Kessil A360we shadowing

[Scorpius]

So I'm currently running three A360we's over my 36in wide tank. The two outer A360we's are angled inwards. The center A360we faces straight down. All three are around 10 inches or so above the water line.

I'm still noticing shadowing issues with my Acropora which is leading to tissue loss in shaded areas.

I don't know what to do at this point.

-Add another A360we since I'm this far sunk into led tech.
-Lower my lights to see if that helps
-Add a 24in ATI Sunpower in the center and run a kessil on each side of the ati unit or retrofit
-Go all T5.
-Option I haven't realized.

 

[reefer1970]

Same problem. I added (2) 24" T5's and just ran a short time during the day. Lost a lot of corals due to too much light. Following along- maybe I'll turn off the kessils while the t5s are on

 

[Scorpius]

Same problem. I added (2) 24" T5's and just ran a short time during the day. Lost a lot of corals due to too much light. Following along- maybe I'll turn off the kessils while the t5s are on

I'm also running mine at a max of 65% intensity. I don't know if going any higher in intensity will help with shadowing.

 

[slief]

Intensity won't but placement will. Having the Kessils laid out around the perimeter and pointing inwards is the best way to eliminate shadowing. I've got 10 of them around the perimeter of my 4'x8' tank and have absolutely no shadowing. Even when I had 8 there was no shadowing. As I said, the key is placement. If you add one more, that will allow you to light the tank from all 4 sides. Moving them outward and angling them more inward will also help.

 

[Scorpius]

slief if you have any ideas of how to accomplish what you have without running a canopy I'm all ears. I have a rimless tank and I'd like to keep the top as clutter free as possible.

 

[slief]

slief if you have any ideas of how to accomplish what you have without running a canopy I'm all ears. I have a rimless tank and I'd like to keep the top as clutter free as possible.

With a rimless tank and no canopy, you need to get creative or make a sacrafice. If it were m tank, I would make a rack out of aluminum similar to mine that's just shy of the size of the perimeter of your tank and suspend it with something. You could hang it from the ceiling or even use a pair of the Kessil goose necks to suspend it. Some articulating mounts to aim the lights would work wonders on focusing the light where you need it and preventing the light from hitting the viewing panes. You could also use 4 goose necks and place them on the sides of the tank with the lights attached to those.

I used extruded aluminum and the connector pieces from eztube.com to make my light rack.

 

[Scorpius]

With a rimless tank and no canopy, you need to get creative or make a sacrafice. If it were m tank, I would make a rack out of aluminum similar to mine that's just shy of the size of the perimeter of your tank and suspend it with something. You could hang it from the ceiling or even use a pair of the Kessil goose necks to suspend it. Some articulating mounts to aim the lights would work wonders on focusing the light where you need it and preventing the light from hitting the viewing panes. You could also use 4 goose necks and place them on the sides of the tank with the lights attached to those.

I used extruded aluminum and the connector pieces from eztube.com to make my light rack.

I'm assuming these are the articulating mounts?

https://premiumaquatics.com/products/articulating-led-mount-kessil-leds.html

 

[slief]

I'm assuming these are the articulating mounts?

https://premiumaquatics.com/products/articulating-led-mount-kessil-leds.html

Yes. Those are them.

 

[Aggiefish12]

What was the outcome of this? I'm battling shading on my kessil as well I used two 5 as supplement


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[Scorpius]

What was the outcome of this? I'm battling shading on my kessil as well I used two 5 as supplement


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I don't know what to do as of yet. It's hard decision to make when your talking over a $1k decision to make on whether to keep one lighting type or to go to another.

 

[xCry0x]

Its why I am a fan of t5+led hybrid fixtures.

When I switched my last tank from a old school cree LED fixture with a layout of 4 rows of 8 diodes to a modern fixture with 2 clusters, I started getting shadowing big time.

You might be able to supplement with something like a reef brite strip? They aren't super cheap but you could put one along the front and one along the back. Of course you want to dim all the lighting accordingly, don't just throw on a pile of extra par one Tuesday morning and expect everything to be happy =)

 

[Zacktosterone]

I'm trying not to start a fire here... Depends on how many get leaves are around. But all t5 with a touch of kessils or halide. Both options give you shimmer and coverage

 

[soulpatch]

I rely on t5 for bulk of my lighting and have my kessils on low intensity to give shimmer and spool up lighting in morning and night.

If i were you I would sell a kessil and put those funds towards a T5 and have the other 2 on the outside angled in to give you shimmer and such

 

[Zacktosterone]

i meant "dry" leaves by the way not "get" leaves**** i love how auto correct now'a'days changes even correct words. efficiently i might add.....

 

[jiminy_crime]

I know this is an old post but this is exactly what I am running into at this time. Having to decide if I should supplement somehow as the shading is impacting the bases of my grown out stylos and acros.

Always loved Sliefs tank and was the main reason I wanted Kessils. But I also see his point about hitting from all different directions. In his situation I think it works well but on rimless or even smaller tanks that lack canopies, almost feel like you are better to go with metal halide hybrids or LED/T5 hybrids to meet your needs. I'm just afraid I will miss my shimmer if I make a change.

Toby Broadfields tank has me wanting to try out a Geismann Spectras.

 

[LobsterOfJustice]

I don't see what the big deal is if you have to add a few T5 to the kessils. I don't see that as a failure of the kessil. I bought kessils because they were the most similar to my beloved MH. The was always the way you ran MH back in the day, with PC, VHO, or later on T5 supplements. Nobody was ragging on MH for needing a little backup lighting...

However, that does also make me think... if you took a kessil (or better yet, just the dense matrix chip) and pointed it upside down into something like a lumenarc reflector... would that help with the spotlight effect and maybe make it more similar to MH coverage?


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[ca1ore]

I started out with three 360WE over my 7' 265. Over the course of the last two years I have added four 160WE to combat shading problems. I get terrific growth under these lights, but as with any point source light (with small reflectors) shading is going to be a problem.

 

[zsuman101]

No reef, mh or led should be done without t5s imo