Deciding on a LED fixture for 72" mixed reef

Evieeeeee · Feb 10, 2021

I got a nice deal on a 6 * 2 * 2 tank that I hope to turn into a mixed reef. The goal is to have a lot of meat corals, bubble corals, brain corals and such on the sand bed and have a few SPS like lepto, encrusting & plating montis and a few acros and birds nests.

Originally I wanted to go Kessil a360x since I don't like the disco look of a lot of other LEDs, but I'm not sure how many I would need to get. If I'm keeping limited SPS and and won't have issues with shading would 3 be enough?

Also any recommendations on different fixtures is also appreciated. Preferring to stick to LEDs

xxkenny90xx · Feb 11, 2021

Check out the reefi duo extremes. They are pretty awesome

Camaro Show Corals · Feb 11, 2021

Evieeeeee said:
I got a nice deal on a 6 * 2 * 2 tank that I hope to turn into a mixed reef. The goal is to have a lot of meat corals, bubble corals, brain corals and such on the sand bed and have a few SPS like lepto, encrusting & plating montis and a few acros and birds nests.

Originally I wanted to go Kessil a360x since I don't like the disco look of a lot of other LEDs, but I'm not sure how many I would need to get. If I'm keeping limited SPS and and won't have issues with shading would 3 be enough?

Also any recommendations on different fixtures is also appreciated. Preferring to stick to LEDs

Radion xr30s, even used older models would be a great choice if you can’t afford G5 but I highly recommend them.

zalick · Feb 11, 2021

Evieeeeee said:
I got a nice deal on a 6 * 2 * 2 tank that I hope to turn into a mixed reef. The goal is to have a lot of meat corals, bubble corals, brain corals and such on the sand bed and have a few SPS like lepto, encrusting & plating montis and a few acros and birds nests.

Originally I wanted to go Kessil a360x since I don't like the disco look of a lot of other LEDs, but I'm not sure how many I would need to get. If I'm keeping limited SPS and and won't have issues with shading would 3 be enough?

Also any recommendations on different fixtures is also appreciated. Preferring to stick to LEDs

I don't know about the 360x but I had 6 a360 over my 6x3x27" And it wasn't enough. I put two of the a360 over my 20 long and it's good. So I'd say you'd probably need 8 for that tank.

Edit: or at least 6 IMO. Definitely more than 3

Evieeeeee · Feb 11, 2021

The Camaro Show said:
Radion xr30s, even used older models would be a great choice if you can’t afford G5 but I highly recommend them.

My max budget is 4k so I think it's doable? But I don't really think XR30s are required if I'm mostly focused on a mixed reef right? Wouldn't more XR15s be better and cheaper for a better coverage?

Evieeeeee · Feb 11, 2021

zalick said:
I don't know about the 360x but I had 6 a360 over my 6x3x27" And it wasn't enough. I put two of the a360 over my 20 long and it's good. So I'd say you'd probably need 8 for that tank.

Wow how many gallons is that, 300? Also what were you trying to grow that 6 a360s weren't enough?

Evieeeeee · Feb 11, 2021

xxkenny90xx said:
Check out the reefi duo extremes. They are pretty awesome

How many do you think I'd need over 6'? 3?

Also, why do people love this so much over radions and kessils?

zalick · Feb 11, 2021

Evieeeeee said:
Wow how many gallons is that, 300? Also what were you trying to grow that 6 a360s weren't enough?

Yeah 300. A few sps but mostly Lps and softies. They did ok but not thriving. I adjusted so 2 were pointed where only one was previously and everything perked up. Didn't want to buy more so I switched back to Halides with 4 Mitras LX7 as supplement.

I think the kessil are just too narrow a spread because of the singular cluster. I don't think it covers 2x2 like advertised. More like 15"x15". They are great lights within the limitations. My LPS in my 20 long are super happy

xxkenny90xx · Feb 11, 2021

Evieeeeee said:
How many do you think I'd need over 6'? 3?

Also, why do people love this so much over radions and kessils?

The colors are more customizable than any other led I've seen. Warranty is the best. Fixture looks very sleek and is designed to be mounted high and out of the way. It's just a very high quality fixture for a bit cheaper than the other very high quality fixtures.

Oh and the owner is here on the forum ready to help with any issues

Evieeeeee · Feb 11, 2021

zalick said:
Yeah 300. A few sps but mostly Lps and softies. They did ok but not thriving. I adjusted so 2 were pointed where only one was previously and everything perked up. Didn't want to buy more so I switched back to Halides with 4 Mitras LX7 as supplement.

