Kessil Lights - Programs

[cccharliecc]

Hi,
I am new to Kessils and getting them to work with my Apex. I have all the connections figured out and setup the Variable outlets according to Neptune's website.

My first question is what program should I use? What Color and Intensity should I have them set at throughout the day? I don't want to burn my corals. I have basic LED's on there now...nothing good.

Thanks

 

[Crabs McJones]

Which kessils are you using? And what size tank are they on? What corals are you keeping and how far off the waters surface do you have them mounted :)

 

[gcrawford]

I’d start low and slow. You’ll find that if you change things too quickly you’ll burn some corals. I’ll post my program curve, but remember this was achieved gradually. Have fun controlling them!

 

[cccharliecc]

3 - A360WE's on a 220 gallon tank. Tank is 72x24x30
I don't have them mounted yet because I want to get the programming right first, but they will be about 10'' off the water, unless it should be closer or further!?!

For now its kinda a newish tank....going slow adding corals, have 12 SPS frags of different things like miagi tort, pink millie, strawberry shortcake, miami orchid, birdsnest, a digi...then some LPS colonies on the sandbed, Hammer, Frogspawn, Duncan, & Trumpet.

 

[gcrawford]

 

[cccharliecc]

low and slow is definitely how I want to take it. so if you post your program curve, would I take the same thing and basically cut it in half....then in half again?

 

[cccharliecc]

One more question that comes to mind also....
The knobs on the lights themselves....does it matter where they are? Where do you keep yours? I thought I read it doesn't matter once you have them hooked up because the Apex takes it over, but that makes me nervous if they are jacked all the way up and something happens to the program.

 

[gcrawford]

Color you can copy, intensity I’d start with maybe 1/4 of what I have and ramp up by maybe 5% across the board every 2-3 weeks. Others may chime in with similar or more fine tuned suggestions.

 

[Crabs McJones]

I am in complete agreement with @gcrawford start with a low percentage and slowly ramp it up. Your best bet would be between 7 to 9 inches off the waters surface and start out at 25-30 percent intensity, and ramp it up by 5 percent a week. You should be able to eventually ramp them up pretty high given that your tank is 30 inches deep. On my 17 inch deep I was able to ramp it up to about 60-65 So yours is expect you be be able to go closer to 85-90% intensity eventually. For color it literally does not matter. You can tune it to whatever color looks best to you as no matter what color you go with its a correctly blended spectrum optimized for coral growth. It's what kessil calls their kessil logic. And yes once you have the control cable plugged in it overrides the knobs so you can have them turned to wherever, it won't effect anything even if the apex is turned off or you unplug it from the apex end. Once the cable goes into the port on the kessil the knobs are overridden

 

[Crabs McJones]

Once you get them mounted and turned on, definitely head on over to my kessil show off thread and share your photos :) there is also lots of good information in there on scheduled, schedule hours, and others thoughts and opinions.
@gcrawford you as well if you already haven't )

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/kessil-show-off-thread-warning-may-be-picture-heavy.348928/

 

[madweazl]

Three A360WEs isn't enough to keep the SPS and 10" is far to high (PAR will be very low). If you must use three at the moment (you'll need at least two more and realistically four more if it's a typical 8' 220g aquarium), keep them no more than 15" apart and bring your corals under the arrays. Dont mount them more than 7" above the water (hurts coverage but any higher and output drops exponentially).

With the doom & gloom out of the way, you could pull it off with four A360WEs (again, assuming 8' length) supplemented with T5s (four covering the length of the tank). In regard to SPS (acropora specifically), I've had good results ramping the color from 0% to 60% for two hours and ramping the intensity from 0% to 80% over six hours and then back down. My lights are mounted 5" above the water and this provides about 300 PAR mid level in a 75g tank with two T5s. Total photo-period is 12 hours; two our color ramp from 10am-12pm and back down from 8pm-10pm. Intensity climbs from 0% (actually around 11% is where the lights turn on) to 80% from 10am-4pm and then falls back to 0% (11%) at 10pm. The T5s are on from 12pm-8pm.

The knobs arent active when the control cable is plugged into the A360.

 

[cccharliecc]

Awesome.....Excellent advice and information. Thank you guys so much!!!

Ok....one more question for the night ....maybe :)
I am going to daisy chain them all......the question is, can the power be daisy chained or do they all need to have separate power supplies? Also, if I have all three in 3 outlets in my Apex EB8 do I need to tell those outlets to turn on and off at the times that correspond to the Color and Intensity outlet times?

