I have 1 kessil 360we and 1 kessil a160 and I have them on a 46 gallon tank and the par at the top of the tank is 136 and it goes down from there and that's on 100 percent intensity so I'm wondering if I need to add more light and maybe buy the aquatic life hybrid fixture with t5 or what I should do to raise my par if I really need to and right now I have lps corals and some bounce mushrooms and 1 montipora coral so can anyone help me out deciding what I should do
Kessil lights
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Scurvy
Pirate Reefer
Kessils are notorious for low Par readings however those readings usually are inaccurately low. For whatever reason Kessil output isnt picked up well with today’s Par meters. Point being even though it says 136 Par at top you’ll still most likely cook a coral in that spot.
@saltyfilmfolks probably has a more scientific answer for you
@saltyfilmfolks probably has a more scientific answer for you
I’ll disagree. Par meters work fine on kessils. If they didn’t, gravity wouldn’t work either. Cuz, science.Kessils are notorious for low Par readings however those readings usually are inaccurately low. For whatever reason Kessil output isnt picked up well with today’s Par meters. Point being even though it says 136 Par at top you’ll still most likely cook a coral in that spot.
@saltyfilmfolks probably has a more scientific answer for you
I’d Recheck the meter and scan the top of the tank. You could have 136 in spots but I’d doubt its that all over the tank.
What meter is it?
madweazl
2500 Club Member
How high are the lights mounted? More than 6" off the water and PAR falls off dramatically. They have fantastic spread and color blending so they dont need to be mounted high. For comparison, I hit about 205 PAR 8" below the surface with the lights (A360WEs) mounted 5" off the water. I run mine at 80% intensity with T5s to produce about 300 PAR and I dont fry anything.
Lol. That’s what kessil wants to say yea. I a super complicated way, yea you shouldn’t measure the. Number of photons hitting a subject with a par meter. But we do because in a super complicated way , it works perfectly for the exact same reasons.Really?? Coulda sworn that was the concensus.... That’s why i called in the light guy.
I've heard the whole Kessils and PAR meter thing as well and it never made sense to me. Like you say, science says a PAR meter has to pick up ANY light within its readable area. A meter doesn't look and say, "Hey a Kessil! Under read by 50%!"
If the light being put out is within its measurable area, a meter will pick it up.
madweazl
2500 Club Member
I believe their logic is that because their lights produce spectrum down to about 380nm, a measurable portion of total PAR isnt read well by a PAR meter [typical hobby grade]. With that said, I have no idea how significant that is.
randy4083
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I borrowed a meter from my club I'll have to ask them what meter it is and I have my lights about 9 inches off of the water because that's what kessil tells you to put them at and at the top of my rocks most of the way across it reads the 137 and a little bit down it goes down around 100 and at the sand bed it drops all the way down to around 40 so it drops off bigtime
Yep. Like pretty much all other reeflights do.
Thing is, thers not really that much in thier lights. You can see that just by looking. I still thinks it’s a sales gimmic and spin.
Honestly , if you can’t test for what you put in the tank , one put it in, sooo.
Lol.
Just as salty says....T5s and MH also put out this range and have for years. They probably put out MORE light in this range than any LEDs on the market. Hence, LED makers are starting to offer spectrum below the 400nm range because they are trying to copy what has worked in the past.
Do you still have the meter ?
Kessil does produce more light in that spectrum than many others on the market but again, I cant quantify that "number."
It’s still minor relative to what else is in the Light. And we still aren’t sure if they actually use it.
randy4083
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No I took it back today but I'll find out which model it was but he did say that it measures metal halide and t5 better but still would give me around about answer on the LEDs but let me ask him really fast
Kessil figured it out before many others. When I was messing around with LEDs so heavily, I ran Ecoxotic's Violet 403nm strips in my Panorama fixture and saw a noticeable difference from the standard royal blue/white combo everyone was running, including me. After a lot of money and time, I had to end all those experiments over my tank.Kessil does produce more light in that spectrum than many others on the market but again, I cant quantify that "number."
madweazl
2500 Club Member
It’s still minor relative to what else is in the Light. And we still aren’t sure if they actually use it.
We arent sure if who actually uses what? If you're referring to Kessil, it has been measured [by a third party]. Also visible (or not as the case may be
) if you look at the emitter.
Weather the coral uses it or if it’s just us who likes black light.We arent sure if who actually uses what? If you're referring to Kessil, it has been measured. Also visible (or not as the case may be
randy4083
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I'm waiting on him to answer me back but I know that it was an old apogee meter and it only had a turn nob that went from off to on and all the new par meters have buttons so I'm pretty sure that it was an older model
