Kessils or AI Sols!?

[BigBoi5680]

I've been researching and researching.....was sold on the Kessils, but was brought BACK around to the AIs. :headwallblue: I have a 210 gallon tank....72x24x30.....and want amazing lighting/coloration that is also growth effective!

Any of the #EXPERTS have any input on the two from personal experience?

Kessil recommends that I go with 5 of the A150W units for adequate coverage.....not sure how many for the AIs, is 1 for every 2ft cool?

Should I just wait on the A350W?

PLEASE help! Lol......:thumbsup:

 

[Mr.Mustang]

I am with you i want Kessil's but from what i have found on the web you probably wont be happy with the A150 because of your depth. No idea on the AI's i looked at them too but came back to Kessil and decided to wait for the A350.
Ps my tank is 60x18x23
PPS i am no expert :twitch:

 

[JMurphy97]

Seems you are just like me. I was AI, then maybe radion, then kessils, back to AI, then back to radion. It's a hard choice because it's a lot of money. I will say though that the Kessil A150w is off my list. I'm down to AI or radion.

 

[pkirby]

at 30" depth, I wouldn't look at the a150w... even the AI is pushing it a bit at that depth... especially if you space them at 2ft... I'd wait for the A350 and see what it's going to offer, everyone is expecting it to be a pretty killer light

 

[laredo300c]

I'm by no means an expert, i have four kessils on my 120g 48"x24"x24" and I'm very happy with it. With that said. My dream tank, which is n hold because we are waiting a little longer to buy a larger home. Will be a 300g 72"x36"x27 peninsula style. Saw the marineland dd 300 and was sold, probably will look into getting the tank made by miracles......my plans are having 9 kessils( 3 per every 24"x36" space ). I know I won't be putting light intensive corals on my sand. All depends what you r planning to keep on the lower part of the tank......the reason I post this because when the time comes, if the quotes are simply too high, I will go with my second choice of a 210g 72"x24"x30 and will use 6 kessils(2 for every 24"x36" space)

 

[DiscusHeckel]

Has anyone put an Apogee Quantum sensor under a Kessil 150 unit? If you ever did, you would conclude that AI Sol is a superior unit.

 

[Larson]

I have 2 Kessil A150's on a 18x22x30 tank but did it for color ( Sky blue and Ocean blue). It's been going for about 7 months that way. 1 Month on just the Ocean and 6 months with both. Primarily softies with a few LPS Duncans and Dendro's. Fabulous growth and color. With that being said I also have 1 of each on the back half of a 280g 72x30x30 which is primarily SPS and some LPS getting great color from the SPS and growth is still good. I plan on replacing the front MH with a A350W when it comes out. Oh the smaller 51 g tank I took off a 250 DE phoenix . And on the 280g , I took off a 400w XM 20k .

Pretty sold on the Kessils as a whole.

 

[djsmallz]

Yeah, I would say wait for the A350, but I do give thumbs up to Kessil. I have a A150 Ocean Blue and i love the look and I'm getting great growth on my Acro's, although I will say they are high in the tank.

 

[BigBoi5680]

Yea, I am trying to wait on the a350.......it would be nice if I could @ least get an accurate ETA! I was REALLY sold on the AIs though bout a month or 2 ago......til I talked to a guy @ LFS about the Kessils and saw them on a display tank.

 

[Donkeykong]

OK here is what I have seen in my local club
Kessils
all the guys running them an small tanks, under 30 gallon seem to be happy. The few guys on the bigger tanks have all had mixed to poor results. One guy in particular put 4 on a 5 foot 137gallon tank and the zoa's and softies did great he lost all coloration in his SPS's and LPS were never truly happy

AI's
Buddy of mine has 3 on a 220 that is 31" high. He runs softies, LPS and a few clams on the sand bed, he has had great success with all in his tank. Clams are still showing growth an the sand bed, he recently fragged a bubble coral that was getting to big and RBTA that are constantly splitting, but he doesnt have any SPS. Another Guy has 4 on almost the same tank but 30" high. He has also seen great results and he has SPS that have shown good coloration and growth. The optics on these units really get the light down deep, but the draw back to that is intensity drops when you start to move away from the center of the unit.

I recently bought 2 AI's for my 75, and am very happy so far but I am only a month in so I cant really give any input on my tank just yet. With all that said I still have to bring up Radions, We have to local guys with them and they are so far the best units I have seen with there only limitation being depth. They have no optics so they lose punch after about 21". So despite them being amazing they are not well suited for the deeper tanks. Also one of the biggest problem I see people run into with LED's is that they dont start out with enough units to cover the tank. If you are planning on keeping SPS's I would go with 4 AI's, if that is to steep right away, then three units but stick to LPS and if you get SPS's make sure to place them close to center line of the unit. As always this is just my observation and opinion.

