thoughts on kessil A150 Led...
- Thread starter Devaji108
- Start date
How do the 15k lights compare to an AI Nano as far as visual intensity goes? I'm not talking about growth, just how bright the light looks. I wasn't thrilled with the AI over a tank I saw, but I also don't know what the output setting is. Even balls out it looks as if it would be pretty dim. I'm liking what I read almost every time, but I like a bright tank.
Again, I'm asking about visual intensity, not usable intensity for coral growth
Again, I'm asking about visual intensity, not usable intensity for coral growth
kingpin9995
New member
I have the Ocean Blue Kessil. The brightness is deceiving in regards to coral growth, but to the eye it is quite blue. The Sky Blue is nice and bright with less blue but I have grown to like the blue. It makes the corals and the fish pop more, and the shimmer is better with the Ocean Blue compared to the Sky blue. If you want brighter, Sky blue is the way to go.
I found it was an absolute crapshoot trying to work out which to get - I'm a big fan of blue lights, but man it seems hard to get a consistent shot of each under the same conditions. I ended up ordering the 10000ks since the usual consensus seemed to be that they were typically more blue than shown in most shots.
Then I look at the shots from Steely up there, and the 15000ks look great. But then I went back to the original video that helped me decide -
http://youtu.be/-EyabHl1dPA
and the 15ks there look extremely blue - almost like a 50/50 blue/actinic. And the 20000ks are almost a pure actinic look on their shots.
But yeah for me the best in that video seems to be the 10000k/15000k mix (if only they made a 12500k light
). I figure I'll see if the 10000ks work out and then order some 15000ks later - or maybe see what happens with the A350.
Then I look at the shots from Steely up there, and the 15000ks look great. But then I went back to the original video that helped me decide -
http://youtu.be/-EyabHl1dPA
and the 15ks there look extremely blue - almost like a 50/50 blue/actinic. And the 20000ks are almost a pure actinic look on their shots.
But yeah for me the best in that video seems to be the 10000k/15000k mix (if only they made a 12500k light
). I figure I'll see if the 10000ks work out and then order some 15000ks later - or maybe see what happens with the A350.I just recently got back into the reef world. I have a 92 corner which seemed to be a trick to light and make the lighting look ok. Looked at the T5 options (which is what i had the last time) and started checking out LEDs as i saw postings everywhere about them. Considered the AI Blue and checked out a few others. Then (thank you so much) i found this thread. Found a dealer in town who had them in stock and used them on a few tanks. Loved the arm mount and the color from the lights.
I ended up purchasing two of these (sky and ocean blue). They are mounted one on each side of the tank via the arms. I have them over the tank about 6" apart from each other and at a slight angle. The blue is pretty blue in my opinion and the sky blue just has a shade of blue in it and appears pretty bright to me. I intended to take one or the other back and get the matching unit. Well after i tried it with both lights on and set up as above, the color mix is pure fantastic. A little more blue and it remains bright. Totally keeping the sets i have and running as is. I use the ocean blue, to start the day off and get the kids to bed at night, by itself.
I only have some button polyps, zoas, and a few fish right now as the tank is still pretty new. I will update later once i get my first few SPS frags.
I ended up purchasing two of these (sky and ocean blue). They are mounted one on each side of the tank via the arms. I have them over the tank about 6" apart from each other and at a slight angle. The blue is pretty blue in my opinion and the sky blue just has a shade of blue in it and appears pretty bright to me. I intended to take one or the other back and get the matching unit. Well after i tried it with both lights on and set up as above, the color mix is pure fantastic. A little more blue and it remains bright. Totally keeping the sets i have and running as is. I use the ocean blue, to start the day off and get the kids to bed at night, by itself.
I only have some button polyps, zoas, and a few fish right now as the tank is still pretty new. I will update later once i get my first few SPS frags.
Also, another question - has anyone used the H150W Blue on a tank yet?
Here's their spectra put in the same image:
Which makes it look like something you'd see like a rb/b mix from other LED manufacturers (minimal to no UVC, no white). It's about $60 per unit cheaper.
