reefcowboy]

But you are jabbing Kessil and making assumptions that are ridiculous. Your saying that T5s ruin the sharp look of LEDs but not MH? ‍

Sorry to ruin your thread. Try not to take this so personal, it is a post, an opinion. You love the AP700, we all can see that .

I'm trying to follow the topic but obviously you are against it, which is ok too. I've been reefing for many years like many here, and what I mean to say is Led companies claim the units they make (Kessil one of them)can keep corals healthy while covering EFFECTIVELY large portions of a tank, which I do not believe reflect what most out there experience.

My first post on this thread basically says I am a FAN of Kessil however I wish instead of making a larger fixture such as the AP700, claiming to cover 36-48" tanks, they should maybe consider smaller dual cluster units, so we could fit more of them in our tanks having better coverage.

Contrary to your statement of gathering T5's to leds in order to get the "ultimate lighting system" I feel led companies claim and sell their units with the promise their fixtures are already complete systems covering properly without need for other type if lighting. If you read lengthy forums about AP700's you will notice hobbyists buy those fixtures and later add T5s after missing better coverage in their tanks and most of all, noticing shadowing issues, especially at the ends of the tank.

Out of topic, I am hanging 5x Radion G4 Pros over a 60" tank as I feel it will prevent shadowing. The store I go to has the same set up and does look excellent for months now. I do not buy Ecotech's recommendation of 36" of coverage per unit at all. It is not accurate.

The post above asked for users here with mature sps tanks which have had AP700's for over a year as a way to measure how coverage of that fixture equals in a tank after longer time. Do you have such tank to prove this? I'm not jabbing at you just asking for opinions

 

[Reefcowboy]

I think all led manufactures stretch there spread specs per unit too much, except for Philips.

(lol)
The day we can hang our flat screen led tv's over our reefs... we'll be there.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
We need a 12" AP550 and a 32" AP1400.

You said it all here Some people take led topic way to seriously

 

[GoVols]

You said it all here Some people take led topic way to seriously

Dang, RC

(lol)
You could had gave that post a "Like"!!!!!!!
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I could pull out my old MH/T5 and out grow anything out there but my wife would shoot me. ;Dead
Still miss those 20k radiums.

 

[siggy]

Thanks to you guys I dug up a t5 in the attic, been 10 years up there, was just about new then.
I have a kessil puck for the refuge and im going to start a 40 frag/ QT all in one for a bunch of frags coming soon , how do I procide. Just puck then t5 or visaversa

 

[bif24701]

I am in the market for a sleek looking small foot print light like the kessil too.
Any one here have used the kessils on heavy sps reef with at least 15 months or more?
I would love to hear from those that have used it at least a year or more...
Thanks

I've had the AP700 for about 1.5 years. All of my corals started and matured under this light only. My build can be found in the SPS section (Bif's Reef). I have only recently added T5s to help the center area of my tank where I have a very large 2 pane glass brace covering 1/3 of my tank. The tank was a great deal and I couldn't pass, but the brace is pretty bad.

I have two Kessils and each covers a 36" length per Kessil recommendation for SPS. 36-48" Kessil states is ok for lower light corals like LPS and softies. @36" you have no problems getting all the coverage you need. I've easily got 200+ PAR on my samdbed.

Here are some photos, they are on my phone.

 

[bif24701]

Sorry to ruin your thread. Try not to take this so personal, it is a post, an opinion. You love the AP700, we all can see that .

I'm trying to follow the topic but obviously you are against it, which is ok too. I've been reefing for many years like many here, and what I mean to say is Led companies claim the units they make (Kessil one of them)can keep corals healthy while covering EFFECTIVELY large portions of a tank, which I do not believe reflect what most out there experience.

My first post on this thread basically says I am a FAN of Kessil however I wish instead of making a larger fixture such as the AP700, claiming to cover 36-48" tanks, they should maybe consider smaller dual cluster units, so we could fit more of them in our tanks having better coverage.

Contrary to your statement of gathering T5's to leds in order to get the "ultimate lighting system" I feel led companies claim and sell their units with the promise their fixtures are already complete systems covering properly without need for other type if lighting. If you read lengthy forums about AP700's you will notice hobbyists buy those fixtures and later add T5s after missing better coverage in their tanks and most of all, noticing shadowing issues, especially at the ends of the tank.

Out of topic, I am hanging 5x Radion G4 Pros over a 60" tank as I feel it will prevent shadowing. The store I go to has the same set up and does look excellent for months now. I do not buy Ecotech's recommendation of 36" of coverage per unit at all. It is not accurate.

The post above asked for users here with mature sps tanks which have had AP700's for over a year as a way to measure how coverage of that fixture equals in a tank after longer time. Do you have such tank to prove this? I'm not jabbing at you just asking for opinions

I'm pretty certain Kessil states that the AP700 will cover 36" for SPS, more only for lower light type corals.

5 G4s?! That's going to be awesome! I am a big fan of the G4s due to the new lenses reducing the hot spot problem with the older versions and blending colors much much better too

 

[bif24701]

This one started 6 months ago as a tiny nib, only one or two polyps. My *** broke off and I mounted it in other place. Since it has encrusted and now starting to branch.

It's a pink lemonade

 

[Reefcowboy]

I've had the AP700 for about 1.5 years. All of my corals started and matured under this light only. My build can be found in the SPS section (Bif's Reef). I have only recently added T5s to help the center area of my tank where I have a very large 2 pane glass brace covering 1/3 of my tank. The tank was a great deal and I couldn't pass, but the brace is pretty bad.

I have two Kessils and each covers a 36" length per Kessil recommendation for SPS. 36-48" Kessil states is ok for lower light corals like LPS and softies. @36" you have no problems getting all the coverage you need. I've easily got 200+ PAR on my samdbed.

