New Tank, First Time with LED Lighting - Need Advice Please

M

mike.p

New member
Hi all, I'll be setting up my new 150 gallon (high) in a couple of weeks, and am trying to decide which lights to get. It's going to be a reef tank. I'm basically between Current USA's Orbit Marine PRO (48-60,) or two Kessil 360WE's.

I like the Orbit PRO, because it covers the whole tank; so it seems the distribution of light would be better. Also, because it has evenly spaced UV LED's along it's length so, again, better UV spread?

But the Kessils, well, they certainly seem popular with everyone, and I've read some very good things, in terms of quality, color spectrum, light penetration, etc. Will they provide good coverage for my tank, both in terms of lighting, and UV? The footprint is 48" x 24".

The Kessil route will end up being more expensive, but I'm okay with that. I'd rather have the best and the right equipment from the get-go. I would appreciate any thoughts and suggestions. Thanks!
 
Look into the reefbreeders as well. For a 150, they can give you a great bang for your buck. And are very popular.
 
Thanks for the suggestions everyone, I'll check out those other brands as well. Yeah, the Vertex looks awesome!

Is there anyone that's had both the Orbit PRO and Kessils, and can share their experience?
 
People say kessils are great because no need to guess settings . I think with radions and others there is a lot of confusion on color combo intensity etc. Kessils is what my lfs uses. They look cool and are proven effective. I don't know how spread is with them. They use multiple with some interesting ceiling mounts that allow for pointing them perfectly
 
I've posted in the past about some lighting being 'point' sources and others being 'line' sources. It's an analogy from the audio world and speaker design; but I think it's a useful one. A point source light like the kessil will give you intensity and 'shimmer' but shading is a problem. A line source like the reefbreeders will not be as intense, but it has much better coverage. You can approximate a line source by using a lot if Kessils of course.

My own preferred approach is to actually use both. I run a pair of reefbreeders photon 32 and a bunch of Kessils over my 265 and I get the best of both worlds. I have ended up with rather more of the latter than originally thought (3 of the 360 and 4 of the 160), but they make the tank look amazing. No shading issues by running both.
 
ca1ore said:
I've posted in the past about some lighting being 'point' sources and others being 'line' sources. It's an analogy from the audio world and speaker design; but I think it's a useful one. A point source light like the kessil will give you intensity and 'shimmer' but shading is a problem. A line source like the reefbreeders will not be as intense, but it has much better coverage. You can approximate a line source by using a lot if Kessils of course.

My own preferred approach is to actually use both. I run a pair of reefbreeders photon 32 and a bunch of Kessils over my 265 and I get the best of both worlds. I have ended up with rather more of the latter than originally thought (3 of the 360 and 4 of the 160), but they make the tank look amazing. No shading issues by running both.
Click to expand...


Sorry for the much delayed response, I wanted to say thanks, as your explanation makes a lot of sense! Thank you to everyone else as well... Finally picked up a light last week. In the end, I ended up going with the Kessil AP700 dual fixture. From playing around with it so far, it's awesome! Can't wait for my remodel to be over, so I can actually set my tank up. Haha
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

E
How many lights for a 36” long by 18” wide
Replies
6
Views
189
Uncle99
Uncle99
B
Left Tank for a long time, now want to reboot
Replies
8
Views
238
SantaMonica
S
L
Lighting Advise for 36 x 18 SPS
Replies
7
Views
431
Uncle99
Uncle99
A
First SPS coral. Is this bleaching?
Replies
6
Views
454
apavlik2
A
A
Please help reef tank
Replies
2
Views
661
SantaMonica
S
Back
Top