 

[cccharliecc]

Thanks madweazl.....its a 220 gallon tank, but only 6' long, not 8'. I emailed Kessil and they said 3 would cover.....I'm gonna roll with 3 for now and hopefully it works.

 

[Crabs McJones]

Three A360WEs isn't enough to keep the SPS and 10" is far to high (PAR will be very low). If you must use three at the moment (you'll need at least two more and realistically four more if it's a typical 8' 220g aquarium), keep them no more than 15" apart and bring your corals under the arrays. Dont mount them more than 7" above the water (hurts coverage but any higher and output drops exponentially).

With the doom & gloom out of the way, you could pull it off with four A360WEs (again, assuming 8' length) supplemented with T5s (four covering the length of the tank). In regard to SPS (acropora specifically), I've had good results ramping the color from 0% to 60% for two hours and ramping the intensity from 0% to 80% over six hours and then back down. My lights are mounted 5" above the water and this provides about 300 PAR mid level in a 75g tank with two T5s. Total photo-period is 12 hours; two our color ramp from 10am-12pm and back down from 8pm-10pm. Intensity climbs from 0% (actually around 11% is where the lights turn on) to 80% from 10am-4pm and then falls back to 0% (11%) at 10pm. The T5s are on from 12pm-8pm.

The knobs arent active when the control cable is plugged into the A360.

Op said the tank was 72 inches long. You suggested potentially 4 more lights. Do you really think OP will need 7 kessils on a 72 inch tank? I would say maybe one more totalling 4.

 

[madweazl]

OK, 6' is a lot more realistic but you'll still need T5s (or more Kessils). You can check out this for some PAR measurements I took with the lights mounted 5" off the water (maxed out at 205 PAR). First set is Kessil only and further down it has Kessil/T5. I ran a mixed reef for a year with the Kessil only and had good results but switch to almost all acropora last June or so and added the T5s; everything has been doing great.

I dont want to make this sound like I'm bashing Kessil. If I could have added more Kessils to the current tank instead of the T5s, I would have done so at the time. I'm working on a 150g right now and went with Kessil (four A360WEs) and T5s (four 80w) again (why change a good thing).

 

[cccharliecc]

So I copied your color scheme, and for intensity I started at 9% then went to 20% for the whole day and back to 9% at the end.
Hopefully that is good for the beginning.....nervous....don't wanna kill anything!!!

 

[Crabs McJones]

OK, 6' is a lot more realistic but you'll still need T5s (or more Kessils). You can check out this for some PAR measurements I took with the lights mounted 5" off the water (maxed out at 205 PAR). First set is Kessil only and further down it has Kessil/T5. I ran a mixed reef for a year with the Kessil only and had good results but switch to almost all acropora last June or so and added the T5s; everything has been doing great.

I dont want to make this sound like I'm bashing Kessil. If I could have added more Kessils to the current tank instead of the T5s, I would have done so at the time. I'm working on a 150g right now and went with Kessil (four A360WEs) and T5s (four 80w) again (why change a good thing).

I 110% agree with the t5. Best decision I ever made :)

 

[madweazl]

Op said the tank was 72 inches long. You suggested potentially 4 more lights. Do you really think OP will need 7 kessils on a 72 inch tank? I would say maybe one more totalling 4.

I didnt catch the length initially but my rule of thumb with the A360WEs after running them for two years, run one less than the total length (in feet) of the tank. On a six foot tank, use five A360WEs.

Edit: assuming the width is 24" or less.

 

[Crabs McJones]

I didnt catch the length initially but my rule of thumb with the A360WEs after running them for two years, run one less than the total length (in feet) of the tank. On a six foot tank, use five A360WEs.

Good rule of thumb, I'll have to remember that :)

 

[madweazl]

So I copied your color scheme, and for intensity I started at 9% then went to 20% for the whole day and back to 9% at the end.
Hopefully that is good for the beginning.....nervous....don't wanna kill anything!!!

What LEDs are you running right now? This will be important for your transition. At 20% intensity, you'll be getting about 35 PAR 10" under the water with the lights mounted 10" above the tank. I dont care what anybody tells you, it wont be healthy for your SPS. The intensity will be so low that it will increase the acclimation time of the SPS because you'll be going the wrong direction.