Supplement Kessils w/ T5, space constraint

djrice69 · Jan 1, 2018

saltyfilmfolks said:
Is that the two color sbars or the just blues?

All blue with some violet I believe

ntayler · Jan 1, 2018

Daniel Waters said:
I think I see what your saying. It looks like your braces are in fixed spots where you have your A360s, so buying one more light and shifting all 4 is a no go (correct me if I'm wrong).

I'd start with one two bulb T5 retrofit and see what you think. The t5's will take care of the shadowing. Unless you need more par, you may not need more LEDs. The wide angle on the kessils gives great spread, but I have mine mounted at 13" so the par level was reduced and I had to add more units (I have 4 A360s, 2 radion xr15s, and 2, two bulb t5 fixtures on my 72" x 24" tank).

Go to BRS and look at their retrofits. I think the razors 2 bulb is 7.7". The supra slim line 2 bulb is 5.5" I believe.

Another option is to consider an LED bar, but I've never used and I can't comment if it will give the same look like a t5 will.

The braces I was referring to are the actual black tank rim braces, leaving me three openings at the top of the tank. hence why fitting a 4th 360 would be unpractical. You are right though, the shelving brackets that the lights are currently hanging from are fixed to the wall (they also hold up my canopy).

I will do some more measuring and see what I can do with possible t5 configurations and moving or moving the kessils back a few inches.

Also going to check out those led bars. Really my goals are a more even distribution of light, option of slightly more par (dependent on how much I scale back the kessil intensity), and mitigate shadowing in the future when I hopefully have some nice colonies.

Really appreciate everyone’s responses!

NY_Sea · Jan 1, 2018

Supplementing with t5s to reduce shadowing sounds like a good idea plus all that extra par can't hurt. I bet You could get away with 2 of these 2 bulb fixtures for a total of 4.
Hamilton Aruba Sun T5 Retrofit with LEDs - V Series

ntayler · Jan 1, 2018

PristineWaters said:
Supplementing with t5s to reduce shadowing sounds like a good idea plus all that extra par can't hurt. I bet You could get away with 2 of these 2 bulb fixtures for a total of 4.
Hamilton Aruba Sun T5 Retrofit with LEDs - V Series

Definitely not enough room for that

but that fixture is the narrowest and cheapest I’ve seen (sans LED in middle). It looks like a decent option when I go for it