ARRG I made a mistake so I'm pinning it up here. The A160WE featured in this video is a 40 Watt light. Which explains a lot. Everything else seems to be right but I got my models crossed when I looked up the specs. Sorry about that.

My own experience with a flood light is quite positive. I grew lots of mid/low light plants, and they stayed nicely green and grew fast. For a really nice display tank that needs to be looking great, the Kessil is probably the better choice. For my own enjoyment and practicality, I'll keep with LED floods, and spend the extra cash on fish and plants. Thanks again for your videos, I look forward to them every week. Also - I have a lineatus puffer. I can vouch for their awesome personality. He's like my little water puppy. Totally recommended, but does not really fit with your typical community tank style. Mine has tank mates, but they're big enough, and were in the tank first.

Thanks for the side by side comparison. I use the flood lights and love them. I thought about getting a kessil for my 60 gal cube to really make it a sleek display, but I just can't justify the cost when I already have amazing growth.

Wow.. thanks for reviewing the flood light, been on my mind for a while. Thinking of upgrading my 40 falling dual t8's, this might be the guy. Thanks Pecktec!!

I would be interested in PAR results and plant growth results after few months. Intensity is not enough to judge a light but thank you for showing us how it looks like, love your videos :)

Thanks for the comparison! I've wondered how they would match up. I had to replace my t5s. They did not shed enough light in my 150 and the replacement bulbs were expensive. After a couple of missteps, I got the big grey flood lights. 2- 300 watt floods make my tank bright all the way to the substrate. So far so good. Even if I have to replace them once a yr it will take nearly a decade to spend up to the price of a kessil. I just cannot justify the cost of the Kessil at my income. I feel even better about the choice now.

I had the same problem when starting my 150 gal. walstad aquarium. I decided to go with the kessil A160WE because it was able to send more light to the substrate compared to the other lights and the tank is 21 inches tall. I have been running these lights for four years.

I've never understood the attraction of the Kessils. They definitely seem wayyyyyyy overpriced, plus I'm not a fan of the single point light sources unless there is only one light. Otherwise I'd take an LED bar for 1/4 - 1/2 the cost of several Kessils to get better, consistent coverage rather than a few spotlights.

pretty cool comparison. I did not expect the LED Flood light to be even in the same playing field.

Great vid on the light comparison. The main point that I would not go with the LED flood was the heat but for the price a great deal. Need to see the update to see if it lasts too. Thanks for sharing.

Great video, just bought some similar lights to replace an undersized "aquarium light" cant wait to see the results

Great Video & Great overview on products. I've always been a sucker for the "cheaper" products on amazon etc..

Good video. I just put one on order. $30 Light for a planted 10 gal will allow the purchase of more expensive rocks; aqua soil etc. For beam width of the light put a graph (X,Y) on the floor and suspend the lights over it. Nice job!

Buying kessils for a planted tank one has to be nuts. These flood lights are the bang for the buck. Thanks for the video.

Nice comparison sean. Never really seen side by side. Mine have been going for more than a year now and they're fine. I have mine mounted to a pvc fitting and the heat hasn't been an issue. The 100w light would be a beast!

The kessil has much nicer color temperature and rendition imo thanks for sharing. I would check out the lighting videos on bulk reef supply if you haven't settled yet...for a dream level tank I would do a t5ho led hybrid

Thanks peck! Definitely going to get flood lights next time I start a planted tank.

Every time I've seen tanks with that "kessil shimmer" in person, it's made me motion sick/dizzy, so really having less shimmer is a good thing to me.

Thanks a lot Sean! Your logo on the shirts are so cool. I would have bought it if I seen it in a store! So I am happy to support your great channel as well. Very nice video. The Kessil light is pretty much the only expensive light I never tried. Because they are REALLY expensive and videos like this shows that you need a lot on a big tank. But if money wasn't an issue, they do look very sexy. 😎

I use the floods now and am very happy with them. They get warm but not hot enough to burn you. I use ZHMA lights 50 or 100W depending on tank size. On display tanks I like using a strip light in the front to brighten the display front to back. Using the floods for overall lighting about a foot over the tank maybe more depending on how much spread and intensity I want. Thanks for this video. I will not buy a kessil from what I have seen of them from youtubers.

