kessil light combination with t5 bulbs or with orphek led bars

[bobnicaragua]

Halide and T5 are the best for your reef. T5 and Kessil or Radion will do well.

 

[oreo54]

so do you think it is better for my reef Radion g5?

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[bobnicaragua]

For a 22 inch wide tank, the OR3 bars have a narrow beam and need to be mounted pretty high. I have mine at 12", but I'm thinking 16" or 18" is the recommended height. Reef Brite might be a better choice.

 

[Peppe]

Normally what is the recommended mounting height for Kessil ap9x?

 

[DaveWrasse]

Can you show me your reef tank?

I just added a fourth Kessil A360X

 

[TuxUrchin07]

I have kessil plus orphek and it works great for me

 

[oreo54]

Normally what is the recommended mounting height for Kessil ap9x?

 

[Peppe]

I have kessil plus orphek and it works great for me

at what height do you mount the orphek and at what height do you mount the kessil?

 

[Peppe]

I just added a fourth Kessil A360X

Beautiful reef tank. What are your par level in the differents point of your rockscape?

 

[srobertb]

at what height do you mount the orphek and at what height do you mount the kessil?

Kessil A360x are recommended/had the best flat PAR spread at around 8 “ off the water.

I have played with the 55 deg lens and they work as intended to my eye. I did not have access to a PAR meter but honestly they come standard with the a500x and should come in the box with the A360x too IMO. You could absolutely raise them up with the reflectors.

 

[Peppe]

Kessil A360x are recommended/had the best flat PAR spread at around 8 “ off the water.

I have played with the 55 deg lens and they work as intended to my eye. I did not have access to a PAR meter but honestly they come standard with the a500x and should come in the box with the A360x too IMO. You could absolutely raise them up with the reflectors.

if instead of the a360x I put the ap9x, could I increase the mounting height without using reflectors?

 

[4kidsandapug]

if instead of the a360x I put the ap9x, could I increase the mounting height without using reflectors?

I can’t really find any info on orphek height. I am running an AP9x at whatever the BRS recommendation was. I think 10”? I just added (today) 2 orphek OR3 blue plus. About an inch higher than my ap9x, in the front and back of AP9x.

For reference, my tank is 36Lx24Wx24H

 

[minus9]

I think the sweet spot for Orphek bars is between 10” to 14”, probably closer to 14”. Also depends on depth? My tank is only 16” tall and they’re mounted about 10” or so, but I think if they were mounted higher, it would give me better spread and coverage.

 

[4kidsandapug]

I’m gonna let them go a week or so and see how my corals react. I’ll try to remember to get a pic

 

[ToadallyNC]

if instead of the a360x I put the ap9x, could I increase the mounting height without using reflectors?

I’m running my AP9X @14” off the water. BRS recommends 10”, but the tank testing was using a 24x24 tank. I have a rectangular 36x18x18 tank. In order to get the spread I needed it had to go higher. I used a par meter in order to get the numbers I needed. I only had to increase intensity to 60%. It all depends on what tank you have.

 

[Scorpius]

Run the A360x with the narrow 55 degree reflector. Doing this helps increase par.

 

[Peppe]

I just added a fourth Kessil A360X

I just added a fourth Kessil A360X

what are your par values?

 

[Koigula]

I have the 60” Aquatic life plus 4 A360x’s over a 6’ shallow reef. I should say *had*

What I liked: coverage looked good over the entire tank but no more so to the eye than the 3 XR30’s I have. The T5’s hid some of the Kessil shimmer which is personal preference.

What I didn’t like: The thing is massive. I hung it from the ceiling and it was a lot of weight. Mounting height was low and I’m tall so working in the tank was difficult.

- In hindsight I would have raised it up and used the 55 deg reflectors.

- All the cords. There’s little-to-no cord management for 4 Kessils and when they reach the end, it’s a big mess of wires and USB-C hanging off one end (I switched to the wifi dongle when it came out but still).

-The 2 power cords are stupid. Fortunately I have 2 small recessed light fixtures above my tank so I just converted them both to plugs and ran the wires up but they are just *more* cords to deal with over an open tank.

-The heat. I keep my house at like 73 degrees and this thing still required me to add 4 120mm computer fans. I put them in the extra a360we mounts that came with the fixture so they weren’t noticeable but again…more cords hanging off the side.

-The PAR. Was just not that great. I was running my Kessils at 100% and was eeking out high 200’s…middle to top of tank.

-3/4 of the Kessils died, for different reasons, auspiciously around the end of the warranty. Before you ask, yes I cleaned them. I bought an air compressor just for the special little snowflake selves.

-I lost a ballast in the T5 unit around 18 months.

-I loved the look of them but they didn’t grow anything and they were unreliable.

Due to the reliability issues of the Kessils, my wife has informed me that brand is persona non grata in my house but…if I still had my testicles and my wallet I would run 3 Kessils + 4 Radion XR30’s turned. I believe this would give you the look and coverage of T5’s and Metal Halides but be completely tuneable and offer great PAR. Obviously I have a toxic love/hate relationship with the Kessils. I’m working through it.

I have replacement ballasts for the aquatic life (I’m going to replace them with ATI Ballasts) and if I keep the fixture, I will deal with the power cord issue. I have thought about running it with the Radions but I really hate replacing bulbs and how heavy and ugly it is.

That is a great write up on pitfalls of using this "stuff'.

I also had a Aquatic life T5 hybrid with three used Ecotech 2s or what ever they were. I had to ditch all PSU and stripped wire to a commercial 36v used industrial power supply. So I had a jumbled mess of 5 cords to do a worse job than a t5/mh combo of the past. I actually donated to the LFS for nominal credit that can grow corals so do not mind. I was too embarrassed to sell it. I can say in past I could dump pocillopora, plating pavona, Bali slimers, yellow scroll corals, and have them grow out of the tank with far lessknowledge than today. The Ecotechs in all honesty kind of sucked and never replicated that success.

I had Kessils fail in 14 months and got them replaced and had them last 5 years on older 360 models. Venting outside a cabinet hood is critical for them to work. I might have done better buying from World Wide Corals where they did the heavy lifting of the long term LED acclimation. This is no trivial process and well described by success greenhouse vendors.

I just hung an ATI T5 8x54w over a 4 foot tank. I am at ~65% output and get incredibly even par to the point it is not worth checking everywhere. It is almost plug and play and the 6 bulb configuration certainly would have been. I bought it during a 20% sale awhile ago and finally hung it. 2 UV 4 Blue Plus and 2 Coral plus so very much old school configuration.

What I noticed is a few Tenius corals turned green with touch or reds at tips. They were rainbow under Ecotechs. I do not care that much. In a month or two I want to find a way to get some shimmer back. I have a finished basement so can do as I please but want other options than Kessil. I just want some mild shimmer back.

Maybe a Orphek OR3 blue?