Any examples of LEDs in the front lighting row, facing in?

[kwirky]

Like many other setups, my kessils are on top of the tank, right smack in the middle. This means half the light is at an angle towards the front of the tank and the the acros either need to be in the rear half or their color and growth will be facing away from the display glass panel.

Kessil lights are spot lights with small housing which makes it possible to get them very far forwards. Has anybody done this, and rotated them inwards, 45ish degrees? If you have, do you have photos to share of the corals, hopefully with evidence of a different growth and color compared from lights 90 degrees downwards, and in the center row?

 

[Breadman03]

You might have some luck searching for tanks with Reefbrite or Orphek LED strips as they are often implemented along the side of various light fixtures. It may not be exactly what you’re looking for, but I suspect their results may be similar to what you’re asking.

 

[Mical]

Like many other setups, my kessils are on top of the tank, right smack in the middle. This means half the light is at an angle towards the front of the tank and the the acros either need to be in the rear half or their color and growth will be facing away from the display glass panel.

Kessil lights are spot lights with small housing which makes it possible to get them very far forwards. Has anybody done this, and rotated them inwards, 45ish degrees? If you have, do you have photos to share of the corals, hopefully with evidence of a different growth and color compared from lights 90 degrees downwards, and in the center row?

Have you considered these? -> https://www.marinedepot.com/kessil-full-angle-adapter-for-led-fixtures

 

[jda]

It works well. It just costs more money to run the lights this way since you need more fixtures. If you want to pay for the fixtures, then it will create less shadows and more intense colors towards the way that these lights are facing.

We used a MH once on a light mover over the front top rim angled at 45 degrees and it made the fronts of the corals look better.

You won't likely get any photos or anything... just have to imagine how it works.

 

[MaxxuM]

Like many other setups, my kessils are on top of the tank, right smack in the middle. This means half the light is at an angle towards the front of the tank and the the acros either need to be in the rear half or their color and growth will be facing away from the display glass panel.

Kessil lights are spot lights with small housing which makes it possible to get them very far forwards. Has anybody done this, and rotated them inwards, 45ish degrees? If you have, do you have photos to share of the corals, hopefully with evidence of a different growth and color compared from lights 90 degrees downwards, and in the center row?

I've seen several people on YouTube angling Kessil's to get better coverage, typically on heavy SPS tanks. They hold them on wires, on gooseneck mounts, and strapped to other lights. I remember one Japanese tank a few years ago that had like five, all at different angles, so there were no shadows anywhere in his tank. I bet you can still find the videos. Most people don't tag their views with enough info to find them easily though.

 

[Chibils]

I remember one Japanese tank a few years ago that had like five, all at different angles,

Japanese reefers have been utilizing spotlights for a long time. I wish I could read their forums, because I'm sure there's a lot to learn - but I had to rely on a blog that shut down maybe 8-10 years ago. One post that stuck with me involved using about a dozen 70w halide spotlights all in different color spectra to highlight individual colonies. Pretty cool stuff. I'd love to see some of that kind of equipment and philosophy become more accessible to our markets.

 

[jda]

Another reason that you do not see a lot of this is that it will start to use up a lot of energy. If people are going to use more energy to angle LEDs all over the place, then they might as well just get a MH on a large reflector and do the same thing with less effort and money.

 

[kwirky]

Another reason that you do not see a lot of this is that it will start to use up a lot of energy. If people are going to use more energy to angle LEDs all over the place, then they might as well just get a MH on a large reflector and do the same thing with less effort and money.

The halide still outputs light from the middle because the reflectors make it impossible to get all those watts very close to the front of the tank. Kessil and other COB led lights, where you're outputting almost 100W from a device with a 4" diameter, make it possible to get the lights facing the subject, as parallel as possible to the line from your eyes to the coral.

LEDs can theoretically do this for an aquarium:

While metal halides are like this:

Different tools for different jobs. They can be combined, too, given your circuit is big enough.