Best Aquarium Lighting 2023

Selecting the Best Aquarium Lighting

Having an aquarium really provides your home with a cool point of interest that will entertain guests, fascinate children, and provide you with a relatively low-maintenance pet to take care of. There are different levels of aquariums that you can purchase; the level that you select will greatly depend on your budget and your space. In almost all situations, simply having an aquarium in your living space adds vibrancy and improves your decor.

One thing that many people don’t consider when they are purchasing their first aquarium is the lighting system. Many aquariums come with very basic lighting, but some aquarium enthusiasts decide to purchase dedicated lighting for their hobby that builds on the aquarium experience. These specialized lighting options can enhance the environment around your aquarium and provide a focus for your tropical fish. The best aquarium lighting will bring out vibrant colors that cheap lighting does not.

I am a big fan of aquariums, and I believe in two things, a good heater that won’t cook your fish and a good quality lighting system. This light gives you more than enough options and perpetuates a feeling of being deep under the sea when you look into your aquarium.

Remote Control and Aquarium Lights

LED lighting is becoming very popular in a variety of modern electronics, especially in aquarium lighting. Many of the LED lighting options that are on the market today have to be controlled at the aquarium. This isn’t a huge inconvenience, but when you’re entertaining guests and you want to change the lighting, you’ll have to go up to the tank with one of these options. For the Kessil A360WE, you can simply pick up the remote and change the settings on-the-fly. This makes this a very versatile lighting option for your fish tank. As I entertain a lot, I think the ability to use a remote adds value to the overall purchase of this product.

Light Placement Options

The Kessil A360WE comes with a gooseneck for attaching the light, but there is a wide variety of placement options for this aquarium LED lighting fixture. With the gooseneck option, you simply attach the very versatile clamp onto the side of your tank. It doesn’t matter which type of rim you have, the fixture attaches fairly easily. This means that you have to post it to the side of your aquarium for the light to shine down onto your fish and reefs.

The gooseneck itself has some configuration options that are perfectly versatile for many different aquariums. If you’d prefer a straight down angling versus the natural arch of the gooseneck, the Kessil A360WE comes with an accessory that makes this angling possible. This is more of an aesthetic change, but I’m sure many people will appreciate the design option for their aquariums.

If you prefer a somewhat smaller profile, this LED product is very small. It’s only 5 x 5 x 10 inches, so you can simply hang it from chains that are attached to the ceiling above your tank. This makes the Kessil A360WE a lot like a stylish pendant light. I like this look for my own home’s décor, though you may prefer the gooseneck mounting.

Getting Shimmer and Color Blending with the Best Aquarium Lighting

If you have a tank that has reefs or other sea bottom features like anemones or deepwater plants, it’s always nice looking to have that undersea shimmer. The Kessil A360WE has several shimmer options that emulate the effect of sunlight on the sea bottom. Sometimes when you use these types of devices, you see the various colors that make up the tuna blue light of the LED.

This is because LEDs tend to cause a prism effect when you shine them at certain distances. This Kessil device, on the other hand, has color blending tech that makes the directed light always appear the intended tuna blue color. This is a great effect that emulates the natural sun shafts at the bottom of the ocean.

Lighting Simplicity

There are a few models of LED tank lighting out there that really have a very complicated level of functionality. These tend to be very expensive, but they also have a lot of lighting options that you can access through a computer. These will probably take you an hour or more to properly configure and program, but many people enjoy this high level of customizability.

The Kessil A360WE has some of this customizability, which is excellent, but some people want a far simpler lighting experience. If you don’t want to use software to choose your patterning, the Kessil A360WE includes two dials that are positioned along the top that will give you a high amount of light customization. It’s perfect for those aquarium owners who aren’t inclined to pore through a computer program to find their perfect lighting situation.

Outside the Tank

One of the most impressive features of the Kessil A360WE is its ability to project the shimmering pattern onto the environment around your tank. As a result, you and your guests will be immediately immersed in an underwater environment when you look in the direction of the tank. This makes for a good reason to have a relatively uncluttered environment around the tank so that you can see the sea bottom effect around your aquarium.

Kessil’s Warranty

Kessil has provided a really good warranty for this product, which is good because LEDs have a tendency to burn out and any amount of mishaps can happen around a fish tank. The company is based in the United States and will replace any component or completely replace the product within the first year of ownership.

Picking the Best Aquarium Lighting – Considerations

Like anything, the Kessil A360WE isn’t perfect. One real point of contention is that the device doesn’t have great cord management at all. If you are using the gooseneck, your cabling will kind of hang along the side of your tank. If you are using the chain setup, you can string the cord up through the chain, but attaching it to an outlet can be tough in this situation.

Also, the device is a bit pricey for novice aquarium users who just want a lighting option, but you’ll find that the cost per LED is much cheaper than just about any of the competing products that are currently available.

Finally, compared to some of its competitors, which are almost always more pricey, you’ll have relatively limited light controllability. Even with computer programs for setting it up, you’ll only have options for intensity and color spectrum. This means that you will only be able to adjust this product from white to blue.