zoomonster
New member
The Kessils came in on Friday and I had them up and running that night. I pretty much used the setup from the BRS video for Apex and tweaked from there. I bought mine from Salty and they did not have the 90 degree adapters which is probably just as well. Still tweaking position but probably won't need them. I had a package of black Velcro straps and they worked out nice for organizing the wiring. To be honest my first thought when I powered them up was oh **** what did I do but they are growing on me. Despite each of the three supposedly good for a 24x24 area (my tank / 3) I'm leaning towards maybe adding a fourth but that's not w/o challenges. Left and right are pretty much centered over their areas but center is lower because of the large center overflow. That overflow along with bracing is a problem in mounting 4 equidistant across the tank. I think 5 would be the ideal amount of light and best mounting option but I'm not considering that right now. Anyway more to come on the subject but I'm not selling my MH/T5 fixture just yet. Some thoughts so far...
1) Biggest concern so far is shadowing and perceived less light.
2) No moonlight capability. They might be suitable if not for the lights turning off when they reach a power level of 14.
3) Many rate the shimmer as a plus but undecided on that as to there being too much shimmer.
4) As expected my actinically active corals are absolutely stunning under dawn and dusk periods of more blue light. I would say colors are better than even VHO actinic. My Ricordia, shrooms, zoas and other softies are looking better than ever. Even with SPS I'm liking the color of some even better under the LED's. Being my tank is pretty heavy on branching SPS varieties how they do will be my deciding factor on whether to keep or sell the lights.
5) Behavior wise only two things stand out. My large superman mushroom that has never done too well anywhere in my tank with MH has perked right up and its orange/cobalt blue colors are returning to full. My 3 RBTA's have been acting a bit weird and closing up more but seem ok.
6) I'm using a color ramp up to 90. I'm not terribly impressed with the daylight color especially at 100. 90 does seem to be about the best "daylight" color although not sure how those equate to actual color temps.
7) Equipment wise the only real criticism is the control cables are too short. Attached to a light, routed along gooseneck, across tank and up next gooseneck to 2nd light and 6ft is on the short side. There is just enough cable that it runs the span just across the top edge of the tank. Not too bad but 7' would have been the ideal length and completely hidden the cables. Not enough to pay $40 for two extension cables though. Because of the location I happen to have my Apex in and the way I placed the lights the 6ft light/apex cable was just barely enough.
8) The 360WE is supposed to be 15% brighter. Going back to my comment about perceived lack of light... if I keep these I suspect I will end up running at 90-100% power after acclimation. Even for acclimation I'm not comfortable with going less than my current ramped 70% max power setting.
9) The fish were a little freaked out probably from the shimmer and shadows but have adapted. If anything the fish colors are less stark under the LED's due to a lack of constant diffused light.
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