Hey fellow reef nerds!
Im currently running a 48" aquaticlife t5 with ati blue plus and coral plus bulbs, and 3 kessil a360we over my red sea reefer 450 (5 foot tank). I'm getting good par numbers, good distribution of light, and good growth, but compared to my Dsuny cheapo chinese LEDs, the kessils just kind of look lackluster. They have much better shimmer and spread, but are noticeably lacking that purpley actinic type UV light that makes the corals really glow. From what I have read, all kessils do have UV built into the chip, but they just dont give my corals the same pop as the Dsuny lights which have 6 uv LEDs built in, and visibly at least the kessils have zero purple in them.
I'm thinking I want to add some dedicated LED UV lights to my setup for that purple pop and as a moonlight. So with that said, does anyone have any experience/opinion on the reefbrite UVA LED lights or something similar? The RB UVs come in 3" 2.5W and 8" 9W versions. I am wondering how many I would need, for instance, could I get away with 2 of the mini 2.5W units to just give a little purple pop, or on the flip side would 2 of the 8" units would be overkill and possibly burn corals? From my limited research people say that the 8" unit is more than enough for big tanks, but with the 3 kessils in the AL fixture I would have to mount the 8" unit on one side or the other which I think would look wierd and unbalanced. Here are the 2 contenders for now. Any alternatives, advice, or input would be appreciated!!
Im currently running a 48" aquaticlife t5 with ati blue plus and coral plus bulbs, and 3 kessil a360we over my red sea reefer 450 (5 foot tank). I'm getting good par numbers, good distribution of light, and good growth, but compared to my Dsuny cheapo chinese LEDs, the kessils just kind of look lackluster. They have much better shimmer and spread, but are noticeably lacking that purpley actinic type UV light that makes the corals really glow. From what I have read, all kessils do have UV built into the chip, but they just dont give my corals the same pop as the Dsuny lights which have 6 uv LEDs built in, and visibly at least the kessils have zero purple in them.
I'm thinking I want to add some dedicated LED UV lights to my setup for that purple pop and as a moonlight. So with that said, does anyone have any experience/opinion on the reefbrite UVA LED lights or something similar? The RB UVs come in 3" 2.5W and 8" 9W versions. I am wondering how many I would need, for instance, could I get away with 2 of the mini 2.5W units to just give a little purple pop, or on the flip side would 2 of the 8" units would be overkill and possibly burn corals? From my limited research people say that the 8" unit is more than enough for big tanks, but with the 3 kessils in the AL fixture I would have to mount the 8" unit on one side or the other which I think would look wierd and unbalanced. Here are the 2 contenders for now. Any alternatives, advice, or input would be appreciated!!