Lighting advice - Radions

[Amybolton2]

Have a Waterbox 125.5 on the way but have no idea the amount of lights I should get.

dimensions:
48” X 25” X 16”

the Waterbox website shows them using 2 XR15’s.. im curious if this will be enough or should I go for 3-4 XR15’s or even 2 XR30’s.. or is that over kill

thank you!

 

[Alex Cataldo]

If your goal is a full blown SPS tank, then 4 XR15s will be sufficient. But in a mixed reef or softie/LPS tank you probably only need 2 XR15s. Getting 4 smaller lights will result in much better coverage than 2 larger lights.

 

[apb03]

There are a couple of ways you can approach it. If you know that you are not going SPS, then stick with XR15s and add as needed. If you do know that SPS is your goal, you can go straight to XR30s.

 

[mfinn]

If this were me, I would go with a pair of XR30 gen 6.
The spread on 2 XR30's will be plenty until the tank fills with coral growth and you have to deal with shadowing. Softues, LPS or SPS.
Then the best thing to add would be a pair of T5's, but that would be down the line somewhere.

 

[jda]

What are you going to keep? Are you sure that small footprint LEDs are even what you need or want? Radions are not the best option for many tanks. What are you goals and desires and stuff?

 

[minus9]

Knowing what your goals are (what corals you want to keep) will help. You could use a few Quanta Pro bars and be done, maybe throw in a Kessil or two for shimmer/contrast and have great results. If you like the Radion type fixture, then go for Reefi's.

 

[Reefer911]

I have a 47” Peninsula and I went with two XR15s only because my LFS had two at the time. I ended up placing a Kessil A360x between the two Radions, as I had it laying around. I’m happy with that decision as the Kessil shimmer is great and it’s especially cool after lights out during the moon phase. I run a moon phase only on the Kessil and I like that I have a single light providing moon light as opposed to two lights.