Joey Marino
New Member
- Joined
- Aug 23, 2016
- Messages
- 20
- Reaction score
- 15
I got these lights about a week ago now and wanted to do a little write up concerning the questions I could not find answers to while researching them.
I replaced 2 of my 3 Kessil a150w Ocean Blues and kept one in the middle. My tank is 4' wide 18" long and 18" deep to the sand bed. My lights are evenly spread, each illuminating 1/3 of my tank. This works out very nicely for me, however, if I wanted to have just the hydras lighting it it would be more than enough provided no center overflow. The hydras are centered front to back, and when my one Kessil is off there is certainly a shadow near the middle of the tank. Not a problem for me and could probably be resolved if the hydras were placed more centered.
The majority of the negative reviews of this light were the app interface. Although I do agree that the interface is a little buggy I am certainly not complaining about it. Seeing as I did not have to buy a $100 controller, I will take it as a win (not to mention friends think its really cool that I use my phone). Additionally, the wifi issues are very real. I cannot connect to my home network even after placing an extender <5 feet from my tank. I am a simple man however, and do not mind tapping into the wifi that is provided by the lights themselves. Which brings me to my biggest surprise, these lights create their own network! As long as you have electricity and an internet device you can program them. Lastly, setting them up wasn't hard but very weird. The indicator on the back was flashing, then pulsing then the entire LED would flash and then it would be black again. I let it run its course and it set up a parent/child system and was fully controllable within 5 minutes. Not sure what happened still but no worries on my end.
One of my favorite things about the lights are that the fans automatically turn on and off when they are needed. This means that dust will accumulate much slower, motors will last longer and they will continue to be SILENT longer. Although these fans move a lot of air over the heat sinks, they are incredibly quiet, to a point that I have to see if they are running and can't just listen.
Without a doubt my biggest gripe is that you cannot set a schedule without "sampling" the selection. This is super annoying. If I want to change something for tomorrow while my lights are ramping down at 10pm , BOOM 80% capacity and scared fish. However, being able to control each channel is new to me and it is completely awesome. Also the lighting storms, however much of a gimmick is cool.
For those interested in mounting, I went the DIY route. You can see by the pictures that I already made a light bracket using 2x4's and little gold hooks. All I had to do for my Kessils was hang them, because if they rotated who cares. However, for the hydras I had to run fishing line independently through each side in order to keep them straight with my tank. This proved a blessing is disguise though, because I could then very easily level and center them. As a safety I still ran a line into the gold hook which provided a third contact to the railing. The only materials I used were the plastic wire organizer given to me by a friend, fishing line and the two screws that came with the lights. Better than spending $35 on their mount, especially because mine is invisible.
Thanks for reading, and I'm sure I'll be adding to this as more things come to mind!
I replaced 2 of my 3 Kessil a150w Ocean Blues and kept one in the middle. My tank is 4' wide 18" long and 18" deep to the sand bed. My lights are evenly spread, each illuminating 1/3 of my tank. This works out very nicely for me, however, if I wanted to have just the hydras lighting it it would be more than enough provided no center overflow. The hydras are centered front to back, and when my one Kessil is off there is certainly a shadow near the middle of the tank. Not a problem for me and could probably be resolved if the hydras were placed more centered.
The majority of the negative reviews of this light were the app interface. Although I do agree that the interface is a little buggy I am certainly not complaining about it. Seeing as I did not have to buy a $100 controller, I will take it as a win (not to mention friends think its really cool that I use my phone). Additionally, the wifi issues are very real. I cannot connect to my home network even after placing an extender <5 feet from my tank. I am a simple man however, and do not mind tapping into the wifi that is provided by the lights themselves. Which brings me to my biggest surprise, these lights create their own network! As long as you have electricity and an internet device you can program them. Lastly, setting them up wasn't hard but very weird. The indicator on the back was flashing, then pulsing then the entire LED would flash and then it would be black again. I let it run its course and it set up a parent/child system and was fully controllable within 5 minutes. Not sure what happened still but no worries on my end.
One of my favorite things about the lights are that the fans automatically turn on and off when they are needed. This means that dust will accumulate much slower, motors will last longer and they will continue to be SILENT longer. Although these fans move a lot of air over the heat sinks, they are incredibly quiet, to a point that I have to see if they are running and can't just listen.
Without a doubt my biggest gripe is that you cannot set a schedule without "sampling" the selection. This is super annoying. If I want to change something for tomorrow while my lights are ramping down at 10pm , BOOM 80% capacity and scared fish. However, being able to control each channel is new to me and it is completely awesome. Also the lighting storms, however much of a gimmick is cool.
For those interested in mounting, I went the DIY route. You can see by the pictures that I already made a light bracket using 2x4's and little gold hooks. All I had to do for my Kessils was hang them, because if they rotated who cares. However, for the hydras I had to run fishing line independently through each side in order to keep them straight with my tank. This proved a blessing is disguise though, because I could then very easily level and center them. As a safety I still ran a line into the gold hook which provided a third contact to the railing. The only materials I used were the plastic wire organizer given to me by a friend, fishing line and the two screws that came with the lights. Better than spending $35 on their mount, especially because mine is invisible.
Thanks for reading, and I'm sure I'll be adding to this as more things come to mind!
