Light Gurus opinions please! (1 Viewer)

[galvezsurfer33]

Starting a low boy tank 48”Lx24”Wx10”-16”H ish

Question about the lighting….

I’ve been out of the game for about 8years coming off MH and T5s.

If I go with 3 XR15s, would it be smart to do a pro and blue setup?

ie. pro-blue-pro or blue-pro-blue

Or should I stick with one color for all 3?


Thanks again, good to be back!


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[Seaworthy Aquatics]

Depends on what you want to do. The pros are more geared towards growth, they have a few more white bulbs vs the blue model, and the blues towards looks. If you are aiming for a grow out tank, I'd go with the Pros. If this lowboy will just be a frag or display tank I'd go with pure blue for the pop. You could do a mix but honestly with 3 on that tank you'll have so much light it probably won't matter much, but that will depend on the coral as well. SPS tank you probably want three, or two and a T5 or LED bar, but two would pretty comfortably light a zoa or softy tank. I'd cram it with acros myself and go with 3 Pros lol, might be a touch overkill though.

 

[galvezsurfer33]

Thanks for the help!

Would 3 pros be too much light for softys and zoas tho?

And is it even a reef tank w/o SPS!!!

Also, clams, blues or pros for them?

Is there such a thing as too much light with the new LEDs? I remember MH would burn your stuff.

 

[Seaworthy Aquatics]

Thanks for the help!

Would 3 pros be too much light for softys and zoas tho?

And is it even a reef tank w/o SPS!!!

Also, clams, blues or pros for them?

Is there such a thing as too much light with the new LEDs? I remember MH would burn your stuff.

Yeah you can totally burn your stuff with LED. Any PAR can burn stuff if it is too high if the coral isn't used to it, doesn't matter the source. As long as you start low and work your way up most stuff will adjust, the Radions have an acclimation setting you can turn on to get your corals used to it. Some low light hard corals and other things won't adjust to really high Par but I've kept all sorts of zoas and other softies under 400+ PAR, they just need to acclimate slowly to the high levels and you have to be sure to have the nutrients to use the light. The higher light means more energy to use and thus have to have more food to process it or they will burn, bleach or starve. I use all Pros with ReefBright LED bars and my clams are pretty happy. Bit of an old pic but here's an Ultra Maxima I keep under Pros. I've moved him to another tank since then, but also same lights and he has doubled in size since this pic about 3 months ago. If you plan to get sps and clams I'd go with more, you can always turn them down if it proves too much. You can probably run them at 60-70% with three of them and have about 250-300 PAR in all of that tank which should be plenty for just about anything.