Cali Kid Corals

Lifespan of Kessils

MolaMola

MolaMola

Supporting Member
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So what do people/manufacturers mean when they talk about the lifespan of LED lights such as the original Kessil A360? I got mine 6.5 years ago, but I know a couple have been replaced/refurbished and rotated between tanks, so at this point I am not sure how much time each has run. Do they just suddenly stop working? Does the intensity drop? Is there a PAR/wavelength shift?
I wanted to be prepared if they suddenly died, so I had bought some on closeout bc I have been happy with them, the price was right, and I was considering adding another to my big tank. I have experienced coral bleaching over the past couple years and was wondering if it could be due to spectral shift, but since things are coloring back up and it's the same lights, I see that was not the case. I have no PAR records to compare for changes over time.
 
I would send a message to Kessil just to see how they determine lifespan as it may differ than what the industry as a whole usually does. For something like a Cree LED for instance, the life given I think is based on how long it takes to get to 70% of it's original output which is typically run at current levels that are much lower than what we run current through them in the hobby, also in a 0 humidity environment, making sure it's cool, etc. So what the aquarium hobby does to LED is really throw them through the ringer as far as beating up their life. So they will get dimmer, and in some cases some individual LEDs can just burn out which may affect other LEDs in the system depending upon how they are wired together.

As for color shift, that really isn't a thing with LEDs, maybe with white LEDs you might see a color shift because they use a phosphor coating to get things to a "white" state, and if that coating in some way degrades over time perhaps... but something like a royal blue, or blue LED should stay at the same wavelength until the day it dies.
 
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