Are two XR15's enough for a 150g reef?

[Mkvc]

I currently have a 150g reef tank that's about a year old with about a 40g sump. I'm running two Ecotech XR15 pro's at 100% AB+. I've been able to keep everything except the most finicky corals by placing them near the top of my tank directly under my lights.

My husband and I were at our LFS and he saw a pretty beautiful display they had for sale. He said "I want our tank to look like that" and my reefing budget quadrupled. Yay!

The most obvious thing I need to match my LFS' display is more more more coral. I have maybe 2 dozen frags that are doing fine, but they're growing slowly. Time to buy some colonies. Since I have two eels now, I'm also going to get a beefier protein skimmer.

The other obvious difference is lighting. My corals don't pop like the ones in the store. I think they have higher PAR ratings and more blue. I'm considering buying two more XR15's. Would that be overkill? Unnecessary? I admittedly don't know as much about lighting as I should.

 

[boatguy]

I'm not an expert in lighting. I have 2 xr15 pro lights on a waterbox 90.3 which is quite a bit smaller than your setup. I am pleased with my lighting but i'm not running at 100%.

 

[DKPminus]

Wish I knew enough about lighting to help but I'm at about the same stage. I would guess renting a par meter would best way to figure out how your lighting is distributed threw your tank and if you need more. Considering it myself. Happy reefing.

 

[MartinM]

BRS has good videos about the XR15 PAR/spread. It should answer your questions as long as you know the approximate PAR requirements of the coral you want to keep. Definitely also grab/borrow/rent a PAR meter.

The dimensions of your tank would be good to know as well.

For coral growth, feed!

 

[Tuffyyyyy]

If you have the budget for it then 1 or 2 more XR15s would be perfect for your tank. 2 is probably the minimum you'd need for a tank that size. If your goal is to replicate your LFS then you need to:
1) go SUPER blue with your tank. Every LFS I've ever seen is straight blue with minimal white. You can download WWC's lighting schedule and see this.
2) Make sure you're mixing and matching the colors. Most of us, when we get into this hobby, collect lots of colorful greens because they're the cheapest (zoas, leathers, GSP, etc.) but the way to make everything pop like the LFS is to mix in some orange, red, pink, yellow in between the greens. And even mix in corals without flourescence/shimmer to bring out corals next to it even more. This is the best example of WWC I could find on a quick google search

https://reefbuilders.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2021/02/thumb-wwc-boutique-LFS-WWC-winter-park.jpg

 

[Hot2na]

run them at 100% all channels and colors...

 

[jenb7611]

I have a 5 foot 150 that runs 3 XR15’s and 4 T5’s. I run the XR15’s at about 50 percent. Not sure if I would go without the third in the middle in mine. The light spread is much more even with that middle fixture. Corals are happy and Acro frags are growing and coloring up great.

 

[wally311]

It's hard to answer your question without knowing what kind of corals you are keeping, dimensions of your tank or what your goals are. If you are keeping mostly soft corals and/or LPS, you may be able to get away with your current lighting, but if you want to keep more light demanding corals like SPS, I would definitely add more. Especially when you start talking about larger colonies, because then shading becomes more of an issue. You don't have to spend the $$ on more xr15s though (although that would certainly get the job done!). You could supplement with T5's or Reef Brites. Just my .02.

 

[BluTang85]

If it is a 6ft tank, i would recommend adding one more, i believe the spread of each light is 24" wide. I run 4 of these on a 4 foot tank, its prob a bit overkill but my sps are booming and i can fill every dark area with light. I only run mine on AB+ at 60% and coral is loving it. I would def recommend one more light though just to cover more spread.