Here are some photos, they are on my phone.

The sps look great. Do you mind sharing the tank dimensions? A full tank shot maybe? Thanks for sharing

 

[GoVols]

This one started 6 months ago as a tiny nib, only one or two polyps. My *** broke off and I mounted it in other place. Since it has encrusted and now starting to branch.

It's a pink lemonade

I have a 42" long reef so I'm in no mans land with the AP700. Kessil needs to make more AP sizes.

Just an fyi.
My local reef shop let me borrow 3 a360'w's before I bought the 4 a80's.
I have the old Kessil a350w in the garage. Back then you controlled each color and it's intensity per knob. So I fired it up, and Kessil did tighten up the color spectrum for part of the Kessil Logic but that old 350 was very hard to get the color right back in 2012.
I'll take the Kessil Logic over the old 150's and 350's any day of the week but it made a lot of old Kessil reefers mad back when the 360's came out with the tighter spectrum.

 

[bif24701]

The sps look great. Do you mind sharing the tank dimensions? A full tank shot maybe? Thanks for sharing

Thank you. I built this system for only one purpose, SPS-acros.
The green rocks are 50 pounds of Pukani I added this last month. Had it in the sump, dry and uncured, for a month.

The display is 72x24x24
I've got a lot of flow too.
MP60+2x Tunze 6105s

My lab

Water area

The work horse, SRO-5000 w/Avast Swabbie

 

[bif24701]

I have a 42" long reef so I'm in no mans land with the AP700. Kessil needs to make more AP sizes.

Just an fyi.
My local reef shop let me borrow 3 a360'w's before I bought the 4 a80's.
I have the old Kessil a350w in the garage. Back then you controlled each color and it's intensity per knob. So I fired it up, and Kessil did tighten up the color spectrum for part of the Kessil Logic but that old 350 was very hard to get the color right back in 2012.
I'll take the Kessil Logic over the old 150's and 350's any day of the week but it made a lot of old Kessil reefers mad back when the 360's came out with the tighter spectrum.

I have to admit the only LEDs I've ever owned are Kessils, before I have all MH/VHO-T5-PCs. When I looked at LEDs I wanted the MH look, Kessil delivers on that and my favorite 14k phoenix bulb is very close to the 9 o'clock on the AP700 color wheel.

I've taken a lot of PAR readings and it impresses me at least, this is against the back wall, away from the T5s and about 18" down.

 

[bif24701]

Something that just came to mind also, I haven't bought many corals. Most all of the ones I have here where donated to me when I started out from my local club members. They donated them because either they couldn't color up, grow or both for them.

Like this one was just brown. I've since moved it recently and I think it's going to show us something amazing!

 

[GoVols]

I have to admit the only LEDs I've ever owned are Kessils, before I have all MH/VHO-T5-PCs. When I looked at LEDs I wanted the MH look, Kessil delivers on that and my favorite 14k phoenix bulb is very close to the 9 o'clock on the AP700 color wheel.

I've taken a lot of PAR readings and it impresses me at least, this is against the back wall, away from the T5s and about 18" down.

That's why I like kessil's too. They are the closest thing that I've found to MH shimmer.
You have the AP700 so you can blend in a lot more colors and still stay within the Kessil Logic.

Kessil is a very smart and very close to the vest company but they need to make more AP sizes for the rest of us. Your 72" wide reef is a perfect fit for two units. If they brought out a 12" with 2 point sources then I'd get serious about 2 running parallel or 3 running the 12" front to back.
Right now I'm happy with my a8o/hybird so I've got plenty of time to watch what Kessil does with the AP line and see if they want to compete with the Mitra 7's or G4's.

Kessil has deep pockets with their mother company and they will not be knocked out in the led battle. They do their own research and produce their own led's. Most others use someone else's led's but they are not pre-mixed like Kessil and that is a factor.

 

[bif24701]

That's why I like kessil's too. They are the closest thing that I've found to MH shimmer.
You have the AP700 so you can blend in a lot more colors and still stay within the Kessil Logic.

Kessil is a very smart and very close to the vest company but they need to make more AP sizes for the rest of us. Your 72" wide reef is a perfect fit for two units. If they brought out a 12" with 2 point sources then I'd get serious about 2 running parallel or 3 running the 12" front to back.
Right now I'm happy with my a8o/hybird so I've got plenty of time to watch what Kessil does with the AP line and see if they want to compete with the Mitra 7's or G4's.

Kessil has deep pockets with their mother company and they will not be knocked out in the led battle. They do their own research and produce their own led's. Most others use someone else's led's but they are not pre-mixed like Kessil and that is a factor.

I would like to see a modular system of pucks that can be customized to any tank width/height/depth. Maybe I'm dreaming but something like that would be a winner for sure.

Every Kessil product to this point, save for the AP700 initial launch, has been a home run.

I do have more play with the colors. Here is a big advantage. I can keep the blue spectrum strong and add some red/green to make it appear more white without reducing the blue output. That's really sweet I have found.

Shimmer, love it. I mean did you see my video of the flow, I love to look at my tank in the morning before the T5s come on, its majestic.

Off topic: you know all the work, research, money, and sweat I've literally poured into this system you guys and myself are the only ones on the planet that can really appreciate what it really is. I love what I'm doing and the fact that I can and have left my tank completely alone for weeks without a worry. I have a battery back up with 2+ days of power for flow.

It's a biodome coral reef.

 

[GoVols]

Kessil always hits home runs and a 12" AP on inner locking ones would be a home run too.
They also have the ag. grow side of the company too.

Yes, I can see your hard work and Reefing is a passion, No one best way but we all find our way and rhythm.
Lighting is only one piece of the puzzle.