Kessil vs Reefbreeders 2017

[Ron Reefman]

Hey Ron, thanks for all you provide on here. I have read many of your post's and it has been very helpful. By not using the red and green, are you able to avoid color separation on the sand bed?

crazycolt42, thanks for the kind words. I do my best to try and be helpful because so many others on here and in my local club helped me so much when I didn't know what I was doing.

The answer to your question is, yes. I have a fair amount of agitation on the surface of the water. So even with the spread of leds in the Photon V2 I get a pretty good shimmer on the bottom of my tank. It looks much better without the red in particular and to a lesser extent without the green.

I think there is a solution and I wish I had discovered it before I bought the Photon V2 fixtures. Although I'm very happy with the Photon V2, I think the Reef Breeders Aquasanrise fixture may be the best answer.

It uses pucks of leds, so the reds and greens are in very close proximity to other colors of leds and blend better than they do with the Photon or any other led fixture where the leds are spread out.

But at the same time, there are a large number of pucks spread out over the fixture and cover the tank with light more like a t5 than like a point source fixture like a Kessil or a Radion. So you get shadows that aren't a deep or dark as they are with a point source fixture.

If I had it to do over again I'd be seriously looking at the Aquasanrise fixture from Reef Breeders. It seems to me to be the best of both types of fixtures. Good color blending (less disco effect) of a point source led and good spread and less shadows of an led array fixture.

 

[Harbour]

Thanks everyone! Going to try something simple just to get an accurate feel on the orbit, shallow depth and easy SPS. I guess just because I haven't seen an orbit sps tank doesn't mean they don't exist. Or not many are using them on such a shallow tank.

If that doesn't work I'll step it up with some of your suggestions. Your opinions have helped greatly.

Harbour

 

[Ron Reefman]

Harbour, I have a PAR meter and I've used it on several tanks in my local club that have, or really had, Current Orbit leds. They all switched and had much better success with even cheap $100 MarsAqua fixtures. Current Orbit fixtures are good to about 12" deep for sps. And 18" deep for lps and zoas. At 24" deep their PAR is 50 which isn't enough light for corals to do photosynthesis.

You'll be able to keep some sps alive. Some sps demand a lot more light than others, so choose carefully.

Good luck.

 

[crazycolt42]

crazycolt42, thanks for the kind words. I do my best to try and be helpful because so many others on here and in my local club helped me so much when I didn't know what I was doing.

The answer to your question is, yes. I have a fair amount of agitation on the surface of the water. So even with the spread of leds in the Photon V2 I get a pretty good shimmer on the bottom of my tank. It looks much better without the red in particular and to a lesser extent without the green.

I think there is a solution and I wish I had discovered it before I bought the Photon V2 fixtures. Although I'm very happy with the Photon V2, I think the Reef Breeders Aquasanrise fixture may be the best answer.

It uses pucks of leds, so the reds and greens are in very close proximity to other colors of leds and blend better than they do with the Photon or any other led fixture where the leds are spread out.

But at the same time, there are a large number of pucks spread out over the fixture and cover the tank with light more like a t5 than like a point source fixture like a Kessil or a Radion. So you get shadows that aren't a deep or dark as they are with a point source fixture.

If I had it to do over again I'd be seriously looking at the Aquasanrise fixture from Reef Breeders. It seems to me to be the best of both types of fixtures. Good color blending (less disco effect) of a point source led and good spread and less shadows of an led array fixture.

I have been taking a look at those too. It looks very nice and all the design elements they have incorporated that you mention makes sense. I also like that swapping out pucks will be easy to do! Right now, when I am ready to purchase my light, that's what I am getting. Thanks again Ron, and good luck Harbour on your SPS!

 

[Harbour]

Ron,

Thanks for your hard data with the PAR meter. For me to get an SPS deeper than 10 inches I'd have to drill a hole in the bottom of my tank to put it in! The way my aquascape is done they will be about 4 inches from the light at the highest point. Lowest probably 7-8 inches on the sand.

Thanks everyone,

Harbour

 

[Ron Reefman]

I have been taking a look at those too. It looks very nice and all the design elements they have incorporated that you mention makes sense. I also like that swapping out pucks will be easy to do! Right now, when I am ready to purchase my light, that's what I am getting. Thanks again Ron, and good luck Harbour on your SPS!

Do me and maybe some others here at RC a favor and do a review of the Aquasanrise once you get it. BTW, I like the ease of changing pucks as well. I wish I could compare a Photon V2 and an Aquasanrise side by side for PAR, light spread, shadows and disco effect.

Ron,

Thanks for your hard data with the PAR meter. For me to get an SPS deeper than 10 inches I'd have to drill a hole in the bottom of my tank to put it in! The way my aquascape is done they will be about 4 inches from the light at the highest point. Lowest probably 7-8 inches on the sand.

Thanks everyone,

Harbour

At 10" deep, you'll be OK.

Current Orbit tries to make up for lack of powerful enough leds by using way more leds. In shallow tanks that works pretty good. But as tanks get to 18" or 24" that big number of leds just don't penetrate the water well enough. Other than that, they are a really nice fixture.

 

[Harbour]

Thanks again and should be adding some ease SPS this upcoming week. Once I get soe traction I'll give an update.

Thanks again,

Harbour

 

[JDWells]

Not sure if you're still looking for input but here's my .02. I had a couple Reefbreeders Photon 32s over my 125 for a while. Hated them. They grew corals just fine, but everything had a purple tinge to it. Horrible. Just my opinion though.
I have a Kessil A80 over my Biocube 14 now. Definitely tons of shimmer and shadowing. I love that though. Running it with my Apex and I love the simplicity of controlling one.

 

[Ssteve]

I have two 360we's I would trade for a v2. I think I'm going to run a v2 with two 160's

 

[Ron Reefman]

Not sure if you're still looking for input but here's my .02. I had a couple Reefbreeders Photon 32s over my 125 for a while. Hated them. They grew corals just fine, but everything had a purple tinge to it. Horrible. Just my opinion though.
I have a Kessil A80 over my Biocube 14 now. Definitely tons of shimmer and shadowing. I love that though. Running it with my Apex and I love the simplicity of controlling one.

The old Photon was just 2 channel color control. And although I didn't find mine to be 'purple' I didn't like the red and green shadow edges. Since I couldn't contol them separate from the rest of the white channel, I just covered the red and green leds with black electrical tape. I intended to swap them out for blue leds if I ever needed to work on the fixtures (I had 3). But after almost 6 years I nave had an issue. They are in my garage collecting dust now because my 180g tank broke and I replaced it with a 125g and one 32" fixture isn't enough and 2 is too long. So I got a new 50" Photon V2 and I love it. But I was willing to pay for the sunrise/sunset control and the 6 channel color control. If you don't want to pay for those features, there are less expensive alternatives.

 

[JDWells]

With Reefbreeders lights, nobody ever mentions that they look kind of purple. Maybe it was just me. Drove me nuts.
Kessils definitely have some shadowing but I like that. Seems like it gives the tank a little more depth, but I don't do have any hard to keep corals either.