# Kessil or Chihiros vivid 2



## becks (9 Jun 2021)

I’m contemplating changing my vivid 2 for kessils, mainly because I want the shimmer and the more greener look.

The vivid is a great light that produces great growth etc. The photo was taken due ramp up


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## SRP3006 (9 Jun 2021)

Vivid for me, I had some kessils, much prefer the vivid. Colour is much better in my opinion. The kessils have a huge following but I much prefer the vivid.


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## Wookii (9 Jun 2021)

Vivid II colour rendition is hard to beat. Moving away to a Kessil would be like giving up 4K TV for VHS.

That being said, I love shimmer too and have been waiting some time for a smaller point source light that uses the combination RGB LED chips used in the Vivid/Solar RGB etc.

Chihiros have recently released a Vivid Mini, which is only 355mm long:






						RGB VIVID MINI - RGB VIVID LED light system - Shanghai Ogino Biotechnology Co.,Ltd
					






					www.chihiros.cn
				




However I suspect it might still be too big to create shimmer.

My hope is that they one day decide to release a smaller Vivid Nano, a similar size to the likes of the AI Prime and Ecotech XR15.


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## plantnoobdude (9 Jun 2021)

Kessils are over hyped imo. saw one in person and wasn't too impressed, very green looking, and the shimmer was rather annoying to look at after a while. especially for the price tag kessil's come with, I'd stick with the lights you have now.


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## bazz (10 Jun 2021)

Hi,
I'm running a single a360x Tuna Sun and I'd disagree with all of the above. With the amber and red LEDs I've never had a tank looking so vibrant compared to Twinstar, before that TMC and again before that 4x different T5s in a single unit.
However for me there is a major drawback 'overspill', a single PS above a 90cm in my living room ensures the photoperiod coincides with natural daylight hours.
I also have a Prime Freshwater running over a 70l albeit on 25% which for me doesn't quite have the edge but for the money is far better value.
Just my 2c
Cheers!


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## Wookii (10 Jun 2021)

bazz said:


> Hi,
> I'm running a single a360x Tuna Sun and I'd disagree with all of the above. With the amber and red LEDs I've never had a tank looking so vibrant compared to Twinstar, before that TMC and again before that 4x different T5s in a single unit.
> However for me there is a major drawback 'overspill', a single PS above a 90cm in my living room ensures the photoperiod coincides with natural daylight hours.
> I also have a Prime Freshwater running over a 70l albeit on 25% which for me doesn't quite have the edge but for the money is far better value.
> ...



Just goes to show how much of all this is down to personal preference too I guess - I thought the AI Prime was a far superior light to the A360X when I had them both, in almost every regard. I just couldn't get on with the A360X's very yellow rendition.

I guess ultimately its worth trying out, or viewing, the lights you are considering if you can.


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## oreo57 (10 Jun 2021)

Kessils too secretive for my tastes.
Not only that it "appears" they did some stealth upgrades to the "sun" prior to the  x's and excluding the 80's improving red rendering.
The 6000-9000k range was too narrow for my tastes .
Someday I may find real proof that over time they tweaked their diodes on the likes of like the 160 tuna sun. Like I said Kessil won't be telling you   
Their white has poor cri so it had a particular look.
I do give them credit for " fixing" past err "errors" though.
Note it is a matter if opinion. They def have their strength's and grow things just fine.


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## becks (11 Jun 2021)

I’ve seen kessils in the flesh at riverwood aquatics and I like the natural look they produce.  The rendition of my vivid is excellent and I can tweek the colour and temperature rating.  

if I got the kessils, I would keep the vivid light.  I guess i just fancy a change.


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## bazz (12 Jun 2021)

Good morning becks,
Just in the process of slowly removing stems to let the crypts grow through so tank looking a bit shoddy but I'll post this photo just to show you that you can add a bit of colour with the a360x.


Cheers!


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## BradT (12 Jun 2021)

Hi all,

im new and this is my first post.

I ran kessil on my ADA tank for 6 months before changing to Chihiros rgb. All I can say is I wish I had sooner. 
I will say Kessill do offer a beautiful shimmer, unique to this brand. Visually spectacular. However at the expense of plant growth.

Thanks


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## DrewNC (2 Aug 2021)

In Reef tanks Kessils are often used in combination with t5s because they lack enough punch to grow stony corals well. They are a bit fool proof with two knobs. I tend to run them higher and redder, on full power. Setting are all ok for coloration. It does mimic natural sun well.

Kessil Aqua Sun provide depths and shadowing well and certainly can grow plants well. I burned through 2 as they are delicate and essentially unserviceable. In US, Kessil has a atrong presence where Chihiros is a special order from one source.

That being said my second Kessol died and I am trying Vivid 2. I have par meter and enough sense to ser a reasonable spectrum and leave it alone.

Plants are so forgiving compared to stony corals i am not too concerned.  It compared more to t5 bulbs with a effective diffuser. To me I would lile a combo of both.  A kessil at end angled for shimmer would be ideal.

Either seem fine. I am not sure how well ADA solar sells for 2 to 3x the price for subjectively better performance.


