Kessil photoperiod & settings

[madimod]

I'm new to led lighting and purchased a Kessil 360we . My previous light was a 150 watt halide that I ran about 6 hrs a day over a mixed reef with decent growth . My question is how long do you run these lights and what percentage do you run at to get similar results ?

[slief]

Most of us run a 12 hour photoperiod with a nice ramp up and ramp down. My profile for intensity and color are below. Intensity is the orange line and the blue is color. That said, what works for one isn't necessarily right for the next. Things like water depth, distance above the water, how long the corals have been acclimated to the lights etc all come into play. These lights are much more intense than people realize. They put out a lot of light in the 420nm and up range which is an area that isn't very perceptible to the human eye but happens to be where most of the photosynthesis occurs in coral. As such, you really want o start out slow with these lights and keep the intensity down. If this isn't a new build, it can be very helpful to have a PAR meter so you can take readings of your existing lights and start the Kessils off at a lower intensity and bring it up slowly at a rate of 10% or less per month. The slower the better because you will know when you've gone too far before you cook or bleach your coral.

I run 8 Kessil 360WE's over my display which is 4'x8'x24" tall. My lights are usually around 8-9" off the water. I keep mainly soft corals with some LPS. My lights are at peak intensity of 78% for 4 hours a day.

[slief]

There is a lot of great info in this thread. I'd start from the back and work my towards the beginning.
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/sh...ghlight=kessil

[ReefKeep66]

Originally Posted by slief

Most of us run a 12 hour photoperiod with a nice ramp up and ramp down. My profile for intensity and color are below. Intensity is the orange line and the blue is color. That said, what works for one isn't necessarily right for the next. Things like water depth, distance above the water, how long the corals have been acclimated to the lights etc all come into play. These lights are much more intense than people realize. They put out a lot of light in the 420nm and up range which is an area that isn't very perceptible to the human eye but happens to be where most of the photosynthesis occurs in coral. As such, you really want o start out slow with these lights and keep the intensity down. If this isn't a new build, it can be very helpful to have a PAR meter so you can take readings of your existing lights and start the Kessils off at a lower intensity and bring it up slowly at a rate of 10% or less per month. The slower the better because you will know when you've gone too far before you cook or bleach your coral.

I run 8 Kessil 360WE's over my display which is 4'x8'x24" tall. My lights are usually around 8-9" off the water. I keep mainly soft corals with some LPS. My lights are at peak intensity of 78% for 4 hours a day.

+1 slief is our kessil guru, couldn't really add much that he didn't already say. To underline some points, be careful to slowly and gradually expose your corals to these lights and higher intensity. Better safe than sorry.

[scbc29]

Originally Posted by slief

Most of us run a 12 hour photoperiod with a nice ramp up and ramp down. My profile for intensity and color are below. Intensity is the orange line and the blue is color. That said, what works for one isn't necessarily right for the next. Things like water depth, distance above the water, how long the corals have been acclimated to the lights etc all come into play. These lights are much more intense than people realize. They put out a lot of light in the 420nm and up range which is an area that isn't very perceptible to the human eye but happens to be where most of the photosynthesis occurs in coral. As such, you really want o start out slow with these lights and keep the intensity down. If this isn't a new build, it can be very helpful to have a PAR meter so you can take readings of your existing lights and start the Kessils off at a lower intensity and bring it up slowly at a rate of 10% or less per month. The slower the better because you will know when you've gone too far before you cook or bleach your coral.

I run 8 Kessil 360WE's over my display which is 4'x8'x24" tall. My lights are usually around 8-9" off the water. I keep mainly soft corals with some LPS. My lights are at peak intensity of 78% for 4 hours a day.

NEW HERE....

So I have a question about your intensity... Being that your depth is twice mine that would put me running mine at 40% in my little biocube 29. Now I know every tank varies and it should be done slowly but I just noticed 2 of my SPS losing color and it happened after I ramped up only from 30 to 35% by the 3rd day. These Kessils are no joke. I was use to using MH in my 220 before so ramping and intensity is still new. 2 questions I guess is 1 how do I know when I've reached my correct output of intensity if all corals are doing great except for 2 and the 2nd question is do you not have algae issues running a 12 hour photo period like that? I would love to run my lighting more than 8 hours.

[scbc29]

Still looking for help if anyone is following. Would love to talk with Slief!

[slief]

Originally Posted by scbc29

Still looking for help if anyone is following. Would love to talk with Slief!

Hadn't seen this thread in a while. Sorry for responding so late. A jump from 30-35% over the course of a few days is a big jump. Especially on such a small tank that isn't acclimated to them. Sounds like you might have found that out the hardway. My lights are 10-12" off the water now. I still peak around the same intensity but it's a big tank that had been running on LED's for years prior. I also had a par meter to at least have a starting point while also switching half the tank at a time. This gave me a chance to visually match the color of the kessils as close as possible to the color or kelvin of the Reeftechs they replaced. Starting off slow and backing off as soon as you see your corals stop responding well is a good sign that you went too far. FWIW, I wouldn't increase more than 10% a month and on a small tank, you need to be careful. Especially if the light is close to the water. They are stupid powerful but their strength is a range that isn't as detectable to the eye but happens to be where corals get most of the photosynthetic radiation. Point being that they are might more powerful than realized. In a tank your depth, I'm not sure you'd ever need to go above 50% if you had it 12" off the water. Even so, taking it slow is key. It should take you a few months to gradually increase the intensity. That way you can back off easily and know when you went too far.

Regarding algae issues. I don't have algae issues in my tank. I have a very large and healthy refugium with lots of chaet below the tank as well as a 60 gallon display refugium. I also have enough tangs and other herbivores in my display to decimate any stray algae. There are better places for algae to grow in my system than the display.

[slief]

This is my current ramp. Blue is color, orange is intensity.

[scbc29]

Thanks for the response. I've had others with even smaller tanks and same light tell me they have their intensity up to 70% but I also don't know what they keep stocked. I know my lps don't care for it YET anyways above 25% and the sps is still growing. I came from a larger tank and t5s and MH years ago. Wanted to step back into thr hobby and LEDs seem to be holding their own now but I hear a lot about ATI t5s still.