You should try a lumini light . I have a couple of them bought on amazon for about the same price . Pretty good light with a remote.

What do you do with extra aquarium strip lights? I am converting one to a hanging worklight over my hobby workbench. The light is perfect for model making. So, rather than trying lights and accumulating a few high end things under the stairs in storage..I have recycled the light and can swap out with others as I go...up here we don’t have the ready selection ..and prices are high..

Hello Thanks for the vedio please I would like an advise I have juwel 350L Rio line which comes with multilux led lights since i am about to plant my aquarium and it is 1st time to plant aquarium does such light good for low to medium tec plants . Thanks a lot

i run two of the 30 Watt flood lights on my 120 gallon tank. They replaced my old T8 lighting for about one year now. Both lights still work great. My plants grow very well and the algae i used to have are pretty much history now. The light and shadow game in my tank is just amazing. And if i ever get tired of it i order a third light so the tank gets a more evenly lightning.

Good video. I'm going to have to pick up the flood light. I don't think you can beat that price point.

Thanks. In the UK on Amazon UK they go under the name of Gosun Super Bright 30W LED Floodlight and sell for about £24. I think I will give one a go not much to loose. I just need my glass lid first.

Hi I'm buying a 150 cm and 55 cm high aquarium and I want to add two led lights that I've seen from China of 4500 lm rgb has power consumption of 90 watts with 160 leds lights,what do you recommend me as I spending the money on a light for scaping

I've got a 60 tall planted I was looking to light with some of these lights and actually came across your review on Amazon, I said to my self "Wonder if he's got a video up?" and sure enough. thinking about getting two of these, little skittish about the heat though, they'll be going under a hood.

Very nice comparison of lights brother. We have seen and compared the rate and light output. But what was the effect on plants after long run? Which light is good in terms of plant growth. How was the pearling under both lights? Thanks in advance brother. Keep uploading such helpful videos.👌 And realy cool tshirt👌

I really like these side by side comparisons. It will be interesting to see this long term. I set up 16 tanks in my fish room with high end light tapes almost a year ago and the plant growth is great, with little heat and no problems. Lighting all 16 cost me $160.00 total.

Hi I recently bought these floodlights..... would you say the frosted front has an effect on the light?

That Flood Light rocks!!!! not too shabby

I have a tank wich is 7ft long and 2.5ft deep and 2.5 ft wide, does a 50 watts floodlights will work?

Congratulations on the write up in Aquarium hobbyist. Good experiment. Wish you could compare spectrum as i had some die off from plants under another brand of cheaper led. Good video bro

I personally use a LED shop light that I found at Sam's Club. For $36 you get a Honeywell 48" 5000k LED at 42w it's rated at 4500 luman and they are linkable so you only need one timer and one plug. It is by far the best light I've found for my 4ft wide breeding rack. The light looks natural and for under $150 I can light all 4 shelves. That's 3 20 highs, 10 10gal and a 29gal.

Okay so I have a question. I have a 15 gallon column With a basic T5, and because it is so deep I am having trouble getting plants near the bottom to take well. So do you know of any type of light within the 50 to 80 dollar range that will do well penetrating over two feet of water that can fit over a 13" wide aquarium?

I spent quite a bit of time trying to find lighting for a 30" tall tank too. Considered Kessils, had the same experience with the floodlights, and tried double stacking some finnex lights. I've had good results with SB reef fresh water lights! I'd recommend them to people who need to punch through a lot of water, but CO2 seems to be a must since PAR levels drop off significantly as you go deeper.

so these lights have without a doubt, better penetration into deep tanks than all the current led aquarium lights like nicrew or aquaneat... thanks for this video

Thanks for the comparison, what type of short plants in the foreground you have in your planted tank?

In the perspective of the fish, is it comfortable to be bombarded by these bright lights? For the plants the lights might be significant but fish tend to live in somewhat clear water although murky habitats in the wild. I understand that as pets we should attain a home for these animals that is as close as possible to their natural settings yet at the same time we house them in unnatural situations.

Thanks so much for the info.. I really enjoy your videos!!

