Fish only lighting

hondacbr600rr

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I am moving all my coral from my 60”x24”x24” -150 gallon tank into my 8’ 310 gallon tank, and the 150 will become fish only. I planned to take the XR30’s from the 150 and use on the new tank, so I’m in the market for a lighting solution that isn’t overkill for fish only in the 150. Any suggestions?
 

oreo54

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I am moving all my coral from my 60”x24”x24” -150 gallon tank into my 8’ 310 gallon tank, and the 150 will become fish only. I planned to take the XR30’s from the 150 and use on the new tank, so I’m in the market for a lighting solution that isn’t overkill for fish only in the 150. Any suggestions?
For fun I took some liberty on parameters (self explanatory in the text) and let AI come up with some suggestions.
Not saying they are the best or even that good but it was interesting.
An example ( oddly a general recommendation for fish only is a k temp between 6500-10000k ):
  • This light is controlled with a the Bluetooth in your Android or iOS (Apple) device (phone or tablet)
  • 59 watts
  • 25,000K color temp
  • At 3": PAR=390, LUX=17,120. At 12": PAR=102, LUX=4270. 2550 lumens.
  • IP67 Waterproof certified
  • Fluval part# 14517


At the bottom add to the "ask anything" box if you want.

As long as it has sufficient "not blue" leds and dim-able you should be fine.
RGB freshwater arrays or RGBW are pretty colorful.
Shooting for like 1w/gallon (and dim-able) will make it so you can either 1) adjust color if available and 2) make sure it isn't visually too dark. There is the need for lower power so as to not encourage unwanted photosynthetic organisms.

Think of it this way.. You know those Chinese black box type lights. Most run the blue channel the hardest (for the sake of argument say @100%) but the "not blue" channel at like 15% .
For what you want you just run it the exact opposite. 2 or 3 Viparspectras should work. Hung high and probably quite reduced in power. Nothing fancy in the programming department. I don't even believe they ramp up but I'm not positive on that.
You change your mind just "reverse" the color percents.
Btw there total output is "105 +/- 3%". The blue being 1/2 and the "not blue" roughly the other half of 110-ish

https://www.ebay.com/itm/176794269127?_trkparms=itmf%3D1%26aid%3D1110006%26rkt%3D12%26pid%3D101875%26mech%3D1%26algv%3DSimVIDwebV4WithContextualRankerV42_18SignInOut%26pmt%3D1%26amclksrc%3DITM%26sd%3D305318944155%26sid%3DAQALAAAAEBeOJJqE1xxg0QWe%2FHy8wOI%3D%26itm%3D176794269127%26noa%3D0%26plcampt%3D0%3A158844562017%26algo%3DHOMESPLICE.SIM%26brand%3DViparSpectra%26asc%3D309988,309866%26ao%3D1%26rk%3D4%26mehot%3Dnone%26lsid%3D0%26meid%3Da0cc058e5d4f495292d2941d50b35de8%26pg%3D2332490&_trksid=p2332490.c101875.m1851&itmprp=cksum%3A176794269127a0cc058e5d4f495292d2941d50b35de8%7Cenc%3AAQALAAABIPublsLHMrwa19e7ruMkC3MA1bD5ySgze%252B0f4QBr6mVMH3bgGFjLCZSScvtNoNg5mDjAm05yApoh7QUriUcQgG80i6fugjM7rE1yfoYH2%252Bdg8jxsVmpeB8aaI7TWXoMRmUFpOz2ZiCuaNshp%252BSdSizbaxD9BbtSpjjE5zEHxqY94kuVEgWd5ecjaBLPFJg1B%252BznqqEQbZukYZmnv7tEJ8TfVBWqUsmly5MOhNFl1G%252BLInDwRobix4KJWN9rqbkfaTWzVxgToQnvBti0Q7WgIbv1n--vPEyGtgcKpTuV0K56VejzALsNL%252BhoW%252FlkTtDU4oJAFVfZOv8gl8P%252FxgE%252F8X8zI%252FJZVHkOhl6rzWW4xDld4JoiMxU1PB4pjYx%252BfEyPcRg%253D%253D%7Campid%3APL_CLK%7Cclp%3A2332490&itmmeta=01KX7K5N5PJPJ6DGST74WGFBCK
Channel Two
Green(520nm), Red(660nm), Neutral White(6500K)
Channel one
Violet(420nm), Royal Blue(450nm), Blue(470nm)
Avg. Power Draw
105W±3%
Max Coverage at 12" height
30x24"
Core Coverage at 12" height
24x24"
One cautionary note, most 6500k leds will show water organics well. i.e yellow in the water because they are rich in yellow/green photons.


Your bigger decision really is what you want it to do or how you want to mount it. And maybe cost.
To avoid the yellow issue RGB arrays work well. Some Chihiros are listed WRGB but have no white leds.
Ignore the Nova. Typical reef light and ignore the turn off the red/green since technically the r/g is actually what you want.

Screenshot 2026-07-10 221105.png
 

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