Kessil to Radeon?

KK's Reef

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Hi all,


I have a Kessil A360X over a peninsula style pico tank, mounted 8" above the water surface. Love this light's shimmer, coverage, and the shadows it provides. However, now that I have acros in the tank, I'm finding that one side of the acros are not getting lit sufficiently. I'm wondering if getting a Radeon XR15 G5 or G6 will eliminate the shadows and provide a more even coverage, along with more PAR.

Thanks for the feedback.
 
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Or you could get an add on kit like the reef brite XHO or something. That would help even out coverage and add color pop. You can’t beat the shimmer of a kessil!!

I was thinking of adding an LED strip like the ReefBrite, but it's a small tank and I'd prefer to keep the look clean.

Was also thinking of getting the Kessil narrow reflector. That will concentrate the light and up the PAR for the acros, but it might make the shadowing worse.
 

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Would something like this help?
 
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Are you thinking of replacing or adding in addition? I don't think you'll get that much additional coverage or light by switching, you'd probably be better off getting a 2nd A360x to boost coverage and peak intensity.

Thinking of switching to the Radeons. With the Kessil, it's a single-point light source so the shadows are a thing. I would think the layout of the LEDs in the Radeon will have a better spread and less shadows.
 
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Would something like this help?

It should, but way too big for a pico.
 

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Just add an LED strip like an orphek or reefbrite.
 

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I was thinking of adding an LED strip like the ReefBrite, but it's a small tank and I'd prefer to keep the look clean.

Was also thinking of getting the Kessil narrow reflector. That will concentrate the light and up the PAR for the acros, but it might make the shadowing worse.
The emissive area of the XR15 is not sufficiently larger than the A360X to decrease shadowing in any noticeable way. The only way to come close to eliminating shadows would be to have light coming from sources relatively far apart from one another, really on opposite sides of the obstacle that's casting a shadow. Adding a 2nd A360x will be cheaper than switching to a single XR15 and give you the ability to generate significantly higher peak PAR values in the overlap between them than an XR15 would be able to and probably more than you'd actually need in a Pico tank.
It should, but way too big for a pico.
Wait, how big is your tank?
 
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The emissive area of the XR15 is not sufficiently larger than the A360X to decrease shadowing in any noticeable way. The only way to come close to eliminating shadows would be to have light coming from sources relatively far apart from one another, really on opposite sides of the obstacle that's casting a shadow. Adding a 2nd A360x will be cheaper than switching to a single XR15 and give you the ability to generate significantly higher peak PAR values in the overlap between them than an XR15 would be able to and probably more than you'd actually need in a Pico tank.

Wait, how big is your tank?

Don't laugh. It's roughly 4 gallons.

I'm literally trying to accomplish what the big boys do in a fraction of the size.
 

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PAR is a function of density, not just total power. The A360x is going to be waaaay more than enough for acros in a tank that small (assuming you can keep things stable enough for them), then it's just a question of shadows. If you have shadows that are bad enough to jeopardize coral health you might consider rescaping the tank to avoid that, reducing shadows and arranging lower / higher light demanding corals accordingly. If that's not an option you can increase uniformity by raising the light and turning the output up to maintain sps compatible PAR levels (which it will easily be able to do in a 4 gallon). This will result in more light leakage but less severe shadows.
 
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PAR is a function of density, not just total power. The A360x is going to be waaaay more than enough for acros in a tank that small (assuming you can keep things stable enough for them), then it's just a question of shadows. If you have shadows that are bad enough to jeopardize coral health you might consider rescaping the tank to avoid that, reducing shadows and arranging lower / higher light demanding corals accordingly. If that's not an option you can increase uniformity by raising the light and turning the output up to maintain sps compatible PAR levels (which it will easily be able to do in a 4 gallon). This will result in more light leakage but less severe shadows.

Per a BRS video, the A360X tops out at 182 PAR in the middle of the tank when mounted 8" inches above the water. Certainly enough to grow acros. I can confirm as all of my acros are mounted on the highest rock, directly under the Kessil and they are all encrusting and doing well. I'm looking for a better solution as not only do I want to grow the acros, but I want them to color up as well. Most vendors light their acros in the 300 - 400 PAR range to attain the crazy colors that we all love. For example, my WD frag is a vibrant green with hints of yellow and purple, but certainly does not have the vividness and saturation that it originally had.

The shadows aren't enough to jeopardize coral health, but I do want to prevent the sides of the frags that are not getting enough light from browning out.
 

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Or just take down your other tanks and just put all the Kessils on your current tank and no more shadowing issues, lights from all angles, cool looking mixing of different colors, and backups if one goes dies. Might be tuff on a 4 gallon, but that's how I ended up with 4 360we's 2 on each end and 4 360x's in the middle. Major overkill on my part but it's working great and I didn't want to sell the extra one's. Here's some quick pics of my insanity. :flushed-face: o_O:smiling-face-with-halo::eek::zany-face::)
16608882355584019351355985378041.jpg
20220818_125003.jpg
20220818_125429.jpg
20220818_125410.jpg
 
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Or just take down your other tanks and just put all the Kessils on your current tank and no more shadowing issues, lights from all angles, cool looking mixing of different colors, and backups if one goes dies. Might be tuff on a 4 gallon, but that's how I ended up with 4 360we's 2 on each end and 4 360x's in the middle. Major overkill on my part but it's working great and I didn't want to sell the extra one's. Here's some quick pics of my insanity. :flushed-face: o_O:smiling-face-with-halo::eek::zany-face::)
16608882355584019351355985378041.jpg
20220818_125003.jpg
20220818_125429.jpg
20220818_125410.jpg

That is. insane.
 

HB AL

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Yes, I kinda do things simple and different but it's worked pretty good for the last 36 years. Here's 3 vids from 3 months ago to around 2 weeks ago showing more of my "controlled" insanity for some more what the "bleep":thinking-face::winking-face: moments.




 

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Hi all,


I have a Kessil A360X over a peninsula style pico tank, mounted 8" above the water surface. Love this light's shimmer, coverage, and the shadows it provides. However, now that I have acros in the tank, I'm finding that one side of the acros are not getting lit sufficiently. I'm wondering if getting a Radeon XR15 G5 or G6 will eliminate the shadows and provide a more even coverage, along with more PAR.

Thanks for the feedback.

What are the tank dimensions?
 
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