KESSIL A80 - LED LUMINAIRE
With its unique design and passive cooling, Kessil's latest offering can be the ideal choice for small fish-only aquariums or nano systems with relatively unpretentious invertebrates.
What's in the box?
The luminaire comes with a large 24V DC power cord and a mounting bracket. The A80 is an attractive luminaire, only 12cm wide and 2.5cm thick. The most striking thing about the design in terms of functionality and aesthetics is the clever use of powder-coated aluminium housing as a heat sink. The scallop shell appears to have been the inspiration for the unusual design, and this device is certainly an almost 'organic' shape. This is a major departure in terms of design compared to other, larger Kessil models.
The A80 has purely passive cooling. Removing any moving parts means no noise, should improve reliability and increase resistance to splashing water.
This is apparently made possible by the relatively low power consumption (maximum 15W). The LED matrix itself is tiny and consists of 15 individual LEDs arranged in a tightly packed cluster of less than 10mm in diameter with a secondary lensing.
In use
The Kessil A80 is obviously powerful enough for small aquariums for fish and plants only. The lamp is also suitable for soft corals and LPS in aquariums with a depth of approx. 35 cm. But with only 15 watts, you can't expect the A80 to satisfy very light-loving corals, you just won't get enough penetration. To be fair, Kessil suggests that the A160 and A360 (40W and 90W respectively) are best suited to maintaining SPS. In this case, the A160 is suitable for a 45 x 45 cm aquarium and the A360 for a 60 x 60 cm aquarium.
As far as controllability is concerned, in the A80 you can adjust the colour temperature and intensity via two knobs on the top surface of the luminaire. In the marine model "Tuna Blue", the colour temperature can be adjusted from 10,000° K to intensive actinic.
There are also input and output ports: if you want to forego manual regulation and program your own schedule, the A80 can be used with Kessil's Spectral Controller (or any other controller that uses a 0-10V output). Two or more A80s can be connected in a daisy chain by passing the output from one A80 to the input port of the next using a 'device connection cable'.
There is also a freshwater version of the A80 'Tuna Sun' available on the market, as well as the H80 'Tuna Flora'. They will be of interest to those who grow macroalgae in refugiums. Tuna Sun produces a warmer light (6000-9000° K) than Tuna Blue and Tuna Flora produces white light, providing four spectral profiles specifically designed for plant development. If you want optimum algae growth, this is worth a look - in fact, H80 looks amazing. Kessil is world renowned for its gardening and hydroponic lighting, so this should be something special.
Mounting options include a "top mount adapter" (a simple bracket that allows you to screw the light to a suitable surface, such as an aquarium wall) or a "gooseneck", which owners of open-top tanks will choose. The A80 has a special miniature gooseneck on a flexible stand (currently offered free of charge with each luminaire).
Attaching the luminaire and installing the Gooseneck is simple. It gives a lot of scope for positioning and rotating the light source to suit your requirements, but be careful when setting up (especially with thin glass) as there can be a fair amount of force on the base.
Verdict
For smaller aquariums with less demanding corals, the A80 is worth a try.
