KessilA160WE Controllable LED Aquarium Light, Tuna Blue

Look, these are BRIGHT!I have a custom 4x6x5 foot black water tank/ palladium for my pleco. (had him 20 years, its his retirement tank) after the shadowed overhang is accounted for i still have about 18 square feet of aquarium floor to light, and 4 of these do a good job, when combined with the standard LED grow lights i have for the terrestrial portion of the tank. (about 4 feet above the water, intended for the terrestrial plants)Because i cant have lights hanging directly over the tank (they would block the land portion of the palladium), i have these mounted on the side shooting down at 45 degree angles from, the walls 6 feet apart, and they still penetrate the 2 feet of water that make up the tank portion of the enclosure. (this is especially impressive as its a dirt bottom tank Tim the pleco likes to dig in, with green water (to feed my sustained daphnia colony, that feed my neon tetra), TONS of tanins, etc. (its a black water tank)The small form factor of these lights lets you do amazing atypical things with them, and while not intended you can use a standard home depot galvanized bolt to screw into the base plate of these letting you easily build custom holders for them.10 out of 10

Fantastic LED aquarium light! I really can't say how great the Kessil A160WE really is, as you have got to see it for yourself. I have had aquariums for well over 35 years, both freshwater and saltwater. I have used just about every type of aquarium light out there at one time or another. This is the very best, by far. I started using LED's about 6 years ago and was quickly sold on the benefits - good plant growth, cool operation, low energy consumption, etc. The LED strip lights from Marineland were just about as good as it gets until I started watching Jacob's Aquarium on YouTube. Great channel if you haven't discovered it yet, BTW - thanks Jacob. Jacob reviews the Kessil line and I was impressed enough to order one of these bad boys for my 30 gallon (30LX12WX18D) planted freshwater tank. Normally the price would have given me pause, but it was one of my crazy moments and I ordered it. I also ordered the gooseneck mounting arm and the Kessil Spectral Controller. I had it all set up in about 30 minutes - not bad for an old guy like me having to figure out the electronic controller programming. I have mine installed 5 inches above the waterline - about 19 inches above the substrate level. Coverage in my tank is great, though they say it is only good for a 24" spread. There is some lessening of the intensity at the edges of the 30 inch length, but that isn't a problem really. You can manually control the spectrum and intensity by the knobs on the top of the unit, but using the controller is fantastic as you can set it up so the light mimics the natural day long intensity and spectrum pattern and turn on and off the system automatically. Both plants and fish have responded to this greatly. Fish behavior is now based on the "time of day" this light creates and plant growth has been super. As others have said, the shimmer created enhances the natural sun light effect and is just cool to see. Yep this is on the expensive side but worth it. Your plants and fish will thank you.

First off, I love the shimmer in the water. I haven't had that shimmer since leaving MH. It is just great. Another thing is that these lights don't light up the water column but instead hit directly on objects in the water. This makes plants and fish pop out as well as any debris in the water.The best LED fixtures produce less useless yellow/green spectrum light than traditional lights, as these new technology LED emitters can be selected for the exact wavelength of light, thus almost no or little useless yellow or green light is emitted. So, although the LED may seem less bright than some HO lights with the naked eye (such as T5s or MH) the actual output of light energy in spectrums we cannot see (CRI) is much higher, this is why gauging a light by what you see is highly inaccurate.So even those these lights don't look as 'bright' to the naked eye as my old T5's, they are putting out way more usable light for the plants and boy does it show! My plants have exploded with growth. I have 2 of these units and I am using a combined 2 watts more than the old T5's. The ROI is a bit long but the fact is that I don't have to buy T5 bulbs any more - which saves me time and money. You like money too? We should hang out (Idiocracy reference).LEDs put out very specific spectrums of light, which are defined by the manufacturer. LED manufacturers can fine tune emmiters to put out exactly the spectrum specified by the client. Since PAR meters measure light between 400-700nm, an LED array putting out less par than a broad spectrum flourescent fixture may actually be putting out more photosynthetically usable radiation (PUR). So don't judge these lights by PAR value alone.Be aware though that due to the nature of LED lighting the color shift is mainly for the human eye and not that much for the plants.Great stuff!

Died after a few months of use. They were working great for a few months, and after that I stopped using it. Tried them again one day and it didn't work. Lights flicker and just doesn't turn on.