Need advice on lighting

Hitherwood · Mar 12, 2020

Hi everyone,
I have a 3 foot tank with LPS/soft corals and have had an Ecotech marine radion xr30 pro over it for a while and everything is growing nicely. Now I'm noticing there is quite a bit of shading and want to change my lighting to get a more even spread. I was going to keep the xr30 in the middle and flank it with ai primes but now I'm thinking of selling the xr30 and getting 2 xr15 gen5's and space them out. The xr gen 5's look really good but just came out so there isn't much track record and to really confuse myself I also started looking at the kessil a360x's. The kessil's get great reviews so far and I've always admired the shimmer.
My ultimate goal is to have a mixed reef and wanted some advice from some of you experienced reefers.
Thank you so much in advance!!

Hemmdog · Mar 12, 2020

360x’s are amazing for lps. I would do that. If you want to do acros down the road then go ecotech.

rusty hannon · Mar 12, 2020

Hitherwood said:
Hi everyone,
I have a 3 foot tank with LPS/soft corals and have had an Ecotech marine radion xr30 pro over it for a while and everything is growing nicely. Now I'm noticing there is quite a bit of shading and want to change my lighting to get a more even spread. I was going to keep the xr30 in the middle and flank it with ai primes but now I'm thinking of selling the xr30 and getting 2 xr15 gen5's and space them out. The xr gen 5's look really good but just came out so there isn't much track record and to really confuse myself I also started looking at the kessil a360x's. The kessil's get great reviews so far and I've always admired the shimmer.
My ultimate goal is to have a mixed reef and wanted some advice from some of you experienced reefers.
Thank you so much in advance!!

I'm a true kessil fan and love their setup set it n go changes w the seasons upon setting and customer service is awesome you won't b disappointed .R

Hitherwood · Mar 12, 2020

Hemmdog said:
360x’s are amazing for lps. I would do that. If you want to do acros down the road then go ecotech.

Thank you for your reply Hemmdog!
So you think the ecotechs are a better long term investment huh? Considering interests change.

Hemmdog · Mar 12, 2020

Hitherwood said:
Thank you for your reply Hemmdog!
So you think the ecotechs are a better long term investment huh? Considering interests change.

If I were to do it again I think I would have done ecotech. The shimmer, spread, and color really is exceptional on the 360X’s, but the par is something left to be desired.
The G5 radions look very promising, much better spread than g4.

If you have no plans of doing acros then 360x’s are perfect. They grow montis and all that. They grow acros too, but I had to add t5’s to get the growth I was looking for. I still think I could get more growth if I switched to G5’s. I’ve been toying around with the idea of going halides as well.

mtraylor · Mar 13, 2020

I would go with 2 xr15 g5's. Tjat is what i have on my 36inch frag tank. See my tank build. Im getting even par across aquarium
Basically 308 at the edges 350 majority of tank and 380 in cross over at 100% with pumps on

mtraylor · Mar 13, 2020

Thats measuring at 12inches deep at bottom of aquarium

Marc2952 · Mar 13, 2020

Say no more my friend, i am a kessil guy myself and so far love the a360x.https://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=ZrElOlcPm9E

Hitherwood · Mar 13, 2020

mtraylor said:
I would go with 2 xr15 g5's. Tjat is what i have on my 36inch frag tank. See my tank build. Im getting even par across aquarium
Basically 308 at the edges 350 majority of tank and 380 in cross over at 100% with pumps on

Have you had any issues with the möbius app?

mtraylor · Mar 13, 2020

Setting the light up was super easy. I have not found out how to set the moon light yet. Not sure if its app issue or user issue at this point. Saw some other people dont have the lunar section on their app either.

SyracuseMatt · Mar 14, 2020

What about a second XR30 of the same generation as your current light? There seem to be a bunch of used lights available as people rush to upgrade. I'm not sure about your tank depth/width but, if you were starting from scratch, maybe three gen 5 XR15s. While I think the abandonment of the puck style lighting is likely a big step for Ecotech, I would personally wait for them to iron the the light/app bugs for at least six months or so before buying gen 5s. People seem to have some complaints regarding the fan noise and application issues. I would not want to be a 'beta tester' on an established tank.

Matt

Hitherwood · Mar 14, 2020

SyracuseMatt said:
What about a second XR30 of the same generation as your current light? There seem to be a bunch of used lights available as people rush to upgrade. I'm not sure about your tank depth/width but, if you were starting from scratch, maybe three gen 5 XR15s. While I think the abandonment of the puck style lighting is likely a big step for Ecotech, I would personally wait for them to iron the the light/app bugs for at least six months or so before buying gen 5s. People seem to have some complaints regarding the fan noise and application issues. I would not want to be a 'beta tester' on an established tank.

Matt

That makes a lot of sense. I think I will wait a little longer and see how things pan out with the new radions. Thank you!

mtraylor · Mar 15, 2020

Well it looks like I figured out the moonlight. Even though its disabled. I still had to turn intensity off from 100 to 0 on the time the light wasn't on to turn it off. Issue resolved with moon light.