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Lawman5014
03/27/2013, 11:37 AM
Hi - I've got a 28 gallon cardiff tank. Height 20 inches. Width side to side 19 1/2 inches. Distance front to back (excluding plumbing - only counting "tank" space) 18 inches. I currently have one A150 Kessil Sky Blue pendant light over my tank. I'm also about to purchase the A150 Kessil Deep Ocean Blue light to add to it.

Here's my question. Would it be too much light/intensity to run both the Sky Blue Kessil light with the Deep Blue Ocean light at the same time? Or - do I need to make sure I run them separately (I'm thinking timers for 8 hours a day Deep Ocean Blue, 8 hours a day Sky Blue, and 8 hours a day just dark). I haven't purchased my corals yet but I intend on having a variety of mushrooms, brain coral, candy cane coral, and other lps and sps plus a big tridachna clam. Thanks for any and all suggestions and thoughts!

thegrun
03/27/2013, 02:45 PM
You want to limit the intense lighting to 7-8 hours a day. If I remember correctly the Kessil lights are not dimmable so running one and then the other for a total of 16 hours is too long of a duration; you would stress your corals. You might be able to run one for 8 hours and the second for 3 hours midway through the 1st lights cycle, but that is going to be very close to too much light also (you really should look into borrowing a PAR meter to be sure.

Lawman5014
03/27/2013, 04:00 PM
http://www.fishsupply.com/kessildeepocean.html

This is a link to a description of the "Deep Ocean Blue" light I'm talking about. Because its just pure blue, and there are no white lights in it at all, would it even be considered a "intense" light? Obviously my Sky Blue light is intense (it's got a lot of white light) but the Deep Ocean Blue has none.

I didn't know if the pure blue Deep Ocean Blue light would be considered more of a "gentle" light or "night time" light since its just pure blue.

thegrun
03/27/2013, 07:46 PM
Okay, after looking over the actual specifications of the two lights I think you could get away with running them both at the same time but only have them both on for perhaps 3-4 hours with the other light on for 8 hours. This is going to be a lot of light, so new corals will likely need to be acclimated slowly, starting with them at the bottom of the tank and slowly bringing them up over a few weeks. Low light demanding corals will need to stay near the bottom of the tank. I'm not sure how you are going to mount them to even out the coloration in the tank, perhaps one side bluer than the other is what you are looking for... I would mount them fairly high to even out the color and lower the PAR value in the tank.

rickjd
03/27/2013, 07:51 PM
The Kessil A350 is dimmable. And you can control the intensity of white and blue colors. Great LED light. The Kessil A150 is NOT dimmable. You have to buy the color intensity tyou want from the beginning. If you have not bought the lights yet. I would opt for just ONE Kessil a350W. It has a Wide spread of light and would be perfect for your tank. Especially since you can control both the light intensity and colors.

Lawman5014
03/27/2013, 08:17 PM
I considered the A350 but since I already had the A150 Sky Blue (and my wife didn't want me to get the wide lens A350 since it'd likely spill light over onto the floor) I went ahead and bought the deep ocean blue light. I'll probably end up upgrading my tank to something else in the next few years and may get a newer Kessil for the new tank. Thanks for the comments to the both of you - I appreciate it especially since I still consider myself new to the hobby.

rickjd
03/29/2013, 11:24 AM
Good luck with the tank.