kessil or cree, please help mee:)

ReeferBill · May 9, 2013

Ok, so I have a 24 gallon aquapod nano that I retrofit with an LED kit from rapidLED.com. It has 24 3 watt cree LEDs, 14 royal blue, 5 cool white, and 5 normal white. Its dimmable with dual drivers. I have the LEDs turned down as far as I can without them turning off, and run them for about 10 hours a day. Problem is that other than high intensity SPS, everything bleaches out and some die. I am running these LEDs at 20% or less and still burning the corals. My question is this. Since the LEDs are retrofit into the hood, they are very close to the water/corals. If I can find a way to suspend my hood, and bring them up 12-24" above the water, do you think that would help? My other option is to get a a350w kessil. My LFS has them everywhere and his corals are colorful, growing and amazing. I do plan to have mostly LPS, but some SPS at the top. Do you think the rapidLED crees I have are not as high quality as kessil, and I will have better growth and color with kessil, or do you think its just the matter that the crees are too close and intense for the corals? Please, any thoughts would be great.
Thanks.

Reefing Madness · May 9, 2013

Raise em up. You'll be fine, get em above 12" and if need be you can put screen over your tank to dampen the light even more until your tank is acclimated.
The Kessel would burn your eyes out, you don't want that thing.

ReeferBill · May 10, 2013

Why do you not like kessils? The LFS and several other hobbyists really have amazing colors from them. Is there a quality difference from cree to kessil, or my lights are just too intense?

Reefing Madness · May 10, 2013

But if think you have alot of light in your tank now, just wait til you get that thing on there. You'd have to mount it to the ceiling, and with its specs, it would only beam in center of your tank.