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AI Prime or Kessil A160


Brayreef

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Looking for a new led light. Has anyone had experience with both of these lights? Pros or cons? I currently have a 3 gallon, LPS dominant tank, but will eventually upgrade to at least a 10 gallon cube. I'm using a par 30 right now but I want a broader color spectrum and more controllability. Any input?

 

Thanks

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Both are great lights. I've used both. The Kessil isn't as controllable as the AI fixture right off the bat. It is also slightly more expensive to get into. The Prime has the phone and computer applications where you can fine tune the light. It is also slightly cheaper. Either way you will be very happy with either light.

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CatfishSoupFTW

Kessil:

 

You can control color, from 10k to a really nice heavy actinic With a knob. Deeper than the prime.

You can control intensity with a knob as well

Hang it ( comes with almost everything you need. I had spare aircraft cable laying around so I used that, pretty cheap to get)

Goose neck it, plus 90 degree adapter. Annoying how its two separate things but it looks good.

Really small form factor, therefore it wont look massive over your 3 gallon. ( I use it on a 18x18x16 so dont worry too much about upgrading issues. I use it at 50 percent max)

Shimmer - youll here this one a lot and its all true. No other light in the market will produce this natural sun shimmer on your tank. You can control it too via the surface agitation. Even with still water there is a very nice calming movement. I love this due to the fact that it brings the whole tank to life with movement

Also has UV which some people say its worth to have.

 

Downside from all this time I have owned it are a few small things. One is, that since there is no lime green in the chip, when you put on a deeper blue, to the eyes it will look darker in the tank, even though its receiving the same amount of intensity as it would at any other spectrum. Nothing bonkers, and I got used to it over time. Another con would be the lack of controllability, as in through programming ramping. I use a generic timer to get 8 hours, but for ramping, at the moment I dont own the kessil spectral controller ( 100 bucks more) or a bluefish ( 200 american)

The light, I have my hanging, and its slightly off the centre of the tank... welll, centre back - and so with my rock set up, there are some heavy shadowing, if I move it forward a bit more, it will fall nicely onto the rocks. So its a bit finickyin that sense. ( this is because its a point sourced light, so contrast can be heavy)

 

Prime I havent owned, but know of some owners and have been following threads on them.

 

Heard its a nice little light. Some people complain about the cool whites , but its basically a hydra just smaller which is a proven light.

Nice design, but the hanging kit and arm is separate ( like most products now a days . ugh )

The best feature out of this is, wifi ready out of the box. Ramp, intensity, etc etc all ready to go just via an app on your phone. You cant control any of this via buttons on the light I believe, so for those that dont use apps often, find this as a hassle

The arm droops - the whole world suffered from this it seemed, there are fixes, and AI did? fix this.

You can pivot and move it around a bit, unlike the kessil

Your actinic wont match as deep as the kessil, a bit more on the purple side if anything I beleive

Channel control - this is a nice feature, youll have the ability to control each color to an intensity and combo of your choice. Truth be told though, I owned a radion xr15pro to replace the kessil, and long story short, I figured with a wider spectrum id be able to have some nice fine tuning, but for the most part, the lighting combos looked exactly like what I got from the kessil, despite the kessil only having less colors than the radion. Also, I found that all those extra features like clouds, storms etc are all a waste of time - its just color and intensity ramping which ( almost) everyone prefers.

 

Now as a note, I returned the radion due to some heavvvvyyyyyy disco balling. No matter what I did, I can see different colors of the led on the substrate , red, blue, green, it was driving me nuts! the light was decent ( combo with a kessil it was amazing, but obviously a waste of money ) so I returned it. to keep things short, Led clusters, from most lights in general have the same spread between each led , just like what you may see on your par30s or par 38, and so, if not set up right ( or even it being a doodoo product) youll see this disco nonsense going on. Through photos I have seen this with primes, but it could be just the camera picking it up... i dunno, but I have seen it with radions ( not the bigger brothers) and with razors, and even some nano boxes. This wont happen withe everyone, but keep that in mind.

 

hope this helps xD

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I really appreciate the input! I love the deep blue color and that is why I'm slightly leaning towards the kessil. I just think the price tag for built in wifi for the prime is a steal! I have lots of thinking to do lol

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Basically everything Catfish said. I have noticed any discoball in the Prime. And the mount droop has been fixed. AI sends out free replacement kits.

 

Like I said you will be very happy with either light. If budget is a concern and you want control right out of the gate get the Prime. If it isn't a concern and you want the physical knob adjustment get a Kessil.

 

The Prime does have a very deep blue. You just have to mess with the settings. I'd say it is nearly identical to the kessel.

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CatfishSoupFTW

Does the Kessil include the mounting bracket?

 

for hanging, youll have everything youll need minus the cable and little loop carabiner things. Less than 20 bucks at home depot. For mounting on a gooseneck, that comes in a kit, which is about 40 or 50 Cad. Imo, the kessil is worth the 100 bucks more , which at 300 CAD after tax, I still found it to be a great price compared to most LEDs out there

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for hanging, youll have everything youll need minus the cable and little loop carabiner things. Less than 20 bucks at home depot. For mounting on a gooseneck, that comes in a kit, which is about 40 or 50 Cad. Imo, the kessil is worth the 100 bucks more , which at 300 CAD after tax, I still found it to be a great price compared to most LEDs out there

 

You need the 90 adapter as well if you want it to look good. I never could get just the gooseneck to bend where the light was actually level. It always pointed forward some.

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CatfishSoupFTW

 

You need the 90 adapter as well if you want it to look good. I never could get just the gooseneck to bend where the light was actually level. It always pointed forward some.

oops yup yup , so another 20-30 bucks or so ontop of the gooseneck price.

