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so i have been running a red sea 160 reef light and a kessil ap9x on my 150g reef tank that measures 4' x 2' x 31" reef tank for 6 months.
first, i love the apps and the controllability of each of them. I am still learning features, so one downside is they are complicated at first, but that gets easier as one learns to nav them... so after 6 months, i can say there are a lot of features that I will never touch on the kessil app because I only have one light.
wifi connection is good, but if you have to switch from a 2.4 wifi signal to the 5.0 wifi signal, or vs versa; say to control a light or other wifi device. then your apps wont work until you switch it back to whatever signal you installed the apps on. it's kinda a pain but doable, not sure why the lights don't auto-detect and connect its installation signal. does it?
as for the color of my tank. well, both give good spectrum for coral. I try and judge the look of my lights based on 0% white and 100% blue. the red sea side of the tank looks like a deep violet-blue color. really more toward a deep violet than blue when dialed down to the all blue level. As for the kessil, well it is blue, clearly deep blue. you can clearly tell a difference in each side of my tank when they both are set to 100% blue. as for the white well, each looks the same. white is white. I will let the spectrum police debate what color is best fora tank. as for you visual people, this image is 100% accurate . her face is the red sea led light and her dress is the kessil ap9x at 100% blue an 0% white..
I prefer the red sea blue spectrum based on one thing and one thing only.... this light gives my corals that neon glow-in-the-dark look when compared to the kessil...just my preference. it goes back to those neon poster college dorm days in the 80's I guess.. at the end of the day, i could never make one light blend into a mirror of the other so i never achieved one solid color in my tank.
I like the color control of the kessil with the red, green, and violet but color mixing is not my thing and unless it's all green or all red, I can not tell a difference when mixing them at say 20% green 45% red and 35% violet... it may be my eyes. so I do not see a real need for this level of control other than you can highlight the colors of your coral at different times of the day. maybe my mind will change as I advance into the hobby. having that level of control for color is a bit overwhelming (imo), you can not really see a 20% white 20%red 20% violet 20% green mix.
the only major difference I see in these two lights in my tank is quite peculiar. it's this
1. onside of my tank that is under the red sea light has 0 green hair algae of any kind on its overflow, a grye pump and frag rack yet the kessil side of my tank has some green hair algae on the overflow, its grye pump, seaweed clip and I see some bubble algae in random spots in the rock work. yes, I have a phos issue that I am dealing with .12 - .2 range and both lights have 15% white set on. as I said tho, we all know algae is not judgemental it needs things to grow like food and light, my tank has both so why is the side under the red sea light green hair free and the side under the kessil a green hair magnet? very interresting and/or both lights have matching light % and with phos in the water, why is algae only present on the kessil side of the tank? this is not why do I have GHA POST, by the way.
so there you have it i believe that both of these lights are the boom and at the end of the day you need to decide on what you like when picking a light. but for me! I believe I will sell my kessil ap9x and get another redsea reef led 160. so watch for a future thread ----the deal will be this---- whatever the cost of a new red sea160 (including the hanging mount) will be my asking price for the kessil ap9x.
first, i love the apps and the controllability of each of them. I am still learning features, so one downside is they are complicated at first, but that gets easier as one learns to nav them... so after 6 months, i can say there are a lot of features that I will never touch on the kessil app because I only have one light.
wifi connection is good, but if you have to switch from a 2.4 wifi signal to the 5.0 wifi signal, or vs versa; say to control a light or other wifi device. then your apps wont work until you switch it back to whatever signal you installed the apps on. it's kinda a pain but doable, not sure why the lights don't auto-detect and connect its installation signal. does it?
as for the color of my tank. well, both give good spectrum for coral. I try and judge the look of my lights based on 0% white and 100% blue. the red sea side of the tank looks like a deep violet-blue color. really more toward a deep violet than blue when dialed down to the all blue level. As for the kessil, well it is blue, clearly deep blue. you can clearly tell a difference in each side of my tank when they both are set to 100% blue. as for the white well, each looks the same. white is white. I will let the spectrum police debate what color is best fora tank. as for you visual people, this image is 100% accurate . her face is the red sea led light and her dress is the kessil ap9x at 100% blue an 0% white..
I prefer the red sea blue spectrum based on one thing and one thing only.... this light gives my corals that neon glow-in-the-dark look when compared to the kessil...just my preference. it goes back to those neon poster college dorm days in the 80's I guess.. at the end of the day, i could never make one light blend into a mirror of the other so i never achieved one solid color in my tank.
I like the color control of the kessil with the red, green, and violet but color mixing is not my thing and unless it's all green or all red, I can not tell a difference when mixing them at say 20% green 45% red and 35% violet... it may be my eyes. so I do not see a real need for this level of control other than you can highlight the colors of your coral at different times of the day. maybe my mind will change as I advance into the hobby. having that level of control for color is a bit overwhelming (imo), you can not really see a 20% white 20%red 20% violet 20% green mix.
the only major difference I see in these two lights in my tank is quite peculiar. it's this
1. onside of my tank that is under the red sea light has 0 green hair algae of any kind on its overflow, a grye pump and frag rack yet the kessil side of my tank has some green hair algae on the overflow, its grye pump, seaweed clip and I see some bubble algae in random spots in the rock work. yes, I have a phos issue that I am dealing with .12 - .2 range and both lights have 15% white set on. as I said tho, we all know algae is not judgemental it needs things to grow like food and light, my tank has both so why is the side under the red sea light green hair free and the side under the kessil a green hair magnet? very interresting and/or both lights have matching light % and with phos in the water, why is algae only present on the kessil side of the tank? this is not why do I have GHA POST, by the way.
so there you have it i believe that both of these lights are the boom and at the end of the day you need to decide on what you like when picking a light. but for me! I believe I will sell my kessil ap9x and get another redsea reef led 160. so watch for a future thread ----the deal will be this---- whatever the cost of a new red sea160 (including the hanging mount) will be my asking price for the kessil ap9x.
