Kessil A360 Brightness/Color w/controller?

[Lylelovett]

Hi all,

Now that my tank is up and running I'm trying to dial my lights in.

I have a 5x2x2 mixed reef (first tank). My tank is cycled, I have 5 various frags, 6 fish, 2 stars, 3 emerald crabs and snails...

I have 3 Kessil A360s connected in series to my GHL P4. They are approx 6-7" off the water.

My current settings are:

Color:
9a - 0%
12p - 60%
4p - 60%
9p - 0%

Brightness:
9a - 0%
12p - 90%
5p - 90%
9p - 0%

Questions:
1. Are my lights on too long?
2. Do they get too bright?
3. Do they need to be raised off the water more?

Any expertise you can lend would be great.

Thanks!

 

[Crabs McJones]

The way you have them now actually sounds pretty good. 10 to 12 hour cycle and at that size tank your intensity should be spot on. I'd leave it and see how your corals respond.

 

[Daniel Waters]

Hi all,

Now that my tank is up and running I'm trying to dial my lights in.

I have a 5x2x2 mixed reef (first tank). My tank is cycled, I have 5 various frags, 6 fish, 2 stars, 3 emerald crabs and snails...

I have 3 Kessil A360s connected in series to my GHL P4. They are approx 6-7" off the water.

My current settings are:

Color:
9a - 0%
12p - 60%
4p - 60%
9p - 0%

Brightness:
9a - 0%
12p - 90%
5p - 90%
9p - 0%

Questions:
1. Are my lights on too long?
2. Do they get too bright?
3. Do they need to be raised off the water more?

Any expertise you can lend would be great.

Thanks!

1. Photo period is fine. Shorter or even slightly longer would still be acceptable.
2. Too bright? As far as brightness to your eyes, set the color to what your visual preference is. The kessil color range is designed to stay in an appropriate range regardless of the color setting. As far as par, I can't imagine you are too high. If you aren't keeping sps corals or clams, you probably don't need 90% intensity but your par levels should still be within an acceptable range for any lower light corals such as softies and lps.
3. Those lights have pretty wide angle lenses, so you're not likely getting hot spots at that mounting height now. So you don't need to raise them. If you want a wider coverage area or just prefer a higher mounting height, you could raise them slightly but the wide angle lenses may start to get too much light spill as you raise them.

 

[Lylelovett]

1. Photo period is fine. Shorter or even slightly longer would still be acceptable.
2. Too bright? As far as brightness to your eyes, set the color to what your visual preference is. The kessil color range is designed to stay in an appropriate range regardless of the color setting. As far as par, I can't imagine you are too high. If you aren't keeping sps corals or clams, you probably don't need 90% intensity but your par levels should still be within an acceptable range for any lower light corals such as softies and lps.
3. Those lights have pretty wide angle lenses, so you're not likely getting hot spots at that mounting height now. So you don't need to raise them. If you want a wider coverage area or just prefer a higher mounting height, you could raise them slightly but the wide angle lenses may start to get too much light spill as you raise them.

Copy that. Thanks for the help - I will play around.