Light options for a 180 bowfront

[Campy10]

What is the best option for a 180 bowfront, 3 Radion 30 or 4 Radion 15? They are both approximately the same price.

 

[Fragtory]

Which one gives you the best watts per dollar?

 

[mtraylor]

My advice with LED's is that I would try to stay close to the latest and greatest technology. You will get better spectrum usually as well as with spread and power consumption. That being said. Lighting should be decided on by what you are planning on putting in the aquarium. For example. SPS corals need specific lighting compared to say a FOWLR tank. You can save allot of money between the 2 setups. If you post what you plan on doing with the aquarium, you will get allot better help.

 

[tdileo]

I would go with 4 XR30s rather than 3. It’ll give you better spread and penetration. However if you want to go with just 3, I think it would be very beneficial to add on T5s to help even everything out.

 

[Campy10]

4 XR30s gets kid of expensive....

I'm currently keeping fish, anemone and some LPS. I would like a modular lighting system that would work for them and then I can expand on later should I decide to go with SPS. The XR30s have more intensity but for the same money I get 3 light sources versus the 4 light sources for the XR15s.

 

[vegamedic]

4 XR30s gets kid of expensive....

I'm currently keeping fish, anemone and some LPS. I would like a modular lighting system that would work for them and then I can expand on later should I decide to go with SPS. The XR30s have more intensity but for the same money I get 3 light sources versus the 4 light sources for the XR15s.

It's going to be expensive to properly light a 180 one way or the other, either in upfront LED purchases or in bulbs over time. An XR15 is also literally one half of an XR30 at more than half the price so that's not a great comparison. I assume this is a 6' 180?

 

[Campy10]

Yes, it’s 6’.