Lighting - XR15FW as Primary Light

[TL1]

Knowing I would eventually move to a reef tank, I bought a Reefer 350, which for the past two years has been set up as a high-tech planted tank.

It's finally time to make the move to saltwater. I'm currently in the planning phase and have one yet unanswered question...

I have three EcoTech XR15FW's on my current setup. I want to know what limitations these lights would have as primary lighting on a reef tank.

Where is the line here (fish only, soft corals, LPS, SPS)?

With the long term goal of an SPS dominant tank, I will eventually change the lighting out, but how far could I get as is?

I did call EcoTech and they said I cold grow just about anything based on PAR alone and that spectrum would only be an aesthetic preference, which doesn't seem right.

Any input is appreciated.

 

[Ron Reefman]

There are a lot of things to consider here. Depth of your tank, PAR output from your fixtures, how high in the tank the corals will be...

The key is knowing the PAR of your fixtures at certain depths. Having a PAR meter (or access to one) would be a big help as you move forward.

 

[Dilan Patel]

im not sure of the spectrum on the freshwater lighting. 10k is probably as white of a light you would like to go for corals

 

[TL1]

The key is knowing the PAR of your fixtures at certain depths. Having a PAR meter (or access to one) would be a big help as you move forward.

So assuming PAR requirements are met, what influence would spectrum have?

 

[TL1]

im not sure of the spectrum on the freshwater lighting. 10k is probably as white of a light you would like to go for corals

I can adjust up to 20k, but the PAR would drop significantly.

XR15FW:

VS.

XR15:

 

[SPR1968]

These are the settings I use on my tanks, 1 has 4 Hyrda HD 26’s and the first picture is the Red sea reef spec settings they recommend which I use on my S650

The second picture shows the settings on my new big tank which has 4 XR30 G4 Pros and you can see the settings there as well if that helps.

Both tanks go ‘blue’ though from 7pm because I prefer that.

 

[TL1]

These are the settings I use on my tanks...

Thanks for the input. Comparing the specturms, the biggest concern I see is that the XR15FW has almost zero UV light., what impact that may have needs more research from my end.

What approach do you think I could use to prolong the spend for new lights?

 

[Dilan Patel]

Honestly I don't believe the freshwater light would give enough par for corals. You can buy some black boxes which would be taylored towards SW reef tanks and keep basically anything.

 

[pgravis]

I run a couple of the ecotech freshwater lights, one on a planted vivarium and one for mangroves. These lights are plenty strong to grow anything, but the very warm, white spectrum will probably brown out any coral you have. Higher kelvin (20k, ab+) is going to make your coral look better, more colorful. I would say you could start with some softies, but if your goal is sps, I would switch sooner. The fw lights would be good for refugiums, they sell fairly quick on the classifieds here.

 

[TL1]

I run a couple of the ecotech freshwater lights...

Thanks, I was hoping someone would have experience with them... all I could find is in regards to their use in refugiums. I plan to start with them. It will probably be a trial and error deal, starting with one or two softies and monitoring.

 

[Ron Reefman]

Thanks for the input. Comparing the specturms, the biggest concern I see is that the XR15FW has almost zero UV light., what impact that may have needs more research from my end.

What approach do you think I could use to prolong the spend for new lights?

IMHO UV isn't very important to corals. It's very similar to red and orange spectrum which do not penetrate very deep in saltwater. (see chart)

 

[TL1]

IMHO UV isn't very important to corals...

Thanks for this... very insightful.