Need light schedule advice 2x Kessil a360we with aquatic life 48" hybrid blue+/coral+

[DanSavesTheDay]

I am planning on switching to a 2x Kessil a360we with a 48" T5 hybrid fixture with 2 blue+ 2 coral+ staggered.

How high above the water surface should I mount the fixture.

What is a good lighting schedule for a mixed but mostly SPS dominant tank.

What is a good lighting schedule to start at and how much should I increase per week/biweekly until I am at the light schedule you suggested?

Gallons: 90
Tank Length (Inches): 48
Tank Width (Inches): 18
Tank Height (Inches): 24
Sand bed (Inches): 20 inches below the surface

Thank you in advanced. This hopefully will be the last time I need help with lighting for a while until I end up changing lights or upgrading tanks.

 

[Bills beginning]

Bulk Reef Supply has some good videos on this type of hybread lighting. Check it out.

 

[DanSavesTheDay]

Bulk Reef Supply has some good videos on this type of hybrid lighting. Check it out.

Yeah I ended up watching that video a few times over before making this post. It doesn't quite give a lighting schedule or recommendations what to start at and what intensity to go for when switching to the hybrid fixture. Although it is a really great video was one of the reasons I am going with kessil

 

[MrWheelock]

I have a 75 gallon same dimensions, but 3 inches less on the height. I'm running 4 a360ws right now. When I rebuild my canopy they will be mounted 9" above the tank so 10-11" off the water.
I plan on running my 4 bulb Aquatic life hybrid for 6 hours. So I'll have them turn on at 11:30 and off at 5:30.
Basically I just took the average of the mounting heights between the a360 and the aquatic life fixture at the par I was looking for. I will take par readings and adjust them up or down depending.
Hope this helps

 

[MrWheelock]

Oh, I don't really have a stocked tank so I'm just going to turn them on straight away. If i had corals id run the t5s starting at 30 minutes and up it 30 every week depending on the coral reaction

 

[Bpb]

If it were my tank I’d tune the kessils however you like them best visually, probably heavier blue, and have them turn on for 10 hours a day, with the t5’s being on for 4-6 hours in the middle. If there are no corals what is the point of starting slow? You won’t shock the fish

Par meter would be helpful with the kessils and set intensity to like 100-150 maybe

 

[DanSavesTheDay]

If it were my tank I’d tune the kessils however you like them best visually, probably heavier blue, and have them turn on for 10 hours a day, with the t5’s being on for 4-6 hours in the middle. If there are no corals what is the point of starting slow? You won’t shock the fish

Par meter would be helpful with the kessils and set intensity to like 100-150 maybe

I already have alot of corals around 15+ or so sps frags a micro sps colony and some zoas montis and a few acans and chalices.

I was thinking going with 50-65% intensity and 40% color and trying the acclimation mode to get to that point. Not sure how many days the acclimation mode can be set to yet lights & controller should be here next week. I saw someone on youtube using 3 on a 125 and he had a peak of 71% intensity and 50% color on his sps tank. I think with t5 I am gonna try and mimic his except at 3/4 his settings to account for the par from the t5.

Big reason I'm switching was I started with a used 36" sbox pro that is getting old was used for several years begore I got my hands on it and the fans are conking out only 2 of the 4 are working and can't tell if any of the leds need replacement.

 

[Bpb]

I already have alot of corals around 15+ or so sps frags a micro sps colony and some zoas montis and a few acans and chalices.

I was thinking going with 50-65% intensity and 40% color and trying the acclimation mode to get to that point. Not sure how many days the acclimation mode can be set to yet lights & controller should be here next week. I saw someone on youtube using 3 on a 125 and he had a peak of 71% intensity and 50% color on his sps tank. I think with t5 I am gonna try and mimic his except at 3/4 his settings to account for the par from the t5.

Big reason I'm switching was I started with a used 36" sbox pro that is getting old was used for several years begore I got my hands on it and the fans are conking out only 2 of the 4 are working and can't tell if any of the leds need replacement.