I love my kessil a360 tuna sun, and I got it on Ebay for 68% less, which helps a lot. It runs very cold, which is good because heat is a light-killer. I'm not sure how to do it, but apparently you can rig up a laptop fan to cool things like a floodlight :) maybe that could help the floodlight run better

Very informative. Thanks for doing this video. Cheers.

I have a kessil a80 tuna sun on a 7.5g high tech planted tank, love it, am growing high light plants no prob.

Hi Sean! You mention making an LED light bar around the 3:00 mark. I looked at your other vids and couldn't find any that referenced that. I probably over looked it, but in any case, do you have a link to the LED light bar build that you did for the aquarium over your left shoulder?

@pecktec Longevity update. Bought my flood lights in the beginning of May. Now Fed 2nd and zero issues with them.

Kessil also makes a smaller less expensive light. I would add that to mix. I also have a par meter you can borrow. The smaller kessils do not get hot even without heat sink.

Pretty amazing how at least in appearance the lights had practically no difference.

Sick t-shirt dude!

Considering the heat produced by the Amazon light would it be wise to put it in side of a canopy?

I hardly see a difference except the color and shimmy. This just answered my question - going to build a bar with a couple of those floods!

Hum that might be an option for my 21 tall 18 wide 20 gallon heavy planted scarlet badis tank

If you are using this would love update videos on plant growth and the such

I found it on ebay (23 Nov 2019), exact light listed as 30w Cree LED chips floodlight, waterproof, outdoor security lights

I have a suggestion for small ripariums: GE medium base non-dimmable 90w equivalent basic led outdoor floodlight. You can't easily pop off the diffusor like you can with the smaller household lights, so you have to cut them off with a saw or a rotary tool like a dremmel. The leds themselves have a built in lens directly over them that converts the light into a spot light if you remove the diffusor cap. I use 3 of these 3 feet above my 20gal long riparium, and 2 of them roughly 2 feet above the water in my narrow but tall paludarium, and they work very well. I think they're like 15 bucks for 2 of them.

Hi Pecktec and subscribers. Awesome alternative described towards end of long yet worthwhile comment post. :) Thanks for the video. Honestly i wasn't surprised. Used flood lights myself and know of their awesome power especially for deep planted tanks. Sadly quality and therefore life period is greatly variable. Some burning out in just a few months. A simple pc fan or small fan from eBay super cheap nearby is really useful for cooling and extending their lives. This is great if in a hood and especially above tropical aquariums. I like to buy a few of the couple $ USB fans and have them attached to a USB bus. So i can have tiny fans here and there near gear or specific tanks all around parts of the fish room with just one power point used. Additionally you can have the floodlights attached/hanging off a metal post (preferably rectangular prism). if done right with as much contact between lights and pole. It acts as a much larger heatsink addition. This can be done cheap or even with scraps from the garage in a very short period of time. I also recommend people use timers for their lights especially for Floodlights on aquariums. forgetting to turn one off can lead it to super heat itself and destroy a tank with algae just overnight. Using a siesta period (ligjts go off for 30min to 2 hours partway through lights on duration) during the light cycle not only interrupts algae formation but also gives the lights valuable time to cool down. Thereby extending their lives. One day i happened upon a alternative/upgrade to the floodlights. I still use today on my terrariums and aquariums. Car LED spotlights!! Yes. its that simple. For 50AUD i bought a pack of 8 of them. 30w. each with 6x 5w CREE LEDS. Mounting brackets. Large heatsink. They are also IP67 rated. As in waterproof! Being designed to sit on front bull bars on 4 wheel drives you'd expect them to be hardy. And hardy they are. rated to be able to be fully submerged up to 1 metre for 30 minutes. Pretty awesome and they even look good and professional. Their 1 con is they don't have power point plugs. simply the red and black wire coming from the unit. That isn't much of a problem. You can simply wire them to a AC power adapter rated at 40w+. Carefully wrap electrical tape over the cable connections and plug in/turn on. So very powerful. The more powerful the adapter the more you can attach, while still using only one powerpoint. You can for a few dollars buy plugs to attach the wires to. So they plug neatly into power adapters if you want them to look neater. Really there's a lot of flexibility. I even have dimmers on mine for a few extra dollars. They of course come in various levels of intensity like 10, 40, 80w. 3 of the 30w ones in my tall 55 planted is overkill so i use dimmers while maintaining full spread. As you can see each one takes about 15 minutes more to setup than a floodlight out of the box. Cost wise they are just as cheap as outdoor floodlights with a hardier build quality and i've not had one stop working on me yet. Mine also came with a 3 year warranty. Definitely getting more. Hope you read this. Love the channel. I went back to the beginning and watched every single video in order. Took a while. Thank you for providing Bee well.

