Kessil

Kessil's AP9X

@brendan_kessil, so what’s this I hear that there’s no cover over the LED. The AP700 has that thin protective lens over the LED and reflector. If that’s missing on the AP9X then how well does it hold up to saltwater being splashed on it continuously?
 
Meshmez said:
So same price as xr30s. What's the recommendation for a 60x24x24 mixed reef? 2 fixtures?

Do the fixtures need to maintain wifi to run their program? Or is the program actually loaded onto the fixture? Obviously to adjust them with the app you need to have wifi, but once you set them on a schedule could you remove wifi and have them run their schedule?

A more broad question, what's everyone's thoughts on putting lights down the center of the tank vs staggering front to back? I'm debating getting new lights but thinking it makes more sense to get something like multiple xr15s so I can spread the lights front to back as well as across the length. My thought here is no matter how good of "spread" you get, you're still emitting from a single point (or line of points) forming a cone over the width of the tank. Staggering the light allows the cone to hit the corals from the sides as well. Am I crazy here?

So I guess my thought is maybe 2 of the AP9X "works" lengthwise, but would it be better to orient them width wise? And if so, I assume that would require 3-4 lights.
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This was the same concern I had with my row of 2 AP700’s. So I upgraded to 8 A360X’s, and I’m much happier with the spread. Kind of expensive though. Like you, I didn’t really want to deal with T5’s. I considered hobbling together led light bars to flank the AP700’s but couldn't get it the way I wanted.
 
I wish Kessil (or anyone) would make a string-of-lights type of fixture.
One power supply and controller. Then a string of small LED light pucks daisy chained together that you can place as you please.

It seems like getting proper coverage and spread is becoming the big problem these days,
now that the technology on spectrum and so on is fairly mature.
 
That's one thing I've largely tried to get away from in this hobby, and have had limited success at times, is the idea of that you need uniform coverage over the whole tank. Why do I care that all the water from the surface to the sand bed has the same PAR as everywhere else in the tank? My corals need the light, the water column doesn't. I remember seeing quite a while back some Japanese reef tanks that used spotlights to give corals what the main source of light, and largely ignored other things, now this was back in the metal halide era of reefing, but today you probably could achieve something similar with smaller pucks whether it's Ecotech, AI or Kessil, or any number of other "single puck design", who cares if an AI Prime16 doesn't cover a 2'x2' area the rock with the coral on is only 6" x 6"

Unfortunately with the lagoon, it's been a little difficult to do since everything is largely spread out throughout the tank, so I kind of do want things spread out since I don't really have any particular rock formation to focus on.
 
JVU said:
This was the same concern I had with my row of 2 AP700’s. So I upgraded to 8 A360X’s, and I’m much happier with the spread. Kind of expensive though. Like you, I didn’t really want to deal with T5’s. I considered hobbling together led light bars to flank the AP700’s but couldn't get it the way I wanted.
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:eek: the difference between 2 ap700 and 8 a360x is pretty extreme.. cost and coverage wise! I was thinking of what @sfsuphysics was saying too, and buying a few individual lights and grouping them so certain areas (sps) got more light and the areas where i want LPS can be lower. I dont care if i can hit 300 par on the sand at 24x24, and also it doesnt do me any good if 100% of the coral coloration is from the top.
 
Meshmez said:
:eek: the difference between 2 ap700 and 8 a360x is pretty extreme.. cost and coverage wise! I was thinking of what @sfsuphysics was saying too, and buying a few individual lights and grouping them so certain areas (sps) got more light and the areas where i want LPS can be lower. I dont care if i can hit 300 par on the sand at 24x24, and also it doesnt do me any good if 100% of the coral coloration is from the top.
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I thought about lots of ways to go less full-Monty but in the end I wanted the same 4 light sources but in 2 rows instead of 1 for the reasons you brought up (and more evenly distributed). And I wasn’t willing to sacrifice appearance or symmetry.
 
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JVU said:
I thought about lots of ways to go less full-Monty but in the end I wantEd the same 4 light sources but in 2 rows instead of 1 for the reasons you brought up (and more evenly distributed). And I wasn’t willing to sacrifice appearance or symmetry.
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That’s what I like about you, there’s no sacrifice.
 
JVU said:
I thought about lots of ways to go less full-Monty but in the end I wanted the same 4 light sources but in 2 rows instead of 1 for the reasons you brought up (and more evenly distributed). And I wasn’t willing to sacrifice appearance or symmetry.
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go big or go home! ;) 2x4 XR15w on a 6x3x1’ tank.

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All About Fish got their demo unit in yesterday. Took a few pics of it. Dimensions of it was really small compared to the AP700. Really thin and lightweight too. I was impressed.

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The design/aesthetic of the old AP700 looks more appealing to me. Can you use the same canopy mount or what are those slots on the ends?
 
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EBJ said:
The build of the old AP700 looks like it is higher quality. Can you use the same canopy mount or what are those slots on the ends?
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One of the advertised features is that it only needs 1 arm to mount because it is lighter and smaller
 
The big things they were saying is the spread is way better since they were able to cram a bunch more diodes into the same array and placed them in a more desirable manner. So it’s definitely not just 2 a360x pucks as the configuration has more diodes and they are spaced out differently
 
The_Lazy_Reefer said:
The big things they were saying is the spread is way better since they were able to cram a bunch more diodes into the same array and placed them in a more desirable manner. So it’s definitely not just 2 a360x pucks as the configuration has more diodes and they are spaced out differently
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Doesn't the spread depend on the lens? I don't see how putting the diodes in a different spot on the matrix would improve the spread
 
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EBJ said:
Doesn't the spread depend on the lens? I don't see how putting the diodes in a different spot on the matrix would improve the spread
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Also a new lens and it’s set at a different depth I think. Definitely worked on the optics to improve spread by every aspect.
 
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