new kessil A350.. just out***post your pics***

[madfx]

whats everyones obsession with shimmer? I'd actually like less shimmer

 

Same. Those recently posted videos would probably give me a headache. I prefer a more subdued relaxing shimmer.

[masami93]

I'm unsure of how certain types of LEDs or the way they are arranged would increase of decrease the levels of shimmer created, but I'd have to point out that surface water agitation would probably have a big effect regardless.

[HecticDialectics]

i think a lot of the people that talk about the kessil's shimmer are talking about the fact that it looks less like the "disco" effect you get from a lot of other LED's and that the tightly packed LED's on it produce a more complete looking shimmer. To me, a lot of the LED's out right now that have a grid-like organization to them do not produce a very natural looking shimmer. I think that's why a lot of the diy'ers have started to tightly pack their LED's, and also why the 3 in 1 LED's have started to become popular.

 

I was amazed it took three years for people to finally start packing the LEDs together in groups

 

Seemed blatantly obvious to me.

[dallasprstn]

I'm unsure of how certain types of LEDs or the way they are arranged would increase of decrease the levels of shimmer created, but I'd have to point out that surface water agitation would probably have a big effect regardless.

 

let's say you have a cluster of a blue( B ), red( R ), and white( W ) led. and this is how you have them on a fixture. ( B R W ). the colors will not blend very well and you will see each color in the tank seperately. But lets say you cluster them like this... BRW. the colors are more tightly packed, and therefore the three colors blend a whole lot better. and I think thats why clusters are becoming more popular and the grid fixture are kind of falling out of style.

[masami93]

let's say you have a cluster of a blue( B ), red( R ), and white( W ) led. and this is how you have them on a fixture. ( B R W ). the colors will not blend very well and you will see each color in the tank seperately. But lets say you cluster them like this... BRW. the colors are more tightly packed, and therefore the three colors blend a whole lot better. and I think thats why clusters are becoming more popular and the grid fixture are kind of falling out of style.

 

 

It seems that you are saying that tighter clusters= less shimmer and vise versa. Correct me if you mean to say otherwise.

[HecticDialectics]

Yes. There is more shimmer from 15 point sources of light than there is from 1 point source of light.

[dallasprstn]

It seems that you are saying that tighter clusters= less shimmer and vise versa. Correct me if you mean to say otherwise.

 

I wasn't ever talking about the amount of shimmer, I was talking about a more complete looking shimmer.

[absolon]

Shimmer increases the smaller the source of light is. so a long glowing neon tube has no shimmer and a MH with a 2 inch sized element has some shimmer a kessil has more and a pin prick source or light would have the most. IF you have alot of LEDS its true each one shimmers but the shimmer of one led tends to step on the shimmer of the next LED diminishing over all effect.

 

Do not confuse shimmer with discoballing whitch is when spacing in the LED causes the colors to not blend right.

 

surface adjetation has an effect on shimmer but no bearing on light choice

[blasterman]

These guys are meticulous when it comes to growth and not just corals

 

I think that's about the 100th false stamement in this thread regarding Kessil, but since you fanboyz will believe pretty much anything Kessil's marketing dept says there's little reason to debate it. It's cute though how Kessil was able to call their older light an A150 and then turn around and say it's in no way associated with the out-put of a 150-watt MH after PAR measurements showed that it was in the flashlight class in terms of growth. In fact, dollar per PAR or watt the A150 is one of the worst LED engines on the market. Kessil also doesn't have the reputation in the green house industry you guys constantly exagerate. Their light packages are sold primarily to boutique type growers because their efficiency is too low for anybody with serious scale or footage serious to buy them. Last, I'm not thrilled about buying reef lights from a company that also sells lights for growing dope and tomatoes. The Chinese do this and they get blasted for it.

 

That kind of BS alone is enough to turn my stomache away from a company, but you guys seem to want shimmer for some stupid reason so bad you'll believe anything you read.

 

Kessil shoves multiple color chips onto a single array, and suddenly the bunk-fest starts. The total quality of the array is based on the quality of the individual chips, and that's where the problems start because Kessil is rather hush-hush about this and they *don't* make their own chips. The dismal measurements of the A150 made Epistar look like Cree.

 

That said, as far as I'm aware the older and newer Kessil uses a single type of white emitter, and it's not better / worse than other other mediocre cool white. It doesn't have magical properties over any other fixture using cool-white chips except the Kessil combines them on a single die. This helps with color blending, but a single point light source has serious issues when it comes to coral growth because light is only coming from one direction. I've seen Kessil lit tanks where SPS was growing damn near sideways because half the coral is in total shadows You guys really think that's cool or something?