Can I use this light for Biorb Life 45L?

Probably a stupid question so I want 200w on my tank does that mean I need enough units adding up to 200w total or each unit should be 200w

To be perfectly honest, and to each their own... I like the look in the tank from the cheap light over the Kessel.

I switched to a led flood for my nursery tank, it's cheap n cheerfully I also used hdpe milk bottle tops to get the colour to my taste, I wld recommend them :)

Hey @pecktec, or anyone else-do you know of any suitable substitutes for this light? I've looked high and low all over the internet and can't find one that matches this and this model is either DCed or sold out everywhere. Most look like those gaudy old ones you showed earlier. Love the low pro look of these and 6000k temp and cree LEDs.

Stand for floodlight? Suggestions would be helpful. Thanks for research.

i use LED flood lights for years 3 x 100 w in my 250 gallon tank and is heavy planted. The plants doing very well. Not sure if is worth the money to spend money on expensive brand as they do pretty much same thing. It is preference and if you can afford it.

Is it effective for the colour of the red plants?

I'm just glad I got my kessil tuna sun with the adapter and the spectrum controller for $150, pretty great deal if you ask me

Is this the light that Cory from Aquarium Co-Op did a par test with not long ago? If so the par test he did was pretty good on it you might look that video up if you have not seen it. (it might have been on his second channel)

Hey man! What are the dimensions of the Chinese cree fixture? I want to see if I can fit one in my fluval chi hood! Thanks in advance.

Visually they really compare, light wise. I agree though I would be concerned about the heat. Do not know if that's what you are paying for with high end, for peace of mind having fans inside? Thanks for this comparison, very useful and a lot to think about. hope you managed to get that sump donated! :) Keep up the great work, you are an invaluable source of information! Cheers

luv your shirt

My problem with Kessil is how many you need just to get a tank fully lit up. By the time you have the coverage of an LED bar you have spent like 10x more when getting Kessil lights. The fact they also don't even come with the gooseneck too.... I really think Kessil is overrated and overpriced for the light coverage you get.

Wow,. great information. Thanks! Do you think there is any danger in leaving the cree led directly on the glass cover?

The flood light is designed for outdoors applications, where the ambient temperature is much lower than indoors and inside the aquarium, hence no cooling fan but you could add any laptop style fan from Rapid for a low cost then you would get a much longer lamp life for the flood light.

Looking at the two, I would say the Kessil does look slightly better, the flood light puts in an impressive showing though! I'm so impressed with the flood light I've gone and bought a couple for my experimental tank :D. For the cost the flood light is a fantastic lighting option; assuming it lasts.

How many hours a day are your lights on? Awesome video ! Thank you

I purchased a used Kessil Purple H150(32 watts) for $50 w/gooseneck included. Not worth $50.. Kessil LED's are WAY OVERPRICED! And puts out quite a bit of heat for 32 watts! Thanks for the video. Now others can see the extreme difference. Primarily in the price!

You should do a review and unboxing of a chihiros a series led. eBay is flooded with these lights. I have heard that they are comparable with ADA for a fraction of the cost.

I replaced my ancient T8 lighting with a 20W 6500K 2400lm flood light above my 14g. My plants started pearling within an hour of turning it on. They never did that with the T8. The important thing is to avoid COB LED and go with SMD. SMD doesn't generate as much heat (so the housing can be thinner), and it won't die on you that fast. Heat kills LEDs.

Interesting comparison. I don't *see* much difference, but there might be quite a difference in the light reaching the plants in wavelengths we don't see. A PAR comparison would be really interesting. I wonder if your local club has a meter that can be borrowed.

U didn't mention about one main thing ?? Is it regular led flood light or full spectrum white led flood light ??

