Need Advice

[John D'Amico]

I ordered my IM 200G. 72"Lx30"Wx22"H
I currently have 2 XR15s.

What are some lighting recommendations for a mixed tank. Minimal SPS right now but I'd like to add some.

Do I swap out the 15s for 30's?
Add 1 15 and a Reefbrite VHO Quad?(Not enough par?)
Other options? Thoughts? The Reefbrite is currently on sale.

Could really use some different opinions.

Thanks all.

 

[exnisstech]

Nice tank dimensions. I love 30" depth vs 24"
I ran 6 noopsyche k7 III pros over my 72x24x24" 180g and things grew pretty well.

I liked them so well I moved them to my new tank which is 84x30x25"

 

[Biokabe]

You have a lot of options with that tank. None really cheap, unfortunately.

If I were starting from scratch, and had an unlimited budget, I'd probably go with 3 Kessil AP9X panels. Each has a 30 x 24 optimal spread, so the 30" gets you your tank width, and three of them gets you full tank coverage.

Alternately, you could do 3x XR30, or 5x XR15, though if I were going the XR15 route I'd probably include some supplemental lighting (either a hybrid T5 fixture, ReefBrite strips, or AI Blades) to get sufficient spread for the front and back of the tank - I think the XR15s would struggle to cover all 30" of your tank back-to-front.

 

[John D'Amico]

I was looking at 3 15s with the reefbrite hybrid. That's going to cost $2000 with the reefbrite on sale. Because I'd only be adding 1 x15. If I did 5 15s, I need to add 3 plus the reefbrite... Puts me at 3000. 3 kessils is only 2400 and I can sell the 2 xr15s

 

[John D'Amico]

Noops look very blue.

 

[John D'Amico]

How about 6 kessil a360 with a reefbrite hybrid duo?

 

[John D'Amico]

I want to do this once right. Money is always a concern but I'm willing to do what's necessary. Looking for all of the above... Par, spread, and pop.