When I saw the price tag on the new Kessil AP700 ($ 895.00 per fixture) my first thought was, “What’s Kessil thinking.” The Kessil A360 and A360W lights have grown popular among reef keepers, and the dense matrix LED technology has been praised, as it offers shadow and ripple effects on par with metal halide lighting. Although control has been an issue for Kessil. When the A360 debuted, the best option for control was to purchase an accessory module for a Neptune System’s Apex (another expense for reef keepers who could get similar functionality for cheaper from other brands). Later Kessil released it’s own driver (which of course cost money), which paled in comparison to those seen on other lighting systems. 
When I first saw the AP700’s price tag, I assumed that Kessil must have released some stunning new technology, something that outpaces everything else in reef aquarium lighting. Naturally if that was the case, I needed to get my hands on these lights. After some research, including a call into a reef tank tech guru, I am disappointed to say that isn’t the case. Comparison to other lights: Just so we can get our heads around the AP700’s cost, I want to compare it to several other light fixtures, along with the number of pucks each fixture has.
- Eco Tech Radion XR30w (two lighting pucks): $ 649.00
- AI Hydra 52 (four lighting pucks): $ 449.00
- Kessil A360W (one lighting puck, single fixture): $ 399.00
This is a good breakdown of several leading LED fixtures. It’s long been noted that the Eco Tech Radion has led the pack pricewise, but the fixture has also been praised for highly reliable software with lots of unique functions. While the number of lighting pucks a fixture has certainly isn’t the bottom line definition of what is a better light, it’s a good place to start for comparison purposes. The fact that the Kessil AP700 is selling for well beyond the price of Ecotech’s Radion XR30w Pro ($ 749) is enough to raise an eyebrow. Is this light so advanced that it’s worth over $ 100 more than what is considered the “gold-standard” in high-tech aquarium lighting. The AP700:
So what is the AP700, what high tech system is packed into that sleek little package that warrants a price far higher than well-respected competitors? Not much. In conversation with a reef tank tech guru, I learned that the AP700 is essentially two Kessil A360W lights packed into one fixture.… More:
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