Kessil a360x narrow reflector

[Sexytang]

I picked up a kessil reflector for my a360x
When adding the reflector I raised it up to 13” off water line was wondering if I dropped the light down to 8 inches can I drop the intensity down half atm I’m running it at 80 but if I lower light to 8” can I run it at 50

 

[Sexytang]

Any thoughts

 

[JNalley]

The reflector reduces footprint to increase penetration/distance/height. So I'm curious what the situation was that you needed a reflector but still want to have it mounted low? It's not going to cover a very large area in your tank mounted that low I would imagine...

 

[Sexytang]

Got the reflector becsuse the light was shining 4 ft out of my tank in each side and wanted to raise par at lower part of tank

 

[JNalley]

Got the reflector becsuse the light was shining 4 ft out of my tank in each side and wanted to raise par at lower part of tank

So, I have an AP9X, which is essentially 2 A360x in a single unit spaced apart over a 3ft wide by 18" deep and 18" tall tank. I have my light at 7.5" above the water currently (Kessil doesn't make a reflector for it) and there's no light spillage on the left or the right. Only from the front to the back, but that's mainly because the tank is a bit narrow at only 18" deep. I changed up my settings when I lowered it yesterday, it was about 18" off the water and it was shining a bunch of light off the the sides, which mirrors your experience. But, even running my peak brightness at 30% I am still getting well over 200 PAR at the corners of the tank on the sand, it's pushing 350-400 in the center on the sand, and the tops of my rocks (9" below water) are all getting over 450 - 500 PAR.

I said all that because I am wondering how deep your tank is (I am going to be moving up to either a 30" deep tank, or a 36" deep tank soon).

 

[Sexytang]

So, I have an AP9X, which is essentially 2 A360x in a single unit spaced apart over a 3ft wide by 18" deep and 18" tall tank. I have my light at 7.5" above the water currently (Kessil doesn't make a reflector for it) and there's no light spillage on the left or the right. Only from the front to the back, but that's mainly because the tank is a bit narrow at only 18" deep. I changed up my settings when I lowered it yesterday, it was about 18" off the water and it was shining a bunch of light off the the sides, which mirrors your experience. But, even running my peak brightness at 30% I am still getting well over 200 PAR at the corners of the tank on the sand, it's pushing 350-400 in the center on the sand, and the tops of my rocks (9" below water) are all getting over 450 - 500 PAR.

I said all that because I am wondering how deep your tank is (I am going to be moving up to either a 30" deep tank, or a 36" deep tank soon).

My tank is 24” deep

 

[JNalley]

Sorry, in response to your initial question, yes, you could theoretically lower it, and reduce intensity, but it's never as simple as "half height, half intensity". You may need to fiddle with it. I would definitely rent a PAR meter with a target PAR in mind and do it like that. My LFS rents them for $35 and they let you keep it for 3 days, but because nearly no one rents them, they're really loose on the return policy. They let me keep it for a week and I charged a few people $10 each to PAR map their tanks and basically rented it for free :-D