Regular Saltwater Smarts visitors may recall that back in the spring of 2015, I closed down my 75-gallon reef tank andconverted my 125-gallon (then) FOWLR tank to a reef systemwith the addition of some invertebrate livestock from the 75 and a Current USA metal halide/T5 combo light fixture donated by Caribbean Chris.
快进到今年5月，是时候考虑新的灯光了。我对当前美国灯具产生的照明的外观感到非常满意。但是，它确实有一些缺点。
首先，它真的很重，需要两个人去除water changesand other tank maintenance. Also, the rather flimsy support legs used to mount the fixture on the tank weren’t really up to the task and broke quite easily. (Suspending the fixture from the ceiling was not an option and, according to my wife, could cost me my life.)
Another issue was that the fixture—which, though new for me, was actually rather old by most people’s standards when I got it—was getting a bit buggy, with the switches failing one by one and some of the T5s working intermittently.
最后但并非最不重要的一点是，运行所有这些灯和风扇冷却它们是每个月为我们的电费增加一笔大笔费用。正是最后一点真的让我的妻子通过照明升级。
但升级到什么?我不同意ant to give up metal halides, favoring the coral growth they promote, their sun-like intensity, and the attractive glimmer lines they produce, but we really wanted to find something that runs cooler, consumes less energy, and doesn’t come with such a burdensome expense for routine bulb/tube replacement. It seemed LEDs were the best solution given my needs and circumstances.
尽管如此，我还是很警惕。我看到的大多数LED系统在水箱中产生了不良的“千点光点”效应，也就是说，多个小聚光灯通过水柱下降。对我来说，这看起来更像是一种特殊效果，而不是自然的阳光。我真的不想要那个，希望有更好的选择。当我研究各种选择时，很难找到一种安装解决方案，这对于我的72英寸长的水箱很有意义（回想一下天花板安装对我的健康有害）。
再次是CC向我指出正确的方向。在进行并行研究以帮助我找到合适的东西时，他发生在Kessil LED上（不要与Kessel的香料矿物混淆），特别是该公司的A360系列。这些单位似乎会满足我所有的lighting想要和需求，非常轻巧，紧凑和安静，同时提供良好的颜色，覆盖范围和穿透力。此外，凯西尔（Kessil）提供了一个安装臂，似乎是解决特定困境的一个很好的解决方案。最重要的是，据称这些灯光会产生出色的微光线！
My wife and I hemmed and hawed for a while before actually committing to the purchase. I wouldn’t characterize the lights as particularly expensive as quality LEDs go, but for us, they amounted to a significant investment at a time when some other major bills were coming due. But no other option seemed to make better sense or offered a better mounting solution. Certainly I could find something with a lower upfront cost, but any initial savings would just be offset by the ongoing cost of bulb replacement and higher energy consumption. So we decided to pull the proverbial trigger.
I went with the A360W-E Tuna Blue LEDs.每个单元覆盖了直径24英寸的区域，因此我的125加仑总共需要三个区域。我还购买了三个安装臂和两根链接电缆。这些电缆使您可以将雏菊链多灯链在一起，因此您只需使用一个灯或外部控制器来控制整个线路。但是，每个灯都有自己的颜色和强度控件，因此，如果您不想使用雏菊，则无需将它们链接起来。
The mounting arms, which are easily adjustable both vertically and horizontally, are a no-brainer to assemble, and attaching the lights to them is a snap. Once assembled, they screw right onto the rim of the tank with no muss or fuss. Also, the arms are designed so you can run the light cords inconspicuously through them, helping to streamline the setup.
我确实在安装臂上有一个问题 - 尽管它与我的特定应用有关，而不是与武器本身固有的任何限制有关。也就是说，因为我的储罐是一个房间分隔器，并且可以从三个侧面看，因此灯光安装在侧面的视图有所减少，当您从另一侧查看储罐时，每个手臂的底部是底部在水面下方可见。但这将是一个完全没有问题的，该储罐位于墙壁上和/或具有某种不透明的背景。
我对光的质量感到满意吗？非常如此。True to the company’s claims, the coverage and penetration are quite good.就颜色而言，我不得不说我的旧金属卤化物赢得了头发，但仍然非常令人满意，您可以将其调整为您的口味。And because the LEDs are concentrated in a tight array, the aesthetic impression they produce is very similar to that of metal halides—excellent glimmer lines without the “thousand points of light.”
I initially set the intensity of the lights at about 60 percent so my corals could acclimate to the change, but even that proved to be too much at first (LEDs tend to be much more intense than they appear to the human eye). They all closed up and sulked. So I backed off the intensity to about 50 percent and they seemed happier with that. I’ve since gradually increased it to about 70 percent and everyone appears to be doing well.
So, all in all, I’d have to say “So far so good!” when it comes to my Kessils. They were very easy to set up, they’ve made it much easier for me to access my tank for routine maintenance, and I have no qualms with their performance. If my opinion of them changes for any reason, I’ll be sure to share any new insights with all my fellow salties here at Saltwater Smarts.
