Kessil AP 700 Owners Gather Here!

I am looking for that "keep anything" factor!

When/where do these lights go on sale for $700? If I have to wait until the next of the year for that price I will! hahaha
Keep an eye out for Dr Foster and Smith sales. They occasionally have site wide 10 - 25% off sales and Kessil products are included.

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I've never owned any other light than Kessil, I recently went to Aquatic Critter in Nashville and all of their coral had either Kessil 360's or AP700's above them.

Very happy with Kessil up to this point, I won't lie the random issues with the AP700 have me slightly concerned. From my research these issues tend to me hit or miss.
I agree 100%! i have had my AP700 for a year now and while I love the light itself and the impacts it has on my tank, I am so frustrated with the awful apps. I have had to reconfigure my light including redoing the wifi at least a dozen times over the past year. every time we have a power outage, i have to redo it. one time i was on vacation and had no light on the tank for 4 days until I got home. just yesterday, i powered off the light while i floated some bags of new fish and i cannot connect to it again after turning it back on. i will have to go through the process yet again. I don't understand how they can keep their customers going through this. aggghhhhh!:angryfire:
 
Keep an eye out for Dr Foster and Smith sales. They occasionally have site wide 10 - 25% off sales and Kessil products are included.

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Dr Foster and Smith web traffic just went up! haha I am going to be checking that out more often. I do get emails from Dr Foster and Smith and always delete them, time to pay attention!

I agree 100%! i have had my AP700 for a year now and while I love the light itself and the impacts it has on my tank, I am so frustrated with the awful apps. I have had to reconfigure my light including redoing the wifi at least a dozen times over the past year. every time we have a power outage, i have to redo it. one time i was on vacation and had no light on the tank for 4 days until I got home. just yesterday, i powered off the light while i floated some bags of new fish and i cannot connect to it again after turning it back on. i will have to go through the process yet again. I don't understand how they can keep their customers going through this. aggghhhhh!:angryfire:

This is good information to know. Luckily in the 5 years I've lived in my neighborhood we've lost power once for 5 minutes. I do have a APC 1500 Battery Backup on my system, I'll make sure the AP700 is plugged into the battery backup side!
 
I've had a few power outages but the lights fired right up once power came back on.

Are you on the 3.4 firmware? Not the app version but the firmware that you install in the light with a laptop.


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Keep an eye out for Dr Foster and Smith sales. They occasionally have site wide 10 - 25% off sales and Kessil products are included.

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Just an FYI, while I did get one light on a 25% off coupon, the AP700 is no longer eligible for coupons @ Drs Foster and Smith. I was quite bummed lol! May go used for my 2nd fixture.
 
Just an FYI, while I did get one light on a 25% off coupon, the AP700 is no longer eligible for coupons @ Drs Foster and Smith. I was quite bummed lol! May go used for my 2nd fixture.

Build me up then knock me down! haha I guess I'll stick to my original plan and grab it during a Bulk Reef Supply group buy and get the points.
 
I've had a few power outages but the lights fired right up once power came back on.

Are you on the 3.4 firmware? Not the app version but the firmware that you install in the light with a laptop.


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i never set up the light with a laptop. perhaps that is part of my issue? is there something that documents this process? i have no idea what firmware mine is on. also, i can no longer even connect to the light when running the wifi set up. i tried 5 times today and it doesn't find it every time.
 
Yep it's the perfect light for all of the typical tank sizes. Quick break down of typical sizes:

1 x 24" ($900) = keep anything
1 x 36" ($900) = keep anything
1 x 48" ($900) = mixed reef
2 x 48" ($1800) = keep anything
2 x 72" ($1800) = SPS heavy mixed reef
2 x 96" = ($1800) mixed reef
3 x 96" ($2500) = Keep anything

Meanwhile, other high quality lights with bizarro spread to sell more fixtures, like an XR30w Pro look more like this:

1 x 24" ($800) = keep anything
1 x 36" ($800) = ehhhh, maybe a mixed reef but probably won't work
2 x 36" ($1600) = keep anything with enormous overlap in spread and essentially wasted expense
1 x 48" = Nope, not an option
2 x 48" ($1600) = keep anything
2 x 72" = Nope, not an option
3 x 72" ($2400) = Probably can keep anything
2 x 96" = Nope, not an option
3 x 96" ($3200) = Barely an option, can maybe have a mixed reef
4 x 96" ($4000) = Can keep anything

People really under estimate how crappy most other lights are for not providing an amount of spread that works evenly with 2' and 4' tanks. And those prices don't even factor in that Kessil actually allows their lights to go on sale and it's not uncommon for new AP700s to be ~$700.