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I went back and forth, but decided on two AI primes over the kessil. One of the deciding factors was the moonlight option with the primes, the kessil' just don't dial down low enough for my liking. Not sure if I could have changed that with apex, but I knew I didn't have to fool with it with the primes.

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I went back and forth, but decided on two AI primes over the kessil. One of the deciding factors was the moonlight option with the primes, the kessil' just don't dial down low enough for my liking. Not sure if I could have changed that with apex, but I knew I didn't have to fool with it with the primes.

Are the moonlights a deep blue? I really want a deep blue/actinic setting. Kessil seems unrivaled when it comes to a deep blue.

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CatfishSoupFTW

according to kessils website its a power factor when it comes to getting a nice low light. But 13 percent isnt too shabby, so it depends where you have the tank. I have my tanks right beside my bed, and so sometimes I leave it at its lowest strength then turn it off later because it can get somewhat bright once you adjust to it. But, at the same time, its also enough power to illuminate the tank nicely from top to bottom.

 

I havent seen the deepest of blues from the prime, but I have from the radions, and its nowhere near as deep blue as the kessil. The radions share the same diodes if im not mistaken. If you go prime and its not blue enough, there are stunner strips and all that extra stuff you can add, but it does add bulk. What I did before with my par38 is I bought some small blue led strips from ebay for a buck and glued them around the bulb, with their own separate power. It did the job. lol

 

Can I use the controller for moonlight mode?

The controller is currently compatible only with the A360 line. The A360 lights are not capable of dimming down past 13%, thus even with the controller, the light will shut off at that intensity. The controller will be compatible with future lights that may have moonlight mode, but with the A360, you will not be able to create a moonlight effect.

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The prime definitely has a nice blend of colors. I have mine about 12" above the water with a lot of surface movement and no disco

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Cencalfishguy56

Don't need the 90 adapter, just bend the gooseneck into an S shape, that's what I did and works great, and I chose kessil because I love the blue color, prime looks promising but I have no experience with it

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reefernanoman

I have an A160we on top of my Nanocube 28g, and after about a week and a half, I absolutely love it! I know that I sound like a broken record, but my rainbow Acans are finally starting to look like a "rainbow". I also have a minitide with the "limes", and personally (this is very subjective), I don't miss them on my Kessil. I love love love the "shimmer". I use my Apex Jr with the VDM module to control my Kessil. The PRIME, from what I have read is much more affordable to get into and it looks like a very decent light. I love the "blue" look, so I would prefer to go with Kessil for this reason and the shimmer. Both are very nice lights and I would recommend to see them in action personally (hopefully at a lfs), since no one pair of eyes are the same.

Videos and pictures of LED'S, from my experience, look very different to me once I see them in action with my own eyes.

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reefernanoman

I wouldn't loose any sleep about the Kessil not having moonlights or individual channels of control, both of which I have on my minitide. They are a couple of things that I can play with and are not necessary at all. Kessil has the perfect color blend and all I had to worry about was how "blue" I liked it,and the intensity too. I don't miss these two things at all on my Kessil, but the reward is an amazing blend of colors that make my corals "pop". Maybe in the future Kessil will add those things into their pendants, since they are heading into that direction with their upcoming fixtures.

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HarryPotter

I vote Ecotech Radion XR30w Pro :-)

 

In your case perhaps the Xr15w Pro, but either would work!

 

:-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-)

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I vote Ecotech Radion XR30w Pro :-)

 

In your case perhaps the Xr15w Pro, but either would work!

 

:-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-)

 

You can't be serious. This is a 3g being upgraded to a 10g eventually. A XR30W Pro would nuke the tank at 10%. A XR15 would want to be kept at like 20%. Beautiful lights but not on a 3g or even a 10g.

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HarryPotter

 

You can't be serious. This is a 3g being upgraded to a 10g eventually. A XR30W Pro would nuke the tank at 10%. A XR15 would want to be kept at like 20%. Beautiful lights but not on a 3g or even a 10g.

 

Totally misread. I thought the conversation was for a larger tank, like 30-45 gallon. The AI prime or any Kessil is MORE than enough for that size lol :)

 

What do you think of the XR30w Pro on a : 26.5" x 21" x 19" (tall) tank? Im hoping I can use it on the JBJ RL-45 I will be setting up soon.

 

I also have a AI Nano, which would be AMAZING for the 10g. However the Prime seems to be very similar wattage wise

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reefernanoman

 

Totally misread. I thought the conversation was for a larger tank, like 30-45 gallon. The AI prime or any Kessil is MORE than enough for that size lol :)

 

What do you think of the XR30w Pro on a : 26.5" x 21" x 19" (tall) tank? Im hoping I can use it on the JBJ RL-45 I will be setting up soon.

 

I also have a AI Nano, which would be AMAZING for the 10g. However the Prime seems to be very similar wattage wise

More than enough light for that tank for sure. Heck, I have seen a A160we on a RL-45 and it pretty much covered the whole tank visually, but I'm assuming that you could only do low light corals on the edges.

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HarryPotter

Got any pictures of the A160e on the RL-45?

 

Its a shame people are not more interested in this tank, no? I think its a pretty sleek tank- a huge upgrade from NanoCubes

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reefernanoman

Got any pictures of the A160e on the RL-45?

 

Its a shame people are not more interested in this tank, no? I think its a pretty sleek tank- a huge upgrade from NanoCubes

I didn't think about taking a picture. I was too busy being mesmerized by the "shimmer". :lol: That's one of the main reasons why I went with Kessil for my NC. I took the rim off my NC 28G and it looks very sleek now, but it was a PITA.

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