Light spread for 300g tank.

[Bpb]

im just thinking logically here....... if i have a tank that is 30 inches deep and 96 inches long. and 1 radion xr30 gen 5 pro has 24 - 32 inches of spread..... as per BRS 8 inches off the water........ You can fill up that whole tank from front to back and you can fill up 90 inches of light from side to side. BRS even stated that the xr30 should be placed at "least" 22 inches away from each other to prevent hotspots and have an even par. so if im not mistaken and my math is correct 3 XR30 g3n 5 pros should suffice for a mixed reef tank. I am not planning of filling the whole back wall with rock and corals. im not planning to put rock against the back wall or the side walls. the rock and coral is gonna be centered in the tank with room behind the rocks for fish to swim and fish in front and side as well. at least till that starts getting filled up or i decide to go full SPS from wall to wall then at that point i would get more lights.

Your analysis seems mostly sound. Just remember when someone personally keeps a wall to wall acro tank advises you, it’s generally from their perspective. I’m guilty of that occasionally myself. If you are aiming to keep a normal mixed tank with a handful of sps carefully placed but a lot of emphasis put on polyps and euphyllia or acans, then minimal lighting is fine. You really only need 100-150 par or so for those type things to absolutely thrive. Your sps can just go point plank under the panels at the high points.

 

[oreo54]

Soo basically treating the 300gal as a approx 200gal (just a guess) growth zone.
This thread my help.
Tank is
71" wide
25.6" width (deep in your terms)
23.6" high (deep)
Sorry semantics is an issue sometimes..

PAR measurements in that footprint..

Large Build - AJ's Acro Adventure [RSR 750XXL]

Few days in and loving the roller mat. Seems like a may have installed it about 1.5-2" too high which explains the slight trickling sound. However, might be a benefit as from my reading they tend to gunk up quickly at first due to all the solids they are pulling out. The increased head pressure...

www.reef2reef.com

note: PAR will be slightly different due to the glass reflective surfaces farther away than that tank.

also keep in mind light height. You may want to sacrifice some PAR to give more light to the fish in the upper zones by raising it slightly.
Just a guess..

 

[jda]

Again, pay attention to what people have done that have solved this problem and have thriving tanks. You will not see any of them using a single xr30 over a 24 or 32 inch area for most applications. Look to these hobbyists as guides. Do not depend on a manufacturer or retailer's advice so much. When you see T5s or more units added, this was because they tried to spread too much and now have shadowing or output issues.

What they seem to want to do is to suck you into the product. Single xr30 is fine when you just have frags and no shadows, but then stuff grows and your lights are significantly overmatched. What do most people do? Buy more units. However, if they knew that they might need 6x or 8x xr30s from the get-go, then people might choose differently. This is why you do not listen to their pie in the sky estimates. Also remember that PAR is not everything and that coverage and shadowing are real problems too with puck lights.

I still have not really heard what you plan to do, so giving specific advice is hard. Mixed does not really say much. The lights from the video in post #12 is still a good start since that is a pretty typical mixed reef.

Cruise to the large tank section and browse around. Again, look at established, thriving tanks, not fresh builds. They will give you a good idea of what to expect long term.

 

[Meista_Flya]

I think you would need the most lights for something like this

What I'm actually thinking the way I want to go is something more along the lines of this

Something simple clean not cluttered

 

[ca1ore]

I’ve no hands on with Gen5, opting to continue to use my perfectly functional Gen4, but start with a single 30 per tank opening and see where you end up. Mostly the recommended number of fixtures is just a starting point. Also consider putting the lights slightly behind the midline of the tank. Most don’t cram corals right up to the front panel anyhow. Ive done this on my 450 and it works really well.

 

[Aardvark1134]

I can't think of really any situation where the xr30 is better than 2 xr15s...but I can think of lots of times that 2x XR15s is better than one xr30.

 

[oreo54]

Deal of the day.. for whatever that is worth..Fairly equiv to the Radions..
160/180 W max lights.
Uses reflectors instead of lenses.. there are pros and cons..

At that price you could get 6 at about the same cost as a full set of 3 radions (controller, arms..). Off the cuff guess..
$2610 1 master 5 slaves 6 arms..1080W of mostly CREE leds.
AND no cracked lenses..

Catch I suppose is they are probably discontinued as they go more to hybrids..
Manf stated foot print 23x31 but as noted earlier it is optimistic..