Not sure why I thought the tank was empty. At any rate. I wouldn’t worry about shock from the t5’s. Corals can take t5 light a lot easier in high intensities. Slowly acclimating won’t HURT anything with them, I just find it largely unnecessary

 

[DanSavesTheDay]

Not sure why I thought the tank was empty. At any rate. I wouldn’t worry about shock from the t5’s. Corals can take t5 light a lot easier in high intensities. Slowly acclimating won’t HURT anything with them, I just find it largely unnecessary

Honestly after chatting with you before I was more worried about shocking them from the kessils lol

I was thinking 6 hours of t5 once the kessils are ramped up

 

[Bpb]

Honestly after chatting with you before I was more worried about shocking them from the kessils lol

I was thinking 6 hours of t5 once the kessils are ramped up

That’s a smart assumption. Anecdotal data would tell you that kessil par seems to be alot more effective relative to other sources. You’d cook everything in the tank by cranking them to 400 par. But t5’s at 400 par would be quite comfortable

 

[Jackcarp]

I just bought the same 48" hybrid fixture for my 110. I already have 2 Kessil A360N's running. I bought 3 blue+, and 1 actinic so I will be curious what people say about the lighting schedule. Following along. Thanks!

 

[nick0206]

I just bought the same 48" hybrid fixture for my 110. I already have 2 Kessil A360N's running. I bought 3 blue+, and 1 actinic so I will be curious what people say about the lighting schedule. Following along. Thanks!

.

My lighting is
Kessil A360UW
Aquatic Life with 4 T5,
Small 30 watt DIY LED.

12:00 - Kessil 0 - 15 (first color, second intensity)
13:00 - Kessil 10 - 30
Turns on the blue channel of DIY LED.
14:00 - Kessil 30-70
Turns on the white channel of DIY LED.
Blue channel 2 x T5
15.:00 Turns on the white channel of 2 x T5
22:00 - Kessil 10 - 30
Turn off all T5 and white channel of DIY LED.
23:00 - Kessil - 0-15
Turns off the blue channel of DIY LED..
23:50 - Kessil 0 - 0

 

[LC8Sumi]

I’m running 2x b+ & 2x actinics 9am-8pm. The Kessils are at 100% intensity & 30 color 9am to 9pm with 1hr ramps at the begining and at the end. It’s been like this for more than a year now. Although I was using it with 4x b+ and the kessils at 50% color for most of the time, just recently added the actinics. The Kessils are a joke though IMO if you want decent sps colors and the 4 T5’s are not really enough to supplement them, apart from that one Acro colony that sits directly under the Kessil, just below the water line. Also the white of the Kessils isn’t really a good spectrum IMO, even if it adds to PAR, it propagates algae growth a lot - and browning of the delicater sps. I’m switching for a 8x39w ati and will supplement that with the Kessils on 0% color for the shimmer & blue pop. Easier sps are fine with the current setup, but it’s not for acros really. LPS and softies love it though.

Also: I know Kessil fans want to believe that these are monster lights that the PAR meters can’t even pick up correctly, but honestly that’s not the case. These are very weak lights PAR wise really & you either need a lot of them (2x what you’d think) to pull a somewhat goodish intensity, or seriously supplement it with other sources - but it’s really wiser to think about it the other way around, so the Kessil is the supplementing light. I had these now for 3 years, but the ugly truth is that I’ e never ever came across a tank on the internet or in real life, where the A360we was the only light source running a full blown SPS tank, and there is a good reason to it: they just don’t have the grunt.

 

[nick0206]

OK. I am gradually increasing the intensity of Kessil and am going to bring it to 100%. Also, I will reduce the color to 30.
I have T5 bulbs from Korallen-zucht 2-Blue, 1-14k White and 1 - Fuji Purple.
Also on the DIY led I have (30W)
-1 - Hyper Red
-2 - Cool white
-2 - Blue
-4 - Royal Blue
-1 - UV
So in Kessil, I definitely don’t need white

 

[Bxr126]

I’m running 2x b+ & 2x actinics 9am-8pm. The Kessils are at 100% intensity & 30 color 9am to 9pm with 1hr ramps at the begining and at the end. It’s been like this for more than a year now. Although I was using it with 4x b+ and the kessils at 50% color for most of the time, just recently added the actinics. The Kessils are a joke though IMO if you want decent sps colors and the 4 T5’s are not really enough to supplement them, apart from that one Acro colony that sits directly under the Kessil, just below the water line. Also the white of the Kessils isn’t really a good spectrum IMO, even if it adds to PAR, it propagates algae growth a lot - and browning of the delicater sps. I’m switching for a 8x39w ati and will supplement that with the Kessils on 0% color for the shimmer & blue pop. Easier sps are fine with the current setup, but it’s not for acros really. LPS and softies love it though.

