Visual comparison of SKY with and without kessil

[Jon's Reef]

Thought some may be interested in what a little Kessil shimmer adds to the mix. Tank is 36x30x24. Pics taken with orange filter.

2x SKY only (ATI B+ setting)

2x SKY (ATI B+) with 1 A160

 

[Spare time]

I love the layout of that tank

 

[Shooter6]

What are the output settings like on those lights? I thought a single sky was supposed to cover that tank especially how you have your cars placed.

 

[blaxsun]

You definitely have enough coverage!

 

[Jon's Reef]

What are the output settings like on those lights? I thought a single sky was supposed to cover that tank especially how you have your cars placed.

Will dial in the par today, don’t have the numbers yet. Currently set to 50% int.

If you only had small frags and low rock work, 1 might work. But 36x24 is really the limit for 1. 30” width requires mounting them transverse to get the wrap around coverage.

Here is a pic from the side to give an idea of coverage. Note that the darker areas are not lack of par from the Sky, rather it is just contrast to the kessil.

 

[minus9]

I like how the Kessil adds some contrast and depth, which the panel lights and T5’s don’t. It probably looks much better in person with the Kessil on?

 

[Shooter6]

Will dial in the par today, don’t have the numbers yet. Currently set to 50% int.

If you only had small frags and low rock work, 1 might work. But 36x24 is really the limit for 1. 30” width requires mounting them transverse to get the wrap around coverage.

Here is a pic from the side to give an idea of coverage. Note that the darker areas are not lack of par from the Sky, rather it is just contrast to the kessil.

From the pics it appears all the light loving corals are more central. The lights I run are at 35% per channel, and four fixtures give me 300 par across the bottom evenly on my 8x3x2 400g

 

[Shooter6]

I guess I expected more from the sky then it's capable of.
I saw a shallow 8ft display at aquadome in Austin with I believe 3 sky over it and it looked fully lit as well.

 

[Jon's Reef]

Here is a par map at noon. 8" off waterline. The numbers are on the corals (so some are on the sand, some high up... see the other reference pics for an idea of height in the tank. Notice the shimmer is not as apparent during the day due to the whiter SKY setting. In the morning/ evening it looks like the previous pics.
Sky schedule:
7:00 am: 0%
7:30 am: 25%, B+
10:00 am: 50%, AB+
12:00 pm: 50%, SKY
5:00 pm: 50%, AB+
8:30 pm: 25%, B+
10:00 pm: 0% (Moonlight until morning)
Kessil A160 schedule:
7:00 am: 0%, 50% color
12:00 pm: 100%, 100% color (white)
10:00 pm: 0%, 50% color

 

[Shooter6]

Here is a par map at noon. 8" off waterline. The numbers are on the corals (so some are on the sand, some high up... see the other reference pics for an idea of height in the tank. Notice the shimmer is not as apparent during the day due to the whiter SKY setting. In the morning/ evening it looks like the previous pics.
Sky schedule:
7:00 am: 0%
7:30 am: 25%, B+
10:00 am: 50%, AB+
12:00 pm: 50%, SKY
5:00 pm: 50%, AB+
8:30 pm: 25%, B+
10:00 pm: 0% (Moonlight until morning)
Kessil A160 schedule:
7:00 am: 0%, 50% color
12:00 pm: 100%, 100% color (white)
10:00 pm: 0%, 50% color

I like the white look as well. I expected higher par then your measurements though. .

 

[Jon's Reef]

I like how the Kessil adds some contrast and depth, which the panel lights and T5’s don’t. It probably looks much better in person with the Kessil on?

The SKY are providing the par for the corals, the kessil is providing the shimmer for me. Pics definitely do not show it as cool as it is in person. I have tried many combinations over the last few years (kessil + G5, Kessil + T5, kessil + RB). This is the best coverage plus shimmer that I have ever seen.

The color "purity" is also really nice. The blue is a nice rich royal/ actinic color while the white of the kessil is very purely delineated.

 

[Shooter6]

The SKY are providing the par for the corals, the kessil is providing the shimmer for me. Pics definitely do not show it as cool as it is in person. I have tried many combinations over the last few years (kessil + G5, Kessil + T5, kessil + RB). This is the best coverage plus shimmer that I have ever seen.

The color "purity" is also really nice. The blue is a nice rich royal/ actinic color while the white of the kessil is very purely delineated.

If you have youtube, upload a vid there then add a link here

 

[Jon's Reef]

I guess I expected more from the sky then it's capable of.
I saw a shallow 8ft display at aquadome in Austin with I believe 3 sky over it and it looked fully lit as well.

I like the white look as well. I expected higher par then your measurements though. .

The numbers seem pretty decent to me. In particular how the par is fairly consistent with depth (150-200 on the sand, 250-300 at ~9-12" depth, 350-400 at 6" depth.

If I kept the rock below 50% of the tank height and had small frags the coverage of one would be OK. This same 2 sky setup could cover a 48"x36".

 

[Chrisv.]

This looks really fantastic. I'm with @Shooter6, it would be great to see a video of the tank at the various lighting settings you describe a few posts up (your daily schedule).

I'm sure this is PLENTY of light for your coral.

Nice job!

 

[Jon's Reef]

Let's see if these videos work:
Sky Setting

AB+ Setting

B+ Setting

 

[Chrisv.]

Let's see if these videos work:
Sky Setting

AB+ Setting

B+ Setting

Very cool! I'm assuming there is an orange filter on your camera for these videos. Are these a pretty faithful representation of what you see by eye, or is it much bluer?

 

[Jon's Reef]

Very cool! I'm assuming there is an orange filter on your camera for these videos. Are these a pretty faithful representation of what you see by eye, or is it much bluer?

I just reuploaded them. For some reason it was degrading the quality when I went from iphone to youtube.

Yes, orange filter. The color is pretty close, but in person it is closer to what is shown in the pic of the first post.

 

[Chrisv.]

Isn't it such a bummer that for the price they ask for a sky, it's still nessecary to add a kessil to get that punch? They even know it's a problem. They market the shimmer producing ability that comes with the unfrosted area of the panel.

The results you have achieved are what a high end light like the sky should just be able to do. It's great that you solved this for them but how disappointing that they didn't get there on their own.

 

[dedragon]

I dont think any other led beats out kessil for flat out shimmer quality of the dense matrix led and reflector. Hard to do it all but that is what metal halides are for (but we all know the downsides to that as well).
That being said i would like for kessil to include a blue led strip in some of their fixtures like the ap9x to deal with shading and led pop but that would only cause the fixture to be that much more expensive. Same thing if neptune decide to add dense led clusters to there light panel, the price would go up even more.

 

[Chrisv.]

I dont think any other led beats out kessil for flat out shimmer quality of the dense matrix led and reflector. Hard to do it all but that is what metal halides are for (but we all know the downsides to that as well).
That being said i would like for kessil to include a blue led strip in some of their fixtures like the ap9x to deal with shading and led pop but that would only cause the fixture to be that much more expensive. Same thing if neptune decide to add dense led clusters to there light panel, the price would go up even more.

When a black box led can cost $100, it's hard to imagine that the cost of the sky led can be attributed to anything more than greed on Neptune's part. Adding some dense cluster of LEDs may cost slightly more, but the margins on these lights must be sky high.