Kessil Troubles with my coral

[Briko03]

I have one Kessil A360W light on my 60 gallon cube which is 24"x24"x24". The light is about 4-6" off the surface of the water.

When I bought the light my LFS seemed to think that one of them would be enough.

This is my first experience with an LED, let alone a controllable one. None of my corals seem to be thriving or growing at all. From what I can tell there aren't issues with my water parameters and the fish seem to be doing fine. I have mostly zoas and some lps.

I have read issues about the LEDs being too strong and "bleaching" the coral, but I also have concerns about the depth of my tank and the light night being strong enough.

Any thoughts on which is more likely in my scenario?

I have the schedule on the light to be set for the following (controlled by the kessil controller):
9 AM
Color: 0
Intensity : 15

11 AM
Color:20
Intensity: 50

1 PM
Color: 50
Intensity: 100

3 PM
Color: 75
Intensity: 100

5 PM
Color: 40
Intensity: 50

7 PM
Color: 0
Intensity: 0

 

[Shep]

Those lights have a lot of power, at 100% power you are giving the corals more than enough light. Try playing with the light color and intensity values and you might be able to find a sweet spot. [HASHTAG]#reefsquad[/HASHTAG] might be able to better help.

 

[Mattyice008]

I talked with a guy from kessil and he says the tank size he would do for max of 1 kessil and power is a 60 cube, and he runs it @ 100% power. I have a 360we over a 16gal tank that I run at 100%.

 

[kacrocorals581]

probably not the lights fault that light is more than strong enough

 

[Bad Company]

My tank is only 16" deep, but my 360WE was WAYYYY to strong at 100%... I run MAX at 50% and my corals are looking much better.

 

[zemuss]

IT depends on the corals and what lighting your coming from. IMO this is the #1 issue with running LEDS.. Too much intense light bleaching, too little brown out. I would probably dial this light back to about 60% at the peak and go from there.. Not to mention wrong color spectrum can also cause issues.

 

[Mattyice008]

My 360we is 2ft from sandbed, on a 2"x 1" x 1" and I have corals exploding in growth..using controller with the kessil, it runs 10 hours, with 3-4 hrs of ramping split between morning and night, and 5-6 hours of 70%+ intensity, topping out at 100% for 90-120min. The guy at kessil acted like I was insane as well as many others, but I have acans the size of half-dollars on the sandbed, favias and chalices 12-14inches from the light that have great growth. Color tops out at about 30% I think. Just sharing my experience with my kessil. Been running since October 2014

 

[hybridazn]

I would either lower thr intensity or raise the light up to around the 8" mark above the waterline. That would be a good starting point.

 

[hart24601]

Is there a PAR meter you can borrow from a club or anything? My 1st guess would be you need more or longer intensity. Do the zoas stretch or contract or change at all during the day? How about the LPS, puffy or change during the day?

FWIW I found some posts with the 360w and PAR and sounds like a total of 24" from light to bottom PAR directy under the light is around 150-170 at 100% intensity. I have my zoas and LPS in various lighting from 200-500 PAR.

 

[Briko03]

Advice generally seems to be all over the map on this subject huh.

My 360we is 2ft from sandbed, on a 2"x 1" x 1" and I have corals exploding in growth..using controller with the kessil, it runs 10 hours, with 3-4 hrs of ramping split between morning and night, and 5-6 hours of 70%+ intensity, topping out at 100% for 90-120min. The guy at kessil acted like I was insane as well as many others, but I have acans the size of half-dollars on the sandbed, favias and chalices 12-14inches from the light that have great growth. Color tops out at about 30% I think. Just sharing my experience with my kessil. Been running since October 2014

MattyIce, can you clarify your tank dimensions. I'm guessing you mean't feet and not inches?

 

[Mattyice008]

Yea, its a nuvo 16 classic. 2ft long, 1ft wide but only 10inches of display, and 1ft high. I work at a lfs and we have 6 or so kessils on various tanks, all of them pushed to at least 70% intensity, and most to 100%. Some of those tanks to give you an idea are a 25 cube, 28 cube, and a 14biocube. The rest are on frag tanks with random coverage

 

[mr_gasket]

Here's what I had programmed into my apex over my 45 cube 24x24x18.

Fallback OFF
Set OFF
If Time 10:00 to 12:30 Then ColDawn
If Time 12:31 to 15:00 Then Colmid
If Time 15:01 to 16:00 Then ColDayup
If Time 16:01 to 17:00 Then ColDayDown
If Time 17:01 to 19:30 Then Colmid
If Time 19:31 to 22:00 Then ColDusk

Fallback OFF
Set OFF
If Time 10:00 to 12:30 Then IntDawn
If Time 12:31 to 15:00 Then Intmid
If Time 15:01 to 17:00 Then IntDay
If Time 17:01 to 19:30 Then Intmid
If Time 19:31 to 22:00 Then IntDusk

IntDawn- Ramp 60 min., 20-70
Intmid - Ramp 1 min., 70-70
IntDay - Ramp 1 min., 70-70
IntDusk - Ramp 180 min., 70-30

ColDawn – Ramp 1 min., 0-0
Colmid – Ramp 1 min., 50-50
ColDayup – Ramp 60 min., 70-80
ColDayDown – Ramp 60 min., 80-70
ColDusk - Ramp 1 min., 0-0

 

[reefaboo]

How long have you been using kessils also matters ..

unlike other leds .. corals take a couple of months to adjust to kessil. once they adjust everything will be awsome

 

[Briko03]

Well the corals were obviously under other lights before my tank but the tank was set up with the kessil.

 

[Shep]

How long have you been using kessils also matters ..

unlike other leds .. corals take a couple of months to adjust to kessil. once they adjust everything will be awsome

Why would the lights being Kessil make them take more or less time to adjust to compared with other LEDs?

 

[reefaboo]

Why would the lights being Kessil make them take more or less time to adjust to compared with other LEDs?

Well not sure but thats just my experience, most probably had to do with their proprietary spectrum blend and also kessil has more uv ( not uv leds but uv spectrum) in the dense matrix led

Also at 50% color and 100% intensity, PAR is little too much even for sps

If you like the bluer look of the tank, i would do 15-20 percent of color or so and 100% of intensity for about 6-7 hours ( not including the ramp up and down time) i had kessil 360we over a 2 foot cube too and that seems to work well for me.

And yes give it time atleast month and half or so, kessils are too strong and under lighting would never be a problem with them

 

[Briko03]

So is the general feeling that the lighting is too intense with these settings?

 

[reefaboo]

So is the general feeling that the lighting is too intense with these settings?

For sure it is too strong for any corals in the middle 10x10 area under the light

Corals that are to the side should be fine

 

[Hellsinki]

I wouldn't go balls out on a kessil without taking some small steps first to acclimate. Acclimate the corals over a couple of weeks. I moved my livestock from a smaller tank with a single A160WE to my new tank with two A360WE over it. I kept the same exact program except backed off intensity from 100 down to 75. All seem happy since I started my new tank a couple of weeks ago. Baby steps.

 

[kevin32]

The UV emit from the Kessil is strong. Be very careful, don't under estimate the kessil. I'm only doing 50% at peek. I'll bump it up every 2 week until 65%.