Sean W.
Active Member
What's going on everyone!
I am so excited to share this product I found that works for the Kessil A360X!!
I'm putting together my 90 gallon reef tank and I wanted to have a floating canopy above the tank. The BRS recommended height for the A360X is 8" above the water level of the tank. This wasn't enough space for me to have a big enough gap between the tank and the canopy. So I grabbed a pair of the 55degree reflectors to mount the lights higher at the BRS recommended mounting height of 13".
This gave me the mounting height that I needed to get a good gap between the canopy and the tank, but there was a LOT of light spill into the room. My tank is right next to my couch and in the seats closer to the tank, you can see up into the canopy and the searing arc of the LED shines right into your eyes.
I taped a piece of cardboard up there to see if that would block the light and it did! I knew I needed a better solution than a flap of cardboard to block the light. Also, that just solved the light onto the couch, there was still a ton of light spill into the room.
I started to look at for light shades and I came across these and thought I would give them a shot, worst case I would just return them if they didn't work. I have a 3D printer and have pretty good skills designing CAD files, so I knew if they didn't work, I could probably design some kind of adapter to get them to work.
I got them in today and they worked so perfect I had to run to my computer to spread the word.
The build quality is great! They are powder coated black and feel very sturdy.
These are made for Par38 bulbs, which are these kind of bulbs. Apparently "PAR##" is a way of determining what size of light bulb you need, for example, Par20, par30 and par38. You multiply the Par# bulb by .125" and that gives you the diameter of the bulb. So Par38: 38 x 0.125" = 4.75" diameter bulb. The Kessil A360X has a diameter of about 4.4", so I knew it wasn't going to be a snug fit, but thought I would give a shot. Like I said, I could 3D print an adapter if I needed.
Turns out the fit PERFECT. With little effort I was able to squeeze the A360X through the spring retention pieces and it just held onto it perfectly.
Here's the underside
And with the 55degree reflector
It does not interfere with any of the controls or mounting points. It just works on it like it was made for it!
AND, as it so happens, with it being a bit too large, it worked out perfect because that gives the hot exhaust air from the cooling for a place to go still without needing to drill ventilation holes into the light shade
Here they are mounted into my canopy, looking quite sharp!
Finally, a before and after showing the difference between the light spill into the room. I can improve on this further with some tape to fill the gaps between the gaps in the shade, but for straight out of the box, this is a massive improvement.
An elegant and relatively inexpensive solution to a problem!
Let me know what you think!
I am so excited to share this product I found that works for the Kessil A360X!!
I'm putting together my 90 gallon reef tank and I wanted to have a floating canopy above the tank. The BRS recommended height for the A360X is 8" above the water level of the tank. This wasn't enough space for me to have a big enough gap between the tank and the canopy. So I grabbed a pair of the 55degree reflectors to mount the lights higher at the BRS recommended mounting height of 13".
This gave me the mounting height that I needed to get a good gap between the canopy and the tank, but there was a LOT of light spill into the room. My tank is right next to my couch and in the seats closer to the tank, you can see up into the canopy and the searing arc of the LED shines right into your eyes.
I taped a piece of cardboard up there to see if that would block the light and it did! I knew I needed a better solution than a flap of cardboard to block the light. Also, that just solved the light onto the couch, there was still a ton of light spill into the room.
I started to look at for light shades and I came across these and thought I would give them a shot, worst case I would just return them if they didn't work. I have a 3D printer and have pretty good skills designing CAD files, so I knew if they didn't work, I could probably design some kind of adapter to get them to work.
I got them in today and they worked so perfect I had to run to my computer to spread the word.
The build quality is great! They are powder coated black and feel very sturdy.
These are made for Par38 bulbs, which are these kind of bulbs. Apparently "PAR##" is a way of determining what size of light bulb you need, for example, Par20, par30 and par38. You multiply the Par# bulb by .125" and that gives you the diameter of the bulb. So Par38: 38 x 0.125" = 4.75" diameter bulb. The Kessil A360X has a diameter of about 4.4", so I knew it wasn't going to be a snug fit, but thought I would give a shot. Like I said, I could 3D print an adapter if I needed.
Turns out the fit PERFECT. With little effort I was able to squeeze the A360X through the spring retention pieces and it just held onto it perfectly.
Here's the underside
And with the 55degree reflector
It does not interfere with any of the controls or mounting points. It just works on it like it was made for it!
AND, as it so happens, with it being a bit too large, it worked out perfect because that gives the hot exhaust air from the cooling for a place to go still without needing to drill ventilation holes into the light shade
Here they are mounted into my canopy, looking quite sharp!
Finally, a before and after showing the difference between the light spill into the room. I can improve on this further with some tape to fill the gaps between the gaps in the shade, but for straight out of the box, this is a massive improvement.
An elegant and relatively inexpensive solution to a problem!
Let me know what you think!