I think the kessil are just too narrow a spread because of the singular cluster. I don't think it covers 2x2 like advertised. More like 15"x15". They are great lights within the limitations. My LPS in my 20 long are super happy

I'm surprised to hear that since they advertise a super wide spread angle and BRS was recommending 4 for their 4 foot SPS tank or 2 for LPS. Hopefully more people experience with A360X chime in

vetteguy53081 · Feb 11, 2021

2 Kessil Ap-700 or A-9x
Other option is Orphek OR3 bars which are PAR MONSTERS

cmozz · Feb 11, 2021

I have 4 XR30 G4s over my 6' tank but I'm SPS dominant. You could get away with 3 with diffusers, if you decided to go that route.

zalick · Feb 11, 2021

Evieeeeee said:
I'm surprised to hear that since they advertise a super wide spread angle and BRS was recommending 4 for their 4 foot SPS tank or 2 for LPS. Hopefully more people experience with A360X chime in

2 on a 4ft tank would be minimally sufficient for LPS IMO. They would grow slowly but not thrive. My 20 long is 30" x 12" x 12" and two is perfect for my LPS.

Maybe @PapaDragon can chime in. He initially had 3 over a similar sized tank as yours, not sure if he added more later.

Montiman · Feb 11, 2021

I am a big kessil fan and have a red sea 750xxl which is similar in dimensions. 3 90watt lights will be ok for a medium demand tank but it would not make me happy as I always get better results with more light.

Please consider this. An a360x is 90 watts so it roughly compairs to other 90 watt options like Hydra32s or XR15s. When people recommend XR30s remember these are 180w lights so 3 xr30s is equal to 6 a360x it is truly unfair to compare these lights. I would consider 3 lights in an aquaticlife hybrid. I think you will get better results than with LED alone and it will be easier and cheaper than going all LED. If you are set on going all LED I would get 3 180w lights. Either 3 XR30s, 3 Hydra 64s, or 3 AP9x. My preference being the AP9x because I love the kessil shimmer and ease of control.

The thing is after I look at the price of 3 180watt lights the 3 90watts in the hybrid get alot more appealing and the hybrid may still out perform the stand alone solution in terms of coverage and spectrum. This is why I currently run a hybrid. It just gets harder and harder to justify all LED if looking for equivalent results.

Evieeeeee · Feb 11, 2021

@Kessil do you have a recommendation? A360X vs AP9X and how many for my situation

Evieeeeee · Feb 11, 2021

Montiman said:
I am a big kessil fan and have a red sea 750xxl which is similar in dimensions. 3 90watt lights will be ok for a medium demand tank but it would not make me happy as I always get better results with more light.

Please consider this. An a360x is 90 watts so it roughly compairs to other 90 watt options like Hydra32s or XR15s. When people recommend XR30s remember these are 180w lights so 3 xr30s is equal to 6 a360x it is truly unfair to compare these lights. I would consider 3 lights in an aquaticlife hybrid. I think you will get better results than with LED alone and it will be easier and cheaper than going all LED. If you are set on going all LED I would get 3 180w lights. Either 3 XR30s, 3 Hydra 64s, or 3 AP9x. My preference being the AP9x because I love the kessil shimmer and ease of control.

The thing is after I look at the price of 3 180watt lights the 3 90watts in the hybrid get alot more appealing and the hybrid may still out perform the stand alone solution in terms of coverage and spectrum. This is why I currently run a hybrid. It just gets harder and harder to justify all LED if looking for equivalent results.

Yeah thank you for the writeup. It looks like 3 AP9x is like almost 3k? 6 A360X is 3.5k, and 3 A360X with a 61" fixture is about 2.3k. I'd have to account for few years of heat, electricity and bulb changes to catch up to the AP9X cost it looks like.

Main reason I didn't want it is because there's no 72" bulbs and I also can't drill into the wall/ceiling, but it looks like aquatic life has legs. I'll see if those will fit on my setup. Thanks!

Eagle_Steve · Feb 11, 2021

This is a 6x2x2 tank. It did great with 3x a360x lights and a T5 hybrid fixture. I now have 6 on the tank along with the hybrid fixture, as I picked up a few used ones for a good deal on a tank teardown.

SPS grew with no issues before the T5s, but exploded when T5s were added. Not sure if the additional 3 lights will do anything else for growth yet, as I just added the other 3 with some make shift brackets lol. The T5s already do a lot in themselves, but when they were off, there was some shadowing due to the height of the fixture (8” off the water) and the center braces blocking light with only 3 of them up there. With 6 of them, there are only shadows under the pass throughs and caves in the rocks. I will say, they do not compare to the growth form my previous 3x 250w MH with a 4 bulb T5 diy fixture I made, but I can get the kessils to look darn close the MH look.

Evieeeeee · Feb 11, 2021

Eagle_Steve said:
This is a 6x2x2 tank. It did great with 3x a360x lights and a T5 hybrid fixture. I now have 6 on the tank along with the hybrid fixture, as I picked up a few used ones for a good deal on a tank teardown.

SPS grew with no issues before the T5s, but exploded when T5s were added. Not sure if the additional 3 lights will do anything else for growth yet, as I just added the other 3 with some make shift brackets lol. The T5s already do a lot in themselves, but when they were off, there was some shadowing due to the height of the fixture (8” off the water) and the center braces blocking light with only 3 of them up there. With 6 of them, there are only shadows under the pass throughs and caves in the rocks. I will say, they do not compare to the growth form my previous 3x 250w MH with a 4 bulb T5 diy fixture I made, but I can get the kessils to look darn close the MH look.

Hey thank you for the input. Also, beautiful tank! How old is it?