Kessil LED vs Halide T5

[BoomCorals]

Matt, I've been watching along this whole time, holding my opinions until we see pics. I have to agree the only stand out is the Monti, but montis are known to do that. I run 4 Kessils on a 4' tank. I added 2 a few weeks back and watched a few high up colonies react poorly (cooked)while others seem to be taking off. It actually prompted me to lower my peak intensity to 95%. Rather than take the Kessils down, how about add one more to make it a fair fight. The coverage due to overlap due to the wide angle lens is completely changed with 4. After all the T5 system is 4' long.

I don't want to buy a 4th Kessil for this. And, to be honest, the corals are all directly below the middle Kessil light. That said, I admit this is not a hard line scientific experiment. I can only make my own observations, others can take into account any knowledge they have and make their observations as well. We are also only a month into this. If possible, I plan to do this at least a few more months before making any light changes, and see how these do as they start to grow into small colonies.

 

[Mirkus]

that rainbow monti looks incredible under metal halide. thanks for doing this experiment!

Maybe I was biased in my original assessment. Personally, I could care less what a monti looks like. I wish I could snap my fingers and get all the monti's out of my tank.

On another note, the only difference I see in the rainbow is it looks like the halide is better lit. you could probably get a similar look with kessil's by increasing the intensity.

 

[Crabs McJones]

Well this is a wee bit of a letdown

 

[DSC reef]

Maybe I was biased in my original assessment. Personally, I could care less what a monti looks like. I wish I could snap my fingers and get all the monti's out of my tank.

On another note, the only difference I see in the rainbow is it looks like the halide is better lit. you could probably get a similar look with kessil's by increasing the intensity.

I see much more color in the monti, have you seen the pics before these earlier in thread? All that color difference in a months time is pretty remarkable. It's still nice to see this experiment, all the corals look good but I don't think turning up intensity on the kessil is gonna change any color in that monti to make it comparable.

 

[BoomCorals]

Maybe I was biased in my original assessment. Personally, I could care less what a monti looks like. I wish I could snap my fingers and get all the monti's out of my tank.

On another note, the only difference I see in the rainbow is it looks like the halide is better lit. you could probably get a similar look with kessil's by increasing the intensity.

Both are sitting under exactly 300 PAR.

 

[BoomCorals]

Well this is a wee bit of a letdown

Nah, LEDs are working great. Running a business has different goals than a display tank in someone's home.

 

[DSC reef]

Nah, LEDs are working great. Running a business has different goals than a display tank in someone's home.

Fully agree. I love our halides but if anything this test has shown me what led lights I want to use whenever I decide to make the switch. Very grateful for you taking the time to do this for us.

 

[Mirkus]

Yup appreciate it, there was a test on another site that got derailed. The tester ended up saying @!$# it.

 

[dragon99]

My opinion
Pearlberry - Growth - tie, Color - MH/T5 (too green under LED)
RR - Growth LED (that encrusting!) , Color - tie
Rainbow Monti - Growth MH/T5 (wow, not even close), Color - LED (to me anyway the MH loses the red almost completely)
Phoenix - Growth - tie (maybe LED?), Color - MH/T5

So all told, I'd call it a wash. Certainly different corals have their preferences, which should surprise no one.

 

[Crabs McJones]

Nah, LEDs are working great. Running a business has different goals than a display tank in someone's home.

I agree and thank you. I was just hoping the kessils would have performed better than the results.

 

[BoomCorals]

I agree and thank you. I was just hoping the kessils would have performed better than the results.

If I was setting up a display tank I’d use kessil or radions with T5 all day long.

 

[madweazl]

I agree and thank you. I was just hoping the kessils would have performed better than the results.

They were fairly comparable in many respects to MH/T5 setup that has been widely accepted as the holy grail when it comes to reef keeping. With some tweaks to color and intensity, perhaps better results are possible as well (though tough for somebody running a business to experiment with if dealing with limited space and resources).

 

[Fitzreefer]

Don't get me wrong on this. I love this test you are doing. That's why I have been following patiently. I certainly understand the cost of the Kessils. I bought my 2 additional ones used at a reduced price in driving distance...lucky find. My main point I think is that there IS something to the shadowing issue. I think that with the T5 MH combo you get the intensity/PAR below the MH but the T5 resolves the shadowing issue. When I added the 2 to make it 1 per foot, I believe the shadowing and coverage issue was largely resolved...just like the BRS vid. On the other hand, the additional overlap brought higher par in the overlaps which I believe shocked some of the corals immediately under them. Should have turned them down a bit and slowly acclimate up. Shoulda coulda. Turning down to 95% was a reactive decision, and may not be the final, still observing. A mystic sunset monti directly under the lights 8" under water in 4 days started to disintegrate. What I broke off and placed elsewhere lower on rocks and plugs in bottom have already grown back, which supports the PAR/acclimation theory. On the other hand I have a JF foxflame a little bit back and under the cross frame that immediately started taking off. I have some other acros and digis lower or to the sides that immediate started new encrusting and new buds. BoP top, center, back is growing like a weed...might need to start fragging. Anyhow, keep up the good work. I am interested in seeing this I bit longer and although I do think 4 lights is a better comparison, 3 is certainly going to be better than 2 in my experience. Also, water temp with 4 remains a non-issue. No chiller on my tank, running steady at 78 F.

 

[oreo54]

Well this apparently got "lost" in this discussion and I realize the
PAR was equal but, unless I'm mistaken, you used 270W of LEd's vs 1116W of T5/MH's... Did I do this right???

did you heavily shade the T5/MH's?

 

[BoomCorals]

Well this apparently got "lost" in this discussion and I realize the
PAR was equal but, unless I'm mistaken, you used 270W of LEd's vs 1116W of T5/MH's... Did I do this right???

did you heavily shade the T5/MH's?

T5 MH is 19” above the water. The kessil are about 7” above.

 

[Ztrain]

Kessils. I might take down the Kessils and put my SBreef back up and test under those now.

I have a 150 Ocean Blue and a 360NE and never had good luck with Kessil's. I was able to grow green hair algae great with them. May use the 360 as a fuge light.

What Halide were you using? I've got TwinArc's going and I've read that the 20k is the same as the Radium with only an extra peak in the 420.

 

[BoomCorals]

I have a 150 Ocean Blue and a 360NE and never had good luck with Kessil's. I was able to grow green hair algae great with them. May use the 360 as a fuge light.

What Halide were you using? I've got TwinArc's going and I've read that the 20k is the same as the Radium with only an extra peak in the 420.

Radium 400w bulbs.

 

[S-t-r-e-t-c-h]

Maybe I was biased in my original assessment. Personally, I could care less what a monti looks like. I wish I could snap my fingers and get all the monti's out of my tank.

On another note, the only difference I see in the rainbow is it looks like the halide is better lit. you could probably get a similar look with kessil's by increasing the intensity.

To be fair, the rainbow monti that went under the halides looked better than the LED monti before the experiment even started. Both look better now than before; sort of accentuated the variations that were already there in the individual frags.

Is it ok that I find both appealing, viable options?

T5/Halide Before:

T5/Halide After:

LED Before:

LED After:

 

[rtparty]

@BoomCorals

I know this may be a stretch and take some time but can you somehow combine before and after school on one pic? Like a collage? That way we can see them side by side super easy.

 

[BoomCorals]

To be fair, the rainbow monti that went under the halides looked better than the LED monti before the experiment even started. Both look better now than before; sort of accentuated the variations that were already there in the individual frags.

Is it ok that I find both appealing, viable options?

T5/Halide Before:

T5/Halide After:

LED Before:

LED After:

Nothing wrong with that!