Ok thank you I always like to find as much info as possible before diving into something but haven’t found too much on this topic. I’ve done things twice or 3 times too many times lol
I’m quite handy I have thought about building one the light spill bothers me a little it’s more my girl that is the complainer.
I do wonder what the neighbors think with the whole house glowing blue. 
. I wouldn’t be in the predicament if I just got some xr30s instead of 15 I’d have plenty of room to adjust with shades
Usually "a lot" of light spill indicates your lights are mounted a bit too high.
My lights are 7 inches from the water using the radion brackets and my short side is 19. When my lights kick on I’ll add a pic. It’s a 4 foot tank running 4 radions and 2 12 in blades. The highest par I get in one spot is 400 but most is running between 240 to 365 just checked par again yesterday.
As you are aware, that's a lot of lighting!
The lights can’t be evenly placed either the overflow box screws me I’ve been thinking of getting a mounting bar to get past the uneven distance
I am getting shades for the edge the left and right which I think will cut down. if I’m down to 3 xr15 and blades I’m barely getting 260 to 275 in the higher spots the highest I can get is about 290 in the front middle near the glass. Being sps dominant mixed I will go with the 30s from now on I’d rather dial down then have to run at 100 just to get levels I need. One of those bought with doing research but not enough in depth. I’m still trying to fix the newbie mistakes I’m about 13 months into saltwater did freshwater for 20 years before though. I might save for 30s and sell off the 15sAs you are aware, that's a lot of lighting!
The lights can’t be evenly placed either the overflow box screws me I’ve been thinking of getting a mounting bar to get past the uneven distance
Due to the outside units being too close to the edge, you will have to mount them much closer to the water in order to stop the light bill… Or rig some type of lightshade on the ends.
You've already got all these lights so this is just ideas… But really for this much light it would be more convenient to have just two XR 30s... or another larger solution.
Having them all mounted on a bar might help, but I'm not sure if it will get the edge units far enough in before you are basically on top of the inside units.
Any way you can scale back to just three lights? Ie. would it give you better placement options on the edges without too much compromise on total light? (In theory it seems like there should be plenty of room to drop light levels if you desired to do so.)
