Kessils and MH?

[Kehaulani]

Halides are awesome don't get me wrong. I love my halides. But when you already have the kessils and you're not doing sps, there's no point in switching. zoas and LPS do fine under LED. Something I have noticed about led and zoas though is led's make zoas much smaller. While with halides most zoas get fairly large. Just an observation, I have no clue what might cause this.

Just stick with your kessils and if you want to get into the SPS world, add t5's instead. They will work better together with your kessils. Kessils in the middle with 2-3 T5's on each side (Front and back).

Thanks for the input. Hm that's interesting cause my red hornets and Tubbs blue are really small polyps. I didn't know if they were normally small or if was because of my lighting.

 

[JVH]

I purchased a Current Orbits led. I thought spending 125.00 was enough for an LED light. I was wrong! It was a good starter light and if I was a fish only tank it would suffice. But with corals, it sustained them but not until the kessel did they grow!

 

[Kehaulani]

I am upgrading soon and decided to get a kessel 360w and put it on my 30g reef tank.. I am totally AMAZED at the color and growth! I think after 3 days I noticed difference! EVERYTHING in the tank has improved only n a few short weeks. I run a 12hr cycle with a ramp up to only 80% for 3hrs before a slow ramp down. Since the tank is small I was afraid to cook them at 100%. I can only imagine the growth at 100% in a bigger tank! Best investment I made in made in this hobby! I have no need to add anything else except an additional kessel if needed on the bigger tank. My 2 cents!

I agree. I had an orbit LED light on my smaller 46 gallon when I first started. When I upgraded to the 75 my boyfriend bought me the kessils. I saw improvements right away and am super happy with the lights. I'm thinking about keeping them. Maybe I'll add another one day but right now I'll be taking everyone's advice and seeing what happens. I like that it shimmers and it's cost efficient

 

[diablomaster9045]

Thanks for the input. Hm that's interesting cause my red hornets and Tubbs blue are really small polyps. I didn't know if they were normally small or if was because of my lighting.

probability lighting. My recommendation is dial back the kessils and if they don't get a bit bigger within a month, add a 2 bulb t5 with a ATI coral + and a UVL 75 25.

Cheap t5 fixture for future reference if needed: http://www.aquatraders.com/48-inch-2x54W-T5-Aquarium-Light-Fixture-p/52123.htm

Note you must change the bulbs in that fixture. The stock bulbs are terrible.

 

[Kehaulani]

probability lighting. My recommendation is dial back the kessils and if they don't get a bit bigger within a month, add a 2 bulb t5 with a ATI coral + and a UVL 75 25.

Cheap t5 fixture for future reference if needed: http://www.aquatraders.com/48-inch-2x54W-T5-Aquarium-Light-Fixture-p/52123.htm

Note you must change the bulbs in that fixture. The stock bulbs are terrible.

OK thanks. I'll dial them back to about 65%. Think that's a good amount?

 

[Kehaulani]

I just wanna say thanks to everyone who is giving me suggestions. I appreciate them all. Others are welcome to comment with your experience

 

[diablomaster9045]

OK thanks. I'll dial them back to about 65%. Think that's a good amount?

No clue as I have not directly used kessils. but I think the 60-80% range should be good.

 

[JVH]

I ramp to 80% for 3 hours. I have yet to do 100% not even for a short time and they are growing nicely!

 

[Kehaulani]

No clue as I have not directly used kessils. but I think the 60-80% range should be good.

I think I'll start there. HaWrasser said his are around there so we'll see what happens.

 

[JVH]

Oh you definitely can't beat the shimmer of a kessel. It is a very cool look! I'm not sure about adding t5's with the leds. I know people do it and love it.
I'm sticking to my set up until I feel I need to change something or if it seems like stuff is not growing but so far I could not be happier. I would possibly add something if I was dong a large upgrade.

 

[diablomaster9045]

Oh you definitely can't beat the shimmer of a kessel. It is a very cool look! I'm not sure about adding t5's with the leds. I know people do it and love it.
I'm sticking to my set up until I feel I need to change something or if it seems like stuff is not growing but so far I could not be happier. I would possibly add something if I was dong a large upgrade.

+1 best approach to aquariums. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

 

[Kehaulani]

Yep same here. Gonna stick to them and see. As of now I like my zoas and LPS so the kessils work fine according to everyone's response and it just confirms what I already kinda knew.

 

[WetWhistle]

I used MH for over 20 years so I am pretty familiar with what they can do. You can grow anything under them and get great colors. (Depending on spectrum.) Nothing could pull me away from running them all these years. That is till LED. I picket up three AI hydra 52 and I love them. I have a mixed reef that is SPS dominant and even the most light hungry corals I have been able to color up and grow. I do love MH but they cost to much to run energy wise, bulb replacement sucks and heat is a big thing.

The people that had issues with LED for the most part I find used cheap ones with wrong spectrum and to low intensity, didn't set them up right for intensity and spectrum, didn't use them long enough or they bumped up the light intensity to quickly and killed the corals. They are not plug and play so to speak like MH. They do take time to dial in but once you do it is worth it. I would add some T5 or another kessil if you were to change anything.

 

[Kehaulani]

That's one thing that turned me off about the MH is the cost. I'm a college student so I'm always looking for a cheaper route but at the same time don't wanna go too cheap. The kessils seemed like a good way for me to go. It had good ratings and it was cost efficient.

 

[TJ's Reef]

All good advice above IMHO, and have used all available lighting options except plasma in past 33+ years. After working in the Lighting Industry for a time and playing around with any LED emitters I could get my hands on to build a better mousetrap so to say started gathering specific wavelength emitters to emulate a Phoenix 14K lamp (my favorite of the MH lamps for use on my reeftanks) I currently and for almost 5 years have ran my own DIY broad spectrum LED array over a primarily SPS Mixed Reef that has great color and exceptional growth. Quality broad spectrum LED's are currently the pinnacle of lighting tech for our hobby and if setup and understood correctly will out perform any other PERIOD. Having modeled my own array on a Phoenix 14K lamp but with some improvements to overall spectrum IMO by not including some of the Green to Yellow range. Obvious lack of heat issues plus the benefit of LED's in not rapidly changing with spectral degradation inherent of all incandescent and fluorescent lamps, yes could still say that a brand new MH lamp of choice is the Gold Standard to emulate. So dialing in or creating your own mix of emitters to match you can/will essentially end up with the equivalent of a brand new MH lamp that holds spectral integrity for 7-10 years, not months. recently I have switched from a Reef Radiance fixture to Kessil A150-WE's above my frag tank and absolutely am impressed with their output, so much so that I now have 6 of them... lol

Cheers, Todd