pledosophy Posted April 12, 2015 Share Posted April 12, 2015 LOL, thanks for not tempting me Seriously though, I'll never own another acrylic tank. They scratch way too easily for a klutz like me. That's why it's in the garage and the glass boxes are all full of water. Can't blame me for tryin to keep you around. Not many photog's about Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andy Posted April 13, 2015 Author Share Posted April 13, 2015 (edited) A few early thoughts on the Kessil A160 Tuna Blue Tuna Blue? Dumb name, but a nice light Very bright. I was expecting roughly 175W MH equivalence, but at 100% it feels brighter than that. No disco effect. This was probably the primary reason I ordered this light instead of the new AI Prime. I hate, hate, hate the disco effect. Amazing ripple. The tiny die is point-sourcier than MH, giving really beautiful ripple, which I love. Shadows. Because of the point-source, the light also casts shadows in the rockwork. The effect isn't a dramatic as some have written elsewhere but it is there. People who like the "t5 look" may not like this.. Controllable, but not controllable enough. There are two knobs on the light, one for color the other for intensity. They're very useful, but I'm going to get the Kessil-brand controller... I want programmable intensity and spectrum throughout the day. On the downside, it can't go as dim as I'd like. I hoped to be able to use it as a moonlight, but even at its dimmest it's still way too bright for that Price. Also on the downside. With the AI Prime (wireless controllability at $199) leading the charge, I think we're about to see a price drop across the board. A year from now, I suspect the $250 I paid for the Kessil will feel a bit steep -- particularly when you add in the +$100 for the controller. Edited April 13, 2015 by andy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andy Posted April 14, 2015 Author Share Posted April 14, 2015 Well, ain't that a kick in the pants. I went with dry base rock to avoid pests. Guess what? Hydroids. In a couple of places, on multiple pieces of rock. I can figure a few ways they could have got in there: Came in frozen food Came in the seawater I buy They came in on the dry rock They were in the tank, which had been dry for ~4 years Came in fish gut as planaria The only thing I'm sure if is they didn't come in on a frag -- got my first ones yesterday. Either way, it's a heck of a thing. Kind'a frustrating, but kind'a amazing too. Life finds a way. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LC Scott Posted April 14, 2015 Share Posted April 14, 2015 Gota love the life we find. I'll go with the sea water, unless it is treated just right it can carry a whole host of nasty stuff. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andy Posted April 17, 2015 Author Share Posted April 17, 2015 Think the delivery person likes me... keeps bringing me presents.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andy Posted April 18, 2015 Author Share Posted April 18, 2015 One big downside to LEDs... they're absolute murder to photograph under. Something about the spectrum just freaks out the sensor in my camera; I'll have to try a few shots with my daughter's camera, it has a much better sensor. Either way MH is far superior for photography, which is disappointing as photographing my tank is a really big part of the hobby for me. My best shots of the evening are really disappointing Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fishmanmike01 Posted April 18, 2015 Share Posted April 18, 2015 (edited) One big downside to LEDs... they're absolute murder to photograph under. Something about the spectrum just freaks out the sensor in my camera; I'll have to try a few shots with my daughter's camera, it has a much better sensor. Either way MH is far superior for photography, which is disappointing as photographing my tank is a really big part of the hobby for me. My best shots of the evening are really disappointing I totally agree. Shooting under LED is nearly impossible. Edited April 18, 2015 by fishmanmike01 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andy Posted April 21, 2015 Author Share Posted April 21, 2015 The blasted Hydor Smart Level controller doesn't seem to be working. I ordered it from Amazon, and it sure looked like I wasn't the first person to open the box (cables weren't properly twist-tied together). I guess someone else bought & returned it, and the upstanding Amazon-backed retailer just shipped it out to the next sucker in line... me. I'm going to call Hydor customer support and see what they say. Feh. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
onefang Posted April 23, 2015 Share Posted April 23, 2015 (edited) Just made my way through your thread. Nice work man. I love the light bar you made for the kessel - ultilitarian, but in a very very good way. As far as the hydor goes, if you don't have a sumped system it might not be the best choice. They require a pretty signficant drop in water level before it will fill, so having something using the display water level could cause a pretty significant swing in salinity. The only other system I can really vouch for on such a small system is the tunze nano, as the float switch on that thing is super sensitive. Honestly though, for the price, you could probably put together a ATO from a floatswitch and a relay for waaay cheaper and it would give you the sensitivity you'd need. I agree on the LED. One of many reasons why I recently decided to go back to fluorescents. Though you say that the kessil has pretty good color and no disco effect. That is something that interests me. Do you see any color separation at all? I noticed that almost all of my LED fixtures presented some amount of color separation in the shimmer when there was significant surface agitation. Those are blastos in the second pic right? Where'd you pic those guys up? Edited April 23, 2015 by onefang Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andy Posted April 23, 2015 Author Share Posted April 23, 2015 (edited) Thanks for the kind words. Regarding the ATO, I agree in principal -- the Hydor does allow what seems to be a lot of evaporation before topping off. However, in practice I've measured the salinity at the high and low mark, and the variance is smaller than my Milwaukee tester can detect so I'm not worrying about it. I built a float-switch based ATO for my previous tank, and got burned by the mechanical float switch a couple of times so I'm definitely out of the float-switch club :-) As far as the disco effect on the Kessil goes, I can see slight color banding on the edge of the light's "pool" on the wall beside and behind the tank but I can't see any in the tank... even with aggressive surface agitation. I'm really impressed with the Kessil. Yup, that's a blasto -- got it from Ocean in a Box. It was cheap, and kind'a pretty so a perfect trial balloon for the tank. Happy reefing! Edited April 23, 2015 by andy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andy Posted May 8, 2015 Author Share Posted May 8, 2015 Change in plan: The Hydor stopped working, and their customer support is as useless as _______ on a _______. So, it's back to my beloved Tunze (I'm eating my words re: float switches) for a Nano Osmolator. Works first time, every time. It's super-sensitive just like onefang said. Plus, those crazy Germans engineer everything to the Nth degree The only downside? The pump sounds like a two-stroke motor and is super-powerful (lots of water, very fast) I might just hook up a relay to the Osmolator and use an AquaLifter instead. I've also added more livestock... good sized chunks of Strawberry Fields monti and Armageddon zoas from Beer503. Man does that Strawberry Fields grow fast! Beer503 warned me, but still... crazy growth. Also have a nice green/orange/purple acan and a Meteor Shower cyphastrea from OiaB. And, needing a pelagic fish to keep things looking active... I bought a Decision Fish. That is, a small Banggai Cardinal that'll outgrow my tank in about 12 months prompting a decision: upgrade, or trade in the fish Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pledosophy Posted May 8, 2015 Share Posted May 8, 2015 Have you tried a neutral density gel inbetween the LED and the tank? Will cost ya under 10 for a tank your size. HTH Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andy Posted May 8, 2015 Author Share Posted May 8, 2015 I can turn down the Kessil, I'm running at ~60% -- you think the Cyphastrea is overlit? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pledosophy Posted May 8, 2015 Share Posted May 8, 2015 You could borrow the par meter and find out. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andy Posted May 8, 2015 Author Share Posted May 8, 2015 Good thinking! I'll have to do that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pledosophy Posted May 8, 2015 Share Posted May 8, 2015 I happen to be the keeper of the par meter... Let me know if you wanna try it out. I might have a sheet of the ND filter around someplace as well. Not sure if I have a large enough one for a 10g, I usually cut them to fit my Einsteins. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andy Posted May 8, 2015 Author Share Posted May 8, 2015 Will do, it'll be a couple of weeks though... got other stuff going on right now. Thanks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Emerald525 Posted August 9, 2015 Share Posted August 9, 2015 Hey Andy where the heck you been? What's going on with this tank? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andy Posted August 25, 2015 Author Share Posted August 25, 2015 I just got distracted by other stuff :-) The tank is still a work in progress. I'm gradually adding coral, nothing fancy... and I still love the small tank. No skimmer, 15 mins of maintenance once a week.Too easy. I'll try to get a picture this weekend. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spectra Posted August 27, 2015 Share Posted August 27, 2015 I just got distracted by other stuff :-) The tank is still a work in progress. I'm gradually adding coral, nothing fancy... and I still love the small tank. No skimmer, 15 mins of maintenance once a week.Too easy. I'll try to get a picture this weekend. Andy glad to see you are still into it. Looks like you downsized a little though Post up some pics want to see what you think of the 160 looking at the same light for my nano. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Emerald525 Posted August 27, 2015 Share Posted August 27, 2015 I just got distracted by other stuff :-) The tank is still a work in progress. I'm gradually adding coral, nothing fancy... and I still love the small tank. No skimmer, 15 mins of maintenance once a week.Too easy. I'll try to get a picture this weekend. Hey glad to see you're back on the map! Everyone kinda disappears during the summer! Glad you're still happy with the small tank. I'm starting to run out of room and thought about upgrading to a bigger one but I like the ease of care. I do run a skimmer and do weekly water change. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andy Posted August 28, 2015 Author Share Posted August 28, 2015 Andy glad to see you are still into it. Looks like you downsized a little though Post up some pics want to see what you think of the 160 looking at the same light for my nano. I LOVE the Kessel 160. No fringing or disco-effect visible in the tank, really bright at 100%, on-chassis color and brightness controls, plus a decent controller available. Total win for a relatively shallow tank. Pics are rough though, LEDs freak out camera sensors. Everything looks like old-school Radiums Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andy Posted August 28, 2015 Author Share Posted August 28, 2015 Melev talks Kessel, including the upcoming AP700 which looks really sweet for bigger tanks: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andy Posted October 27, 2015 Author Share Posted October 27, 2015 Howdy Reef-peeps. Brief update: Single-sensor ATO units, even top-of-the-line ones like the Tunze Osmolator Nano, are not to be trusted. Mine has almost overflowed due to a stuck float switch three times now -- saved each time by my wife's excellent sense of hearing. I leave it unplugged now, plugging it in only when I've time to sit and watch it top off the tank. A bit of a downer, that. I've pulled three (there's that number again) Aiptasia off my rockwork. My formerly dry, dead base rock. The dry, dead base rock I chose to use, so as to avoid pests. I know where they came from, too. I'm not buying frags from stores with obvious aiptasia infestations any more. I know nobody's perfect, but if you care so little about pests that I see the same aiptasia growing on the egg crate each and every visit, I'm not going to trust your stock. A 10 gallon skimmerless tank is still super-awesome. Being able to do a weekly 50+% waterchange in about 10 minutes total is so, so, so convenient. Still love the Kessel. Happy Reefing! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
merritt180 Posted October 27, 2015 Share Posted October 27, 2015 You can turn down the flow rate on a tunze ozmolator Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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