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## Zeus. (2 Aug 2021)

I have Four Kessil 160 tuna suns, love the shimmer, but kessils over price and too short a warranty for price IMO, when I got them a few years back didn't have the choice of what's out now. I Love the colours of the ADA solar RGB seen at green aqua but no intensity control  so would invest in a Chihiros vivid 2 for next tank


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## Garuf (20 Feb 2022)

Wookii said:


> Just goes to show how much of all this is down to personal preference too I guess - I thought the AI Prime was a far superior light to the A360X when I had them both, in almost every regard. I just couldn't get on with the A360X's very yellow rendition.
> 
> I guess ultimately its worth trying out, or viewing, the lights you are considering if you can.


For a tank with a footprint of 60x45, would you take a chihiros, prime or twinstar - from your experience?


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## Wookii (20 Feb 2022)

Garuf said:


> For a tank with a footprint of 60x45, would you take a chihiros, prime or twinstar - from your experience?



Chihiros for colour rendition, Prime if you really must have shimmer. I wasn’t particularly impressed with the Twinstar I had to be honest.


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## Garuf (20 Feb 2022)

Wookii said:


> Chihiros for colour rendition, Prime if you really must have shimmer. I wasn’t particularly impressed with the Twinstar I had to be honest.


Not bothered about shimmer, I just want a nice enough colour rendition and that isn’t going to have a kWh footprint/impact that means I need to sell a kidney to turn it on.


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## Wookii (20 Feb 2022)

Garuf said:


> Not bothered about shimmer, I just want a nice enough colour rendition and that isn’t going to have a kWh footprint/impact that means I need to sell a kidney to turn it on.



Chihiros is the way to go then, and you can set the output level to your liking, and so avoid having to sell off bodily parts!


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## oreo57 (21 Feb 2022)

Garuf said:


> Not bothered about shimmer, I just want a nice enough colour rendition and that isn’t going to have a kWh footprint/impact that means I need to sell a kidney to turn it on.


Depends on what you mean by " color rendition".

AI Prime has whites so you can tune the color rendition to a more natural look.

Chihiros is rgb so a more exaggerated color look. 
Chihiros Pro to some consternation now includes white diodes ..


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## Garuf (21 Feb 2022)

Green greens and no “blurple” tones. I don’t really grow red red plants so having a greener overall suits me. 

Like the Ada 8000k tubes of old has been what I like, _generally.  _Not exactly realistic but also not really the over saturated look some leds give.


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## oreo57 (21 Feb 2022)

Garuf said:


> Green greens and no “blurple” tones. I don’t really grow red red plants so having a greener overall suits me.
> 
> Like the Ada 8000k tubes of old has been what I like, _generally.  _Not exactly realistic but also not really the over saturated look some leds give.


In that case I'd "lean" to the  wrgb Pro or AI.
Thing is they are all color tunable. Only question is if, when tuned, you have sufficient PAR.


There are alternatives like the Chihiros current "A" model (all white diodes, A series plus?)  that favors green tones.
There is a thread here regarding this somewhere.
To be honest it looks to be an acquired taste like AFA  "green" metal halides. 
Metal halide lamp NAG-250W-Green​Just a Chihiros model comparison. Shows versatility.


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## erwin123 (22 Feb 2022)

am really keen to read more user reviews on the WRGB2 Pro.

What interests me would be: If I set WRGB2 Pro at 100% R, 100% G, 100% B, and 0% White, would it basically be the same PAR as  WRGB2 at 100/100/100?

In other words, would anything I add to the white channel would be a bonus? i.e.  I do not necessarily need to set the white channel to 100% (read a few comments about it being 'washed out'), but maybe add just enough white to improve the spectrum (i.e. fill in the "valleys" between the R/G/B peaks) without washing out the R and B colours?


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## Wookii (22 Feb 2022)

erwin123 said:


> am really keen to read more user reviews on the WRGB2 Pro.
> 
> What interests me would be: If I set WRGB2 Pro at 100% R, 100% G, 100% B, and 0% White, would it basically be the same PAR as  WRGB2 at 100/100/100?
> 
> In other words, would anything I add to the white channel would be a bonus? i.e.  I do not necessarily need to set the white channel to 100% (read a few comments about it being 'washed out'), but maybe add just enough white to improve the spectrum (i.e. fill in the "valleys" between the R/G/B peaks) without washing out the R and B colours?



It's hard to say, as they don't use exactly the same LED's. I theory 'yes', that is how it should work. Unfortunately in the video above he doesn't actually show the WRGBII Pro with just the RGB channels engaged manually and the white channel at zero. He does select the dedicated 'RGB' setting (timestamp 10:00) in the app which appears to show the white channel at zero, but the resulting colour rendition looks identical to all channel at 100% (timestamp 9:30), and has the same yellowish cast often seen with warm white LED's.

If you are looking to:


erwin123 said:


> fill in the "valleys" between the R/G/B peaks


You can just add a small strip of white LED's to supplement the WRGBII. I have tried this myself in the past for the same reasons, and even dimmed to very low levels, it immediately washes out the colours - its a very strange effect, and I don't fully understand how it works. I suspect the better approach would be to supplement the RGB LED's with dedicated colour specific LED's such as amber, deep red, royal blue etc, but that's not an easy task.


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