maxpc99
New member
What is enough shimmer to one person won't be nearly enough for another. I have an 8 bulb unit. If you are hoping someone will tell you that you can have the shimmer of a tank full of kessils from this unit you will never hear that. The more bulbs you go on this unit the less that shimmer is going to stand out. You will see some very faint amounts of shimmer but no it will not jump out at you like an all LED lit tank will.
The thing that makes T5 lighting so great is its diffusion. It's also something that limits one of the pros of the LED lighting which is the aesthetic appeal such as shimmer effect. It's very hard to have both without sacrificing something important.
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Couldn't agree more. I initially had 10 t5s and thought my tank looked great. Then I pulled the middle 2 t5s and dropped in a row of kessils. It was shimmer overload and initially I hated it. I was very new to the hobby and really had not seen any other tanks. When my kids saw the shimmer they said my tank looks like the ocean. I quickly grew to love the shimmer and since then I've seen many many led set ups and even have a radion over my frag tan. I don't even call what other LEDs produce as shimmer. I put a Kessil on each end of my 48" ATI hybrid and there is a noticeable division where the kessils end. I'm Catullus thinking of adding back to more. I considered buying 2 4 bulb t5s and running kessils down the middle, but thought it was going to look to busy so I went with the hybrid unit. I kinda wish I went with my original plan. Once you get used to Kessil shimmer, everything else pales in comparison.