Opinions on Kessil LED Lights

[basser9]

Here a pic of the mix from a 150 kessell'

They do a great job of mixing chips in there arrays unlike most manufacturers

You did not say your tank size the 350w has a nice spread for a 40 breeder

but you need a 350 to get the par for sps on a 110.

For the same money you can get a small RAZOR which is way better then the kessill.

Unless you need a small led for some reason get the razor.......not even close.

[swimmatte]

I know this thread is old but figured I'd chime in. I'm currently running (2) Kessil a150w's in the 15,000k Ocean Blue. I absolutely love them. Quiet, Cool, Plenty bright, and absolutely make the corals pop. The only problem with the 150's is that you have no control over intensity, which doesn't bother me too much. If anyone is looking into these, I have a 10,000k available. Also, if any of you Marylanders want to see them in action, Congressional just switched over, and you're more then welcome to check out mine. Long story short, I'm a fan.

[johnnybv]

My 2 cents. Kessil is pushing hard in our market, I have spoken to their rep almost weekly for the past 3 months. There is a lot of data that they just dont have / understand. We as a hobby have always used PAR and untrue Kelvin numbers to help differentiate the color that they bulbs will produce, and the PAR for intensity. LEDs do not measure the same as halides or T-5s so trying to compare with the same measuring methods will not make any sense. When we rattled the rep a bit asking for spectral analysis he had to get back to us with the info, he just didnt have it! Do they work, probably, and it sounds like Quantum in running them through their paces, but I think the jury is still out, and some one with the technical backround to demystify what LEDS are all about needs to come througt with some hard facts that we can understand at the hobbiest level. Either that, or only time will tell, but by the time this is sorted out Plasma bulbs will be on the market!!!

 

john

Edited March 24, 2013 by johnnybv

[johnnybv]

Oh yea, forgot to mention, we have some AI VEGAS coming in for store use to give a try

[jamal]

they loo pretty, they grow corals in my standard 180 (i dont have acros) and less light spillage means i clean the glass less. that said all of john's points are totally accurate and without it you cant really tell what you are getting.

[Oprah Wrangler]

sounds like T5's and MH are still the only sure thing.

[Orion]

Currently have the a150w over a 30 gallon. Great light. Acros, and a couple of Birdsnest SPS corals are growing.

I may upgrade to the 350 or 360 when it comes out so I can tune the color I want.

[swimmatte]

Currently have the a150w over a 30 gallon. Great light. Acros, and a couple of Birdsnest SPS corals are growing.

I may upgrade to the 350 or 360 when it comes out so I can tune the color I want.

 

360's are out but are just hitting distributors. I don't know anyone local that's carrying them yet but I know that Diablo Coral in Cali has them.

[zygote2k]

sounds like T5's and MH are still the only sure thing.

for endless bulb replacement and excessive electricity use.

it's light. it grows corals.

[wade]

FWIW I spoke to Sanjay and he said they have yet to send him a lamp to test. They said they would, but haven't done so yet. Maybe press them to send it to him so he can do an across the board comparison like he's done with the AI and Ecotechs.

[Chad]

My 2 cents. Kessil is pushing hard in our market, I have spoken to their rep almost weekly for the past 3 months. There is a lot of data that they just dont have / understand. We as a hobby have always used PAR and untrue Kelvin numbers to help differentiate the color that they bulbs will produce, and the PAR for intensity. LEDs do not measure the same as halides or T-5s so trying to compare with the same measuring methods will not make any sense. When we rattled the rep a bit asking for spectral analysis he had to get back to us with the info, he just didnt have it! Do they work, probably, and it sounds like Quantum in running them through their paces, but I think the jury is still out, and some one with the technical backround to demystify what LEDS are all about needs to come througt with some hard facts that we can understand at the hobbiest level. Either that, or only time will tell, but by the time this is sorted out Plasma bulbs will be on the market!!!

 

john

 

This isn't the first (or the second) time I've heard in the last two weeks about the sales reps pushing product hard, but when a LFS owner asks for supporting facts they don't have it. I don't personally know if it's poor knowledge in the salesman or lack of supporting info... either way it's a flag for me to do more DD prior to purchase.

[Integral9]

my $0.02

 

Flourescent bulbs light ignite a gas and excite a phosphor causing the electrons in the phosphors to bounce valence levels. Think of the valence levels as orbits. Higher valence = higher orbit. When an electron drops down to a lower energy valence level, it gives off a photon. The frequency of that photon is determined by how many valence levels the electron moves. With flourescent lighting, the phosphorous in the bulb is a mixture of many different phosphors, and with that mixture you get electrons moving to / from many different valence levels, causing a wide spectrum of light. A similar thing happens with metal halides, except instead of a phosphor, you are excite a mercury vapor. It takes a little while for the mercury to gasify, so that is the warm up period you see with them.

 

LEDs on the other hand only excite the atoms from one side of the diode to the other. Also, only certain combinations of materials can be used for LEDs. And since the diode is made of 2 very specific substances, there is not much abundance in different valence levels for the electrons to bounce to. So the light emitted is very specific and almost singular in it's frequency. So it takes many diodes to produce a broad spectrum of light.

 

White LEDs & color varying LEDs are made up of an array of diodes. (typically Red, Green & Blue) The diodes are very small and depending on how the LED is made, very hard to see. So don't think that just because you only see one plastic bulge, you only have 1 diode. If you look into the LED from the top, you might be able to see the array. Adjusting the voltage / power to the diodes independently will have the effect of adjust the spectrum peaks and effectively the color of the light we see.

 

One advantage of LEDs is we can literally fine tune the light spectrum to only produce light that's useful for photosynthesis in our corals and not waste light, provided we (someone) can identify all the combinations of elements to produce light with a diode at the varying frequencies that are needed. There's also the heat thing too. :-)

[fscbishop]

they are nice lights

[camelcruiser]

I had 2 of the 350's over my 120 reef and I liked them. They grow chalice better then any other light I have ever had, I didn't have any sps die off but growth slowed down a bit. My biggest complaint is how they look over a larger tank, I hung them from the ceiling and they just didn't look good. I would recommend a canopy or the goosenecks.

[swimmatte]

I had 2 of the 350's over my 120 reef and I liked them. They grow chalice better then any other light I have ever had, I didn't have any sps die off but growth slowed down a bit. My biggest complaint is how they look over a larger tank, I hung them from the ceiling and they just didn't look good. I would recommend a canopy or the goosenecks.

 

+1

 

I got these lights mainly based on recommendations from Paul at Aquarium One, and because of the Goosenecks as I didn't want to hang anything.

[Paul]

I use the Kessil 350 over my frag sales tank and at home over one of my growout tanks. I saw Copps using it, I liked it, so I copied him

 

They make most corals look really good, but don't do justice to pink colored corals. I have not seen any problems with coral growth or color that would lead me to conclude that there is anything detrimental about the Kessil.

 

Paul

[fscbishop]

love mine