Other question - has anyone used the Purple or Magenta H150s in an ATS? Normally this would seem a fairly expensive proposition but I'm curious what their performance is vs eg. just a standard low colour temp grow-light or CFL. I mean, if you look around, you will find at least one guy using one single H150 magenta to grow an entire plant of a certain medicinal herb, which doesn't sound possible but apparently it is. I'm curious if it matches that as an algae grow light...
Here's their spectra put in the same image:
Which makes it look like something you'd see like a rb/b mix from other LED manufacturers (minimal to no UVC, no white). It's about $60 per unit cheaper.
Other question - has anyone used the Purple or Magenta H150s in an ATS? Normally this would seem a fairly expensive proposition but I'm curious what their performance is vs eg. just a standard low colour temp grow-light or CFL. I mean, if you look around, you will find at least one guy using one single H150 magenta to grow an entire plant of a certain medicinal herb, which doesn't sound possible but apparently it is. I'm curious if it matches that as an algae grow light...
I found it was an absolute crapshoot trying to work out which to get - I'm a big fan of blue lights, but man it seems hard to get a consistent shot of each under the same conditions. I ended up ordering the 10000ks since the usual consensus seemed to be that they were typically more blue than shown in most shots.
Then I look at the shots from Steely up there, and the 15000ks look great. But then I went back to the original video that helped me decide -
http://youtu.be/-EyabHl1dPA
and the 15ks there look extremely blue - almost like a 50/50 blue/actinic. And the 20000ks are almost a pure actinic look on their shots.
But yeah for me the best in that video seems to be the 10000k/15000k mix (if only they made a 12500k light
I have seen the marine depot videos and to my eye the ocean blue is not quite as blue as in the video they post.
The video link I posted was taken using a dslr camera using it's hd video setting so it shouldn't be extra blue like you would get taking video with a camera phone. It's a more white balanced video in my opinion than the marine depot video.
diegobaltik
New member
How many kessil a150 for a 40 gallon breeder tank(36x16x18)?
Mr.Mustang
New member
I would say 2. I plan on putting 5 on my 108 60"x18"x24.
Yeah, from what I've seen the coverage for them would have each lighting about a 12-18" diameter cone well enough to actually grow anything much realistically, though they seem to visibly light 24" reasonably enough for anything that doesn't need gobs of light. But of course you can always run them at a higher density of units if you want to get silly amounts of light in there. I think it's a bit more complicated than usual due to the conical shape of the spread, that they say they can be placed 12-24" above the water - and presumably less if you want to go nuts. Also they use a fairly wide angle on it (106?) so once you have more than one over an area it would multiply the effects a fair bit.
My test run of them is going to be 3 which will be on a 5' (crashed hard a couple of years ago, FOWLR for the moment) so I'll hopefully have some shots of the light spread on a larger tank at different heights to show in a few days (and the 2'). I've seen people get away with 2-3 on a 4' tank and it doesn't look too shabby.
My test run of them is going to be 3 which will be on a 5' (crashed hard a couple of years ago, FOWLR for the moment) so I'll hopefully have some shots of the light spread on a larger tank at different heights to show in a few days (and the 2'). I've seen people get away with 2-3 on a 4' tank and it doesn't look too shabby.
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I've got 4 total over my 125 gal. 2 sky blue and 2 ocean blue. I have a white on the end, blue, white, and blue on the other end. The Shimmer and color was so nice to me that I actually took off my black background and just have my gray wall as my back ground. I will try to get a picture of it tonight, but the color pop is amazing with these lights. I have had them for about 3 months now and have seen nothing negative on the couple corals that I do have. IMO Great bang for the buck.
maxxII
Super Housemonkey!
The shadow from your centerbrace is pretty distracting due to the location you have the light at, (understandable with just one source of light).
You might consider ordering a second 15K and trying to supplement with some 10K T5's or maybe even PC's if possible. You should be getting all the PAR/PUR you need out of the Kessil's, so anything else would be solely for color supplementation to meet your aesthetic desires....
Nick
ETA-BTW, looks great.