 

Multiple wavelengths of blue prove more beneficial than a single wavelength of blue when it comes to both aethestics and PAR. However, you need to control both these wavelengths or the longer wavelength of blue will over-power the tanks because it's visually much brighter. In that respect it's not fair to compare an AI Sol BLUE to a Kessil 350 because the type of light source and coverage is so radically different between the two platforms.

 

Obviously this makes me sound like a Kessil hater, but I'll admit the package has some advantages, just not those that most Kessil owners think to apply. At 10k the units look better than the avaerage LED fixture, and using multiple Kessils over a long tank looks better than conventional planar array LED fixtures when stacked side by side. Last week I saw a 75gal standard lit with 4x A350's, and I clearly liked both the color balance of the tank and the look of the multiple Kessil's filling in the shadow gaps. $1,600 is pretty big price though just to light a 75gal, but it did look good.

[randythefishdude]

I assure you that it has purple on it. It casts an incomplete rainbow outside of the "tank" it shows warm white, cool white, blue, royal blue, purple (Probably UV or TV)

 

Here's a picture of the light once again

nice thanks for the pics love this shot ....post some over ur tank when u have one or u put it on

[supernip]

I think that's about the 100th false stamement in this thread regarding Kessil, but since you fanboyz will believe pretty much anything Kessil's marketing dept says there's little reason to debate it. It's cute though how Kessil was able to call their older light an A150 and then turn around and say it's in no way associated with the out-put of a 150-watt MH after PAR measurements showed that it was in the flashlight class in terms of growth. In fact, dollar per PAR or watt the A150 is one of the worst LED engines on the market. Kessil also doesn't have the reputation in the green house industry you guys constantly exagerate. Their light packages are sold primarily to boutique type growers because their efficiency is too low for anybody with serious scale or footage serious to buy them. Last, I'm not thrilled about buying reef lights from a company that also sells lights for growing dope and tomatoes. The Chinese do this and they get blasted for it.

 

That kind of BS alone is enough to turn my stomache away from a company, but you guys seem to want shimmer for some stupid reason so bad you'll believe anything you read.

 

Kessil shoves multiple color chips onto a single array, and suddenly the bunk-fest starts. The total quality of the array is based on the quality of the individual chips, and that's where the problems start because Kessil is rather hush-hush about this and they *don't* make their own chips. The dismal measurements of the A150 made Epistar look like Cree.

 

That said, as far as I'm aware the older and newer Kessil uses a single type of white emitter, and it's not better / worse than other other mediocre cool white. It doesn't have magical properties over any other fixture using cool-white chips except the Kessil combines them on a single die. This helps with color blending, but a single point light source has serious issues when it comes to coral growth because light is only coming from one direction. I've seen Kessil lit tanks where SPS was growing damn near sideways because half the coral is in total shadows You guys really think that's cool or something?

 

Multiple wavelengths of blue prove more beneficial than a single wavelength of blue when it comes to both aethestics and PAR. However, you need to control both these wavelengths or the longer wavelength of blue will over-power the tanks because it's visually much brighter. In that respect it's not fair to compare an AI Sol BLUE to a Kessil 350 because the type of light source and coverage is so radically different between the two platforms.

 

Obviously this makes me sound like a Kessil hater, but I'll admit the package has some advantages, just not those that most Kessil owners think to apply. At 10k the units look better than the avaerage LED fixture, and using multiple Kessils over a long tank looks better than conventional planar array LED fixtures when stacked side by side. Last week I saw a 75gal standard lit with 4x A350's, and I clearly liked both the color balance of the tank and the look of the multiple Kessil's filling in the shadow gaps. $1,600 is pretty big price though just to light a 75gal, but it did look good.

 

 

synopsis bro

[specificplan]

a single point light source has serious issues when it comes to coral growth because light is only coming from one direction. I've seen Kessil lit tanks where SPS was growing damn near sideways because half the coral is in total shadows You guys really think that's cool or something?

 

just took my A350 down this am. my red planet coral agrees with this statement above. totally bleached on one side and totally brown on the other. acros were doing the same thing after about 2 weeks.

 

the light also just made my tank look too dark. most of the tank was in shadows, while the center was getting beaten to death with light. I don't really know of a tank where this light would make much sense. the single light source doesn't really work for a large tank and the amount of power doesn't work for a small one, imo.

 

and my neighbor agrees that the surest way to kill a pot plant is to hang a kessil over it. ;-0

[randythefishdude]

this might not be a problem with the wideAngle lenz

[gearhead364]

when does the wide angle lenz come out?

[TeflonTomDosh]

when does the wide angle lenz come out?

