kessil ap700 vs radion pro

[jcbdavis]

was looking to compare these two light fixtures for a 90 gal sps reef. main differences imo being kessils single lens vs radion controllability and ability to connect to apex. any thoughts and onions would be very helpful. thanks!

[LeRusso]

Get 2 xr15 pro, you will have better coverage.

[Mr. Brooks]

The ap700 is such a new light, it's going to be a while before you hear from anyone with first hand long term knowledge about it.

[Mark426]

Originally Posted by LeRusso

Get 2 xr15 pro, you will have better coverage.

Yup

[luvreefs23]

I seen a ap700 at my lfs cover a 36x18 50 gallon only being about 6-8" from water surface. I had a xr15 on a cube tank and while I wont argue it has good coverage I doubt you will have better coverage than the ap700. I have a 65 gallon in mind I wanna set up and after seeing what the light can do and how much spread and power it has I will be using that light.

[luvreefs23]

Also has wifi built in, just use your tablet to control it. Why screw around with buying additional apex module to make it do what it can already do on its own

[trueperc]

Or wait and get the new AI hydra 52 HD. The AP700 may light a 36 inch tank but how well will it grow coral is what has yet to be seen. This is coming from a guy who runs kessil A360we. For me the radion and ai hyrda lights are far better and have a better track record.

[luvreefs23]

I think at this point in the hobby you are splitting hairs with any of these lights that are higher end. One reefer swears by one light and one guy likes the opposite. Who's to say the difference maker is even the light between the 2 tanks. Buy a quality light based on what you like and run with it. There is no right answer. If ai hydra 52s were perfect than why get hd hydra 52s, cause it's nothing more than a ploy to make you rebuy lights. Not like they invented magic coral growing color and if they did all the fixtures would have it within 6 months anyway.

[trueperc]

The idea of hydra 52 hd or the previous model, is if you where buying new today and looking at fixtures, then a selling point link mention for the ap700, the new hd model is controlled with built in wifi and controlled with an app on you tablet or phone. Now if you already own the previous model of 52s then no you would not buy the HD. One thing though that both AI and ecotech have, is the ability to upgrade the fixtures when you want to to get some of the new features without having to buy whole new fixtures. Out of all three the AP700 is the most expensive and least proven. There are many successful tanks with radion and AI lights. Again I own kessil and think there are great supplement lights, currently I am looking to replace my metal halides with leds and am leaning toward the AI hydras 52, I am even thinking since there is a savings on the older model, it would be good to get them and there director or control that only an additional roughly hundred bucks. You don't need to get this whole apex set up to control AI lights. Another huge thing how repairable the lights are, kessil products are not repairable at all. I know this from two kessil a360we dying on me, thankfull less than a year old. They just sent me new ones. With the other two being upgradable you can have a much easier time to repair, think with the AP700 you only have 1 year warranty.

[sixpackgarage]

I think it's apples and oranges. You will have to compare 1xAP700 vs. 2xRadion.

I have no doubt the AP700 will grow the living crap out of coral in a 90 gallon, but like someone said above, technically the light is unproven by consumers. I'll be buying one not because I need one, but because I want one for all the cool features.

[ska d]

Ive pre ordered the ap700. Its going over a 90 that currently has 2 360w over it. I also use the radion xr15 pro over a 30g cube ( and love it by the way)_. Willing to give Kessil another shot as Im hoping they have improved from the 360 series. They are great lights but something is lacking. The 350 (normal) which i also have is a much better light minus the control. That thing has some penetration power. Will post pics asap

[ThRoewer]

I’m right now in a similar situation with picking the light for my new 100 gallon tank. It has a surface area of 40 in x 28 in and is 24 in tall (=~20 in water column).
It’s gonna be mostly SPS but will also have one gigantea carpet anemone. So it will need a good deal of light.
All the corals and anemones I have so far are under 360 E-Series Kessils that I run at 100% intensity and 75% color to simulate a shallow water reef

I was initially thinking about 2 A360W or one AP700 but since one issue I observed with some corals is shadowing I think now that I would rather need 4 A360N or 2 AP700.
So right now I have 3 options:

1. 4x 360 E-Series Kessils:
pro:

• I already know that those work fine for most of my corals and anemones no acclimatization needed
• It would be the most flexible solution.
• works with APEX controller straight out of the box
• I already have 2 feed up for the new tank (and several others over my other tanks)

con:

• can’t be dimmed all the way to “0”
• no included moonlight option
• 4 separate power supplies (clutter)
• not all corals seem to like it equally (though I guess that’s something you will ultimately have with all light sources)

2. 2x AP700
pro:

• best moonlight option of all 3 options
• more spectrum tuning options than A360 series
• (probably some other features I yet don't know about)

con:

• too new – no long-term experience available
• to date no APEX interface
• potentially dangerous: A LFS managed to kill all anemones in the tank they put their demo unit over– careful acclimatization required

3. 4x Radion XR15 Pro or 2x Radion XR30 Pro
pro:

• known to be well suited for SPS
• Radion XR30 Pro lower in cost than AP700
• many setting options to tweak the spectrum

con:

• spectrum setting options make it easy to screw up
• moonlight only in beta and not geared towards the animals (shuts off after a few hours)
• needs special module to attach to APEX

Also I haven’t seen a Radion at full power and almost white – the local LFS who uses them has them at fairly low power and almost completely blue. So I don't know how to compare them with the Kessils

Originally Posted by luvreefs23

Also has wifi built in, just use your tablet to control it. Why screw around with buying additional apex module to make it do what it can already do on its own

One reason would be to use the season control of the Apex

[jcbdavis]

One reason I was leaning towards the kessil was because of the amazing shimmer. I've also heard amazing stuff about the ati powermodule hybrid. I was looking to supplement the led with 2 t5 anyways.

[Jmasiello]

Originally Posted by jcbdavis

was looking to compare these two light fixtures for a 90 gal sps reef. main differences imo being kessils single lens vs radion controllability and ability to connect to apex. any thoughts and onions would be very helpful. thanks!

The showdown is coming. I recently installed my new ap700 and at the same time having my Radion on another tank. My Radion does fantastic and my coral grow like crazy. Almost too much. But like most people I want to see if I can do even better so I bought the kessil ap700. I am very disappointed that the kessil won't work with my Apex. The Radion works like a charm with apex. In fact I original bought the Radion for that purpose. If the kessil is not up to my standards of the Radion you will see a kessil AP700 on eBay. And I will purchase another Radion. Time will tell

[Jmasiello]

Originally Posted by jcbdavis

was looking to compare these two light fixtures for a 90 gal sps reef. main differences imo being kessils single lens vs radion controllability and ability to connect to apex. any thoughts and onions would be very helpful. thanks!

Right now the Radion has it all over the kessil in terms of mixing your customer color blend and intensity.

[Jmasiello]

At least for now - I understand kessil is coming up with some upgrades soon for the ap700

[msayani2]

Any update.. how does kessil ap700 match up to the radions?

[sixpackgarage]

just picked up the AP700 on Black Friday from my LFS. I'll post reviews in my blog when I get around to setting it up.

[Shaun v]

I am following along to see what the consensus is. I have 4 t5 bulbs with a Kessil 350 over my tank and have been considering swapping all of that out for one light. Here are a couple of interesting links.

BRS did a comparison video in regards to PAR and spread

http://youtu.be/V7XLgLiA0PM

Ecotech did an interesting article on a wholesalers experience (granted it was paid for by ecotech but still interesting).

http://ecotechmarine.com/wp-content/...ralLab_WP1.pdf