This is beautiful! Great job, awesome breakdown of a cost comparison. The best thing here is it WILL cover a 48" with a single unit.


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I've had a few power outages but the lights fired right up once power came back on.

Are you on the 3.4 firmware? Not the app version but the firmware that you install in the light with a laptop.


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Yes, firmware updates. It's easy to do and fixed a lot of problems.


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I'll be honest with you guys. I was very interested in the AP700 for my new build. I have 3 front runners:

AP700 - Software issues are serious pushing me away, light turning off, not following timing, wifi issues....Not cool if I'm away

Orphek Atlantik V3+ - Really shoddy distribution links and customer service (let's send the led to you to resolder yourself lol) Apparently the lights are just awesome....but build quality while good isn't on par with Ecotech or Kessil.

Ecotech Radion G4 Pro - Not really finding any problems here.....

If I had an 8' long tank, then yea now you're actually running into big differences in cost....but I'm at 6.5', so that's not really an issue.
 
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I'll be honest with you guys. I was very interested in the AP700 for my new build. I have 3 front runners:

AP700 - Software issues are serious pushing me away, light turning off, not following timing, wifi issues....Not cool if I'm away

Orphek Atlantik V3+ - Really shoddy distribution links and customer service (let send the led to you to resolder yourself lol) Apparently the lights are just awesome....but build quality isn't on par with Ecotech or Kessil.

Ecotech Radion G4 Pro - Not really finding any problems here.....

If I had an 8' long tank, then yea now you're actually running into big differences in cost....but I'm at 6.5', so that's not really an issue.

At 6.5' you are talking at least a $600 difference between using the AP700 (2 x 900) vs XR30w Pro (3 x 800).
 
At 6.5' you are talking at least a $600 difference between using the AP700 (2 x 900) vs XR30w Pro (3 x 800).

The tank is 36"W so I'm assuming I'll require 3 kessil as well.

Thank god for this thread as you get to see the good and the bad to make an informed decision.

I'm not saying the Kessil is crossed off or the orphek.

I'll still be a few months away from deciding, so hopefully this is all rectified.

The ecotech software appears to give the Radion the advantage right now.
 
The tank is 36"W so I'm assuming I'll require 3 kessil as well.

Thank god for this thread as you get to see the good and the bad to make an informed decision.

I'm not saying the Kessil is crossed off or the orphek.

I'll still be a few months away from deciding, so hopefully this is all rectified.

The ecotech software appears to give the Radion the advantage right now.

Yeah with 36" of depth you probably need 3 x AP700 or 4 x XR30w Pro, mounted perpendicular to the front glass. And even then, the Radions are going to struggle because they aren't designed to cover a 36" space. You may be better off with like 6 x XR15w pro and having 2 rows of 3. That way you can space the pucks out better than they are on the 30. The AP700s will have no problem covering that depth. The Orphek Atlantiks would also have no problem covering that depth.
 
Yeah with 36" of depth you probably need 3 x AP700 or 4 x XR30w Pro, mounted perpendicular to the front glass. And even then, the Radions are going to struggle because they aren't designed to cover a 36" space. You may be better off with like 6 x XR15w pro and having 2 rows of 3. That way you can space the pucks out better than they are on the 30. The AP700s will have no problem covering that depth. The Orphek Atlantiks would also have no problem covering that depth.

36"W, 34"Deep.

If I run 3 Radion G4 Pro's I should get 36" x 24" coverage per module...

9 puck coverage would be great but holy hell batman in Canada that's over 5G's lol

Either way, it'l take (3) AP700 or (3) G4 Pro's to accomplish this.

What I'm wondering, is how high the G4's would need to be to get that coverage, VS the AP 700. If I can get more spread with the AP700, meaning it sits lower to the tank, I can reduce the output of the LED's and thus increase life expectancy on the unit to achieve the same results.
 
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