I spoke to a lady @ Kessil last week. She said hopefully by July, along with the new gooseneck

[supernip]

I don't really know of a tank where this light would make much sense.

 

a cube?

[dallasprstn]

I spoke to a lady @ Kessil last week. She said hopefully by July, along with the new gooseneck

 

i called marine depot a few days ago and they said they were expecting their first shipment of them on the 22nd of June. The ETA on their site is 6-8 weeks though.

[Tinola]

From Neptuneaquatics website: "Kessil A350 Spectral Halo LED - built-in UVA, 450nm, 460nm, and Daylight die"

[buddythelion]

I saw it on a roughly 36" x36" x 18" cube at Neptune Aquatics a few months ago. I think that is where the shots on the Kessil website came from as they had a photographer there that day (and some studio lights :-( ). The light by itself didn't really provide good coverage. The light is always behind the "viewer" since it sits in the middle of the tank and you view the tank from the edges. So no, I'd say a cube isn't really a good use for this light.

I don't think that's the same tank. Neptune's tank is super SPS colony dominated etc. But I agree on the spread, it's not much. That's why the 350a is known more as a spotlight.

[jnelson]

Would the regular version (non-wide angle) be sufficient for a 18x18 footprint? Or would that still be too tight and offer too little coverage?

[buddythelion]

Would the regular version (non-wide angle) be sufficient for a 18x18 footprint? Or would that still be too tight and offer too little coverage?

I have a 13x10x12 (l,w,h, basically a nano cube excluding the back chambers) and I still feel that it could have a slightly better spread.

 

I don't go to Neptune Aquatics as much as you do evidently~!

 

I guess I should have said the light is always in front of the viewer, or more accurately, the light is behind the objects that the viewer wants to see illuminated and therefore they are always viewing in shadows. I any case, I agree it's really a spotlight and probably not really ideal for general illumination on a tank.

Agreed. I can see that in mixed reef tanks there are some areas that need more light than others (say maybe an SPS island). Then I can see the 350 being used there.

[masami93]

I have a 13x10x12 (l,w,h, basically a nano cube excluding the back chambers) and I still feel that it could have a slightly better spread.

 

 

Agreed. I can see that in mixed reef tanks there are some areas that need more light than others (say maybe an SPS island). Then I can see the 350 being used there.

 

 

Are you serious? You're telling me a $400 light can't even give good spread on a 13"x12"x12"??!?!?!

 

How high are you suspending it over the waterline? o.0

Could you provide us with some pictures?

[buddythelion]

Are you serious? You're telling me a $400 light can't even give good spread on a 13"x12"x12"??!?!?!

 

How high are you suspending it over the waterline? o.0

Could you provide us with some pictures?

My bad. I was looking at another thread with a150 and he said normal and glanced over the wide version part and thought he was asking if the 150 was good enough. I'm sure the 350 would do a good job. But be careful. That thing is like a canon of light. I bet you could walk around with it and use it like an ultra floodlight.

[supernip]

I saw it on a roughly 36" x36" x 18" cube at Neptune Aquatics a few months ago. I think that is where the shots on the Kessil website came from as they had a photographer there that day (and some studio lights :-( ). The light by itself didn't really provide good coverage. The light is always behind the "viewer" since it sits in the middle of the tank and you view the tank from the edges. So no, I'd say a cube isn't really a good use for this light.

 

well lets see, I have a 14in cube and a kessil a350 and I dont have this problem. so Imma say you're still full of it

[buddythelion]

Yes, serious. The amount of spread isn't the issue. It's the fact that it's a point source light. If you suspend it in the center of your tank it illuminates everything from that single point outward. It would be great if you viewed your tank from the center, but since you view your tank from the edge, it doesn't really make a whole lot of sense. regardless of how high you suspend it, the light source is always coming from the center of the tank to the edge and therefore they viewer is always looking at shadows.

 

The sun is millions of miles away, but when you take a picture of something with the sun in front of you, your picture always looks like crap:

 

If this is how you want your tank to look, then this $400 light should work perfect.

That picture is completely different from many tanks. For starters, how many of our corals stand straight up like that and that we'll have to look up at an angle to view?

 

I can't recall if this was posted yet, but here's a 350 on one of Marine Depot's tank.

http://blog.marinedepot.com/2012/04/unboxi...new-kessil.html

 

Here's what he said: "I placed the Kessils 12 inches apart which gave me excellent coverage in my 3 ft long aquarium. Adjusting the lights further apart still provided plenty of lighting throughout the aquarium."

 

So over a small cube it would do well.

 

Edit: I found the owner's blog. Here's some of his feedback with 2 weeks into it.

http://www.remsreef.com/

 

He even compares it left to right with a 150 10k.