Hmm, I'd say you should go with multiples of two of the same kind. AFAIK they're pretty much at about the maximum angle you can possibly get away with before you start losing a lot more light to reflection (~50 degrees either side of vertical) so angling them towards each other might turn out to be pretty inefficient. At least assuming I understand the issue right 
I still don't have pics of mine, but they look pretty great held over the tank. I stupidly didn't order the goosenecks because they were like $55 each with postage and assumed I could rig something similar - haha, no, turns out very few stores even carry flexible metal conduit of any kind at all here. Should get my housemate to hold them or something so I can shoot sometime this weekend.
The 10/sky blue is very white. They're a blue-ish white, sure, but nobody is ever going to mistake it for a blue light. I think reports of them being a "14000k" are somewhat exaggerated - not that anyone really measures this accurately or anything, but still, to my mind they're not incredibly far off the mark calling it a 10 equivalent. The thing that amazed me with it was how big the jump from 1 unit to 2 is - even just some of the reflected light from one 20-22" away is pretty much enough to kill the sharper shadows and seems to increase the brightness of the tank they're on by a quite disproportionate amount. But further away than that and yeah, as you see, you end up with this incredibly bright section of anything that's directly lit, and an incredibly dark section of anything behind a shadow. I definitely understand how someone mounting 2 on a 4' tank might come away disappointed (especially if they're placed at either end) - the 2' coverage is the maximum usable extent right at the end of the cone of light.
But, still very happy (so far) with how they look from my brief plays with test placing them. Have to see how they go on an actual set up tank long term though.
I still don't have pics of mine, but they look pretty great held over the tank. I stupidly didn't order the goosenecks because they were like $55 each with postage and assumed I could rig something similar - haha, no, turns out very few stores even carry flexible metal conduit of any kind at all here. Should get my housemate to hold them or something so I can shoot sometime this weekend.
The 10/sky blue is very white. They're a blue-ish white, sure, but nobody is ever going to mistake it for a blue light. I think reports of them being a "14000k" are somewhat exaggerated - not that anyone really measures this accurately or anything, but still, to my mind they're not incredibly far off the mark calling it a 10 equivalent. The thing that amazed me with it was how big the jump from 1 unit to 2 is - even just some of the reflected light from one 20-22" away is pretty much enough to kill the sharper shadows and seems to increase the brightness of the tank they're on by a quite disproportionate amount. But further away than that and yeah, as you see, you end up with this incredibly bright section of anything that's directly lit, and an incredibly dark section of anything behind a shadow. I definitely understand how someone mounting 2 on a 4' tank might come away disappointed (especially if they're placed at either end) - the 2' coverage is the maximum usable extent right at the end of the cone of light.
But, still very happy (so far
) with how they look from my brief plays with test placing them. Have to see how they go on an actual set up tank long term though.
I think 48" length is about the limit for 2, unless you want to mount them really high (eg mount point starting at a few inches over 12") - but then you'll lose a fair amount of their output spilling over the front/back of an 18" wide tank. You could do it if you were careful about where you placed things and are prepared for it to either have several shaded/unlit spots (low mounting) or be perhaps not as bright as you might like (high mounting).
Marine Depot seemed to be about the cheapest I could find them. There seems to be very little price variation when I looked around but they do sell the goosenecks for a bit less than you see elsewhere. They were generally pleasant to deal with even ordering from Australia.
Marine Depot seemed to be about the cheapest I could find them. There seems to be very little price variation when I looked around but they do sell the goosenecks for a bit less than you see elsewhere. They were generally pleasant to deal with even ordering from Australia.
kelhuffman
Premium Member
My experience after a week of having these is: I'm using them to replace T-5 actinics and daylights that only serve for color and having a full 12 hour day. I use 250W DEs for growth. The T-5s had to go because I use 60" versions that go dull and need replacement every 6 months at some expense. Love the Kessil's "pop" on the corals. I installed 3 of them on my 6x3x26" 280G tank. My take is the ocean blue 15Ks are too blue by themselves, particularly because the glitter lines (which are awesome) seem more exaggerated than even halides. I have 2 15ks and a 10k sky blue to add more white spectrum. The tank looks amazing compared to the T-5s so very pleased. I'm going to add another ocean blue not because the 3 don't provide enough spread but to add more white balance overall. The deep ocean blue must be incredibly blue!