Also: I know Kessil fans want to believe that these are monster lights that the PAR meters can’t even pick up correctly, but honestly that’s not the case. These are very weak lights PAR wise really & you either need a lot of them (2x what you’d think) to pull a somewhat goodish intensity, or seriously supplement it with other sources - but it’s really wiser to think about it the other way around, so the Kessil is the supplementing light. I had these now for 3 years, but the ugly truth is that I’ e never ever came across a tank on the internet or in real life, where the A360we was the only light source running a full blown SPS tank, and there is a good reason to it: they just don’t have the grunt.

Respectfully, IMHO there are way too may factors at play here. If your goal is an SPS dominant tank then you may be right. I do not claim to be an expert but from my personal experience I tend to disagree if your goal is a mixed reef. I have the AL Hybrid with 2 Kessils and 4 T5s hanging over my 120g mixed reef. I rented a PAR meter and measured the intensity. At 100% intensity I was getting anywhere from 50 to 100 at the bottom of the tank. and around 150-200 at the top. I don't think that is too bad for only 2 lights. Of course I did have some shadowing. With the T5s on I could get as high as 400. I know for my tank, if I cranked the lights according to your schedule pretty much everything would be dead in a week.

 

[LC8Sumi]

Respectfully, IMHO there are way too may factors at play here. If your goal is an SPS dominant tank then you may be right. I do not claim to be an expert but from my personal experience I tend to disagree if your goal is a mixed reef. I have the AL Hybrid with 2 Kessils and 4 T5s hanging over my 120g mixed reef. I rented a PAR meter and measured the intensity. At 100% intensity I was getting anywhere from 50 to 100 at the bottom of the tank. and around 150-200 at the top. I don't think that is too bad for only 2 lights. Of course I did have some shadowing. With the T5s on I could get as high as 400. I know for my tank, if I cranked the lights according to your schedule pretty much everything would be dead in a week.

I agree 100% that it is a great, if not the best setup for a mixed reef! It's only that there are better options if one wants to run an Acropora dominant tank.

 

[Bxr126]

I agree 100% that it is a great, if not the best setup for a mixed reef! It's only that there are better options if one wants to run an Acropora dominant tank.

The only thing I thing I would do to improve my setup is maybe add a couple more Kessils.

 

[Scubadoo4u]

I’m running 2x b+ & 2x actinics 9am-8pm. The Kessils are at 100% intensity & 30 color 9am to 9pm with 1hr ramps at the begining and at the end. It’s been like this for more than a year now. Although I was using it with 4x b+ and the kessils at 50% color for most of the time, just recently added the actinics. The Kessils are a joke though IMO if you want decent sps colors and the 4 T5’s are not really enough to supplement them, apart from that one Acro colony that sits directly under the Kessil, just below the water line. Also the white of the Kessils isn’t really a good spectrum IMO, even if it adds to PAR, it propagates algae growth a lot - and browning of the delicater sps. I’m switching for a 8x39w ati and will supplement that with the Kessils on 0% color for the shimmer & blue pop. Easier sps are fine with the current setup, but it’s not for acros really. LPS and softies love it though.

Also: I know Kessil fans want to believe that these are monster lights that the PAR meters can’t even pick up correctly, but honestly that’s not the case. These are very weak lights PAR wise really & you either need a lot of them (2x what you’d think) to pull a somewhat goodish intensity, or seriously supplement it with other sources - but it’s really wiser to think about it the other way around, so the Kessil is the supplementing light. I had these now for 3 years, but the ugly truth is that I’ e never ever came across a tank on the internet or in real life, where the A360we was the only light source running a full blown SPS tank, and there is a good reason to it: they just don’t have the grunt.

What would your thought on hybrid running 2B+ & 2Actinic 03 with 2 radion G3 xr30s w/diffusers. I'm looking for that light bounce to catch all sides of corals and color. I have a 75 gallon mixed and wanting to lean more towards 'high end' acros.