The Kessil AP700 has been a long time coming but as of today, fans of Kessil’s unique approach to aquarium lighting can look forward to the concrete release date for the company’s first fully fledged aquarium fixture. Kessil made a name for itself for basically reinventing what an LED aquarium spotlight could be with the Kessil A150 and then the Kessil A350/360 LED lights.
The new “aquarium panel” Kessil AP700 is the culmination of years of research and experience, and working intimately with reef aquarium hobbyists to find out what they truly want from an aquarium light. With an emphasis on power, control, value and an all-in-one package that just works out of the box without any other accessories required, the Aquarium Panel 700 from Kessil is guaranteed to be one of the most exciting aquarium lighting fixtures to be released this year.
While Kessil has been teasing the AP700 for over a year, with the first official unveiling at InterZoo 2014 in Germany last year. In the interim the Kessil AP700 has enjoyed the focused attention of Kessil’s design and engineering team to bring out a light that users will be truly proud to own. While we’ve seen the AP700 quite a number of times in the wild, at reef shows, and more recently we’ve been using it over some very colorful corals, we finally have a full spec sheet of what this unique fixture is all about.
Kessil’s Aquarium Panel AP700 is a 185 watt “platform” of controllable LED light, with two arrays of 60 LED chips, each consisting of multiple different diode colors. The Dense Matrix Array LED is renowned for its excellent color blending, and with the special ‘hybrid optics’ that has a combination of elliptical reflector and lens, the spread of the AP700 really does a great job of lighting up 48 inch long tanks. The two LED arrays also preserve the eye-catching shimmer that comes from having just a few point sources of right lighting, and in that department the AP700 definitely delivers plenty of glitter lines.
The Kessil AP700 not only looks corals look good inside the tank, the fixture itself is quite a classy affair. The resulting light is incredibly thin while still packing 185 watts of power and running virtually silent. Having all that power is one thing, but having easy access to controls of the different LED color channels is also another big bonus for the Kessil AP700.
Right out of the box you can control the Aquarium Panel 700 with the onboard controller that has five different buttons to adjust color, to adjust brightness, and to turn the fixture on and off. Furthermore, users can also connect directly to the AP700 over wifi and use the available iOS applications to fine tune the color, brightness and daily programming of the aquarium panel without the need for any other devices or hubs.
We are expecting Kessil to reveal some interesting new features and accessories for the AP700 that will be announced in the future. But today the big announcement is the official availability of the AP700 which Kessil will start shipping in the United States in September with a retail price of $949.
This is no minor release for Kessil, they’ve really poured their heart and soul into the Aquarium Panel 700 and this will be the first completely new device from the company in several years. We’ve been using the AP700 for several months now and we can assure Kessil devotees that if they like Kessil’s A150 and A360 LED spotlights they are really going to love the AP700 over their own reef tanks.
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