 

[38bill]

I have a 215G 72X24X29 with four AI Sols 9" off the water, running parallel to the front of the tank. I am also running several T5's for a little more coverage and color. So far I am very happy. Clams, zoa's, gorgs, LPS and some SPS are doing as good or better than they did with all T5's.

 

[Donkeykong]

I have a 215G 72X24X29 with four AI Sols 9" off the water, running parallel to the front of the tank. I am also running several T5's for a little more coverage and color. So far I am very happy. Clams, zoa's, gorgs, LPS and some SPS are doing as good or better than they did with all T5's.

When and Why did you add the T5's? Did you see negative effects on the corals with just the AI's or was it more of an aesthetic choice? I have seen a few added T5's, half have said they felt the reds werent as vibrant as they liked and the other half said that everything looked fine but just wanted brighter tank.

 

[38bill]

When and Why did you add the T5's? Did you see negative effects on the corals with just the AI's or was it more of an aesthetic choice? I have seen a few added T5's, half have said they felt the reds werent as vibrant as they liked and the other half said that everything looked fine but just wanted brighter tank.

I didn't "add" the T5's, I just didn't remove the front row and the rear row. With my AI's running parallel it looked a little dark at the back of the tank so I left them and only run them for a few hours a day. If I could have raised the Sol's it probably wouldn't be an issue. I have some 70 deg optics on order for the Sol's so that may take care of it and I wont even need that row of T5's anymore.

I left the front row of T5's because I like the way the Purple Plus bulbs bring out the reds in the fish (it doesn't seem to do much for the coral). I only run them for a short time in the evening while I'm sitting in front of the tank.

 

[jluspo]

I actually have both Kessils and AI Sol Blue on my 48x24x24 120 gallon tank.

I started out with 2 Kessil a150w Sky Blue on my 65 gallon (36X18X24) and was somewhat happy. I said somewhat because even with the 2 Kessils, the tank looked dim. I had to supplement with 2 T5s to even out the spread. It was probably ok but I was just used to the T5 brightness. The Kessils is a spotlight which gave very dark shadows under caves, etc. I will say that I had some SPS frags that showed some growth during the 3 months that I had those lights on that tank. I think I had a birdsnest, green slimer, and a montipora digitata that showed good growth. I also had a variety of LPS and softies (frogspawn, torch, candy cane, lobos). In addition, I had a derasa clam that seems happy.

Then I had the upgrade itch . . .

I upgraded to a 120 and used the 2 Kessils on that tank supplemented with 4 T5HO. I was going to buy 4 more Kessils but when I did the math, it was actually somewhat cheaper to buy 2 AI Sol Blue than 4 more Kessils. 4 Kessils is $265x4=$1060. 2 AI Sol is 399x2=$798 plus $75 for the controller total = $873. It was about $190 cheaper to go with the 2 AI Sol but it gave me a dimmable controller that lets me enjoy my tank longer. What I mean by this is that I started my light from 7am to 11pm; slowly ramping up to full intensity at 3pm to 10pm, then lights off at 11pm. With the Kessils, it was on at 3 and off at 10.

Now I have 2 AI SOL Blue and 2 Kessils a150w on my 120 gallon and it looks great!!!

Why did I think I needed 6 Kessils, you might ask? I actually tested 2 Kessils on 1 side of my tank and thought it was still too dim.

Things are continuing to grow and I'm happy with the setup.

 

[BigBoi5680]

I think I'm sold on the AI Sols after reading some of these posts! And just to save me the time of researching while I have you guys here......am I correct in saying that the 70° optics will give me sufficient intensity for a 30" depth? And if so......how much are the optics?

And for advanced coloration I could also use T5s!? How do you physically set that up?

 

[ErikS]

I think I'm sold on the AI Sols after reading some of these posts! And just to save me the time of researching while I have you guys here......am I correct in saying that the 70° optics will give me sufficient intensity for a 30" depth? And if so......how much are the optics?

There are so many factors involved it's hard to make statements...........but given that many run the SOL @ far less than 100% there is plenty of power left over to compensate for the wider optics.

Each SOL comes with 4x40* & 4x70* - sets of 70* optics are $25/4 @ AI.

 

[Donkeykong]

30" of depth as in top to bottom I would stick with the stock 40 degree optics. The 70's are nice on 24" and lower as you still get light to the sand but get better spread, with the taller tanks you need the narrow optics to punch the light all the way to the bottom.