16:11 notice that almost all the fish are partying under the light on the left.

The thing that burns out in the standard Chinese floodlights is the cheap LED drivers they use, (Similar to a ballast on fluorescent lights) you can get replacements on eBay for around $5+ but you do still have to open up the back of the light and replace it, which is time-consuming. I do still have a few that have been running around three years now, I would put them at 70%/30% on reliability. These new Cree driven lights look allot more reliable and a step up, as far as the heat issue you can just pick up one of those $10 clip on fans to blow accross it or them. Congrats on your article, looking for my new edition of TFH in the mail.

So if I ripped out the guts from a T8 plastic hood and mounted three floodlights into it, would it melt?

Is this Cree light still in service?? Looking for a cheap light for my planted tank

so the kessil looks better to me but the pricepoint on the floodlight is point in favor for it but if the heat is really bad then on one tank its fine but if you have a fishroom full of tanks with those then it might be for of an issue i think personally i would go with the kessils but if you do have a tighter budget then i totally see why you would go with the floodlights

I know it’s been a while. Just curious how long the flood light lasted?

Thank you!

The new model of floodlight looks way better than the old one. With 6 LEDs versus 1 it should last longer too. Thanks for bring it up to us Sean.

I was experimenting with LED lightning fixtures since 2013. Build some myself, but always wanted to try the Kessil A360WE. I love it, Yes I like the shimmer, not everybody does. But it is the best simulation of how real sunlight behaves. There's a lot of hate towards Kessil, I don't get that. if you don't like them, who cares, nobody forces you to buy it :). And I don't think Kessil is overpriced, I built high-end fixtures for my 55 tall and ended up spending € 450,00. The A360WE cost me € 500, just € 50,00 more and I enjoy it way more than I enjoyed my other LED fixtures.

Get the rgb flood lights so you get a wider spectrum of light ... works great on my reef tank

The $30 because of the wider surface area have a wider beam, but the kesil have a sharper look to,the light. A lot depends on the quality of the circuits. Turn the lights on and off is where the stress on the electronics is, and also the heat. I would start with the chapter lighr,and then buy the kesil

Hey do you think this would work for 15 gallon saltwater tank? I've wanted to get a better light on it for awhile now.

Wow. It is seriously difficult to tell the difference between those lights in the side by side comparison. I feel like, for the diy hobbiest there is a lot of potential for those cheap led lights. I think I need to give them a try. Longevity and heat dissipation being my only concerns.

I run all my 9 planted fishtanks on floodlights, love how cheap & bright they're ... The only bad part is that my room (where I keep most of them) is just like an oven, those lights get quite hot

What will happen when I use Kessil but the saltwater version for aquascaping?

@pecktec Were 5 years down the line now, how did those floodlights fare?

I get the whole money thing, but I have two kessil 360 we on my 90 gallon tank and let me just say they are worth the money. They light and look awesome on my tank and realistically we all want are tank to look there best,but if I had to go back I would just get a led strip too, I loved the t5 but was crazy and always changed my bulbs cause I'm nuts. It just made more sense to spend the money then always change my bulbs. Hope this helps.

I’ve used cheap floodlights on my tanks for years …I’ve never been into plants but the lighting effect and the shimmer is amazing for the money compared to t5 bulbs and led bars ….I’ve got two fluval plant led bars on top of my tank I never even turn on because I prefer the two $8 30w floodlights I have on Regular bulbs and bars with no shimmer make a tank look flat

I have the Kessils (for reeftank) and I just love them. Specialy with the spectrum controler (that for me is a must have - maybe not so much for a fresh water although is very nice - specially if you love technology). The only thing that I don’t like is the cords management. I have the gooseneck and the cords are just attached to it. Not that nice for a light on this price range. Regarding the flood light I do not know it but I had some bad experiences with this type of lights (plants didn’t like them). But was a different brand so not much to say (apparently there are people with successful results so maybe these ones are good). Good luck with your new project.

all things considered I would definitely go with the flood lights.

Check out Kevin Novak's video on his version of the "Poor man's Kessil" He has come up with a lighting system that is just as good as a Kessil for a fraction of the price and it looks really nice above a tank.