Supplemental lighting help please

[Dj City]

I posted in the general forum but got no help.

I currently have a Reefbreeders Photon 50 V2+ LED over my reef tank. I also have a single T5 fixture mounted to the Photon on the back side and a Reefbreeders HI Octane UV/Violet lumenbar mounted to the Photon on the front.

My tank is 180 gallons.
Tank is 5ft (60 inches) long x 2ft (24 inches) wide x 30 inches deep.
I have a canopy on the tank that limits how high I can mount lights. My Photon sits at 10 inches above the water surface and that's the highest I can get due to the canopy.

Reef is SPS dominate.
Growth has been good but I know I can do better for growth and coloration.

I just purchased 4 Kessil A360X's that will be mounted 8 inches above the water surface and I can neatly mount whatever supplement light I want.

I'm thinking I can do better than the single T5 fixture and the violet/uv lumenbar that I have now.

I'm thinking of replacing the supplement lights with Reefbrite actinic strip led's.
I don't know if I should get two of the Lumilite Pros or two of the XHO's.
I don't even know if I will NEED supplemental lighting.

I don't want tooooooo much light but I want to have more than enough for now and in the future.
BRS, you have done tests on all these lights. I am hopeful you guys can help me out based on my 5' long x 24" wide x 30" deep tank.
Advice is very welcome.

 

[dragon99]

Your tank is larger than the one they tested on, but this should get you pretty close. I think with you might want the extra light from a couple of XHO bars or Orphek's since you are dealing with a 30" deep tank.

 

[Bulk Reef Supply]

The advice from @dragon99 is good. Your tank is deeper than our test tanks, so you'll need a little extra punch if you want to keep SPS from top to bottom. Four A360X fixtures will work out really well on this tank if your goal was a mixed reef. For an SPS dominant goal, I would suggest some supplemental lighting.

T5's have historically been our favorite (usually four T5 bulbs with the A360X's), but LED strips are becoming more and more popular. We've used the ReefBrite strips more often than the other strip options out there, so if you asked most of the BRS staff what we'd use, it would be the XHO's. Actually, ReefBrite recently released their own hybrid kit system that utilizes these XHO strips. As far as LED supplemental lighting goes, these kits are at the top of our list. They come in up to 48" length, which will be fine for your 60" long tank once you center the fixture over it.

 

[Dj City]

So to be clear,

Two XHO'S will be better for my reef than two Lumilite's?

The 4 Kessils will be 8" off the water surface and will be spaced every 12 inches.

I just want to make sure I understand which is the best option.
I don't want to break the bank and I don't want too mitch light.

I am looking for the right amount of light.

 

[Staghorn]

The advice from @dragon99 is good. Your tank is deeper than our test tanks, so you'll need a little extra punch if you want to keep SPS from top to bottom. Four A360X fixtures will work out really well on this tank if your goal was a mixed reef. For an SPS dominant goal, I would suggest some supplemental lighting.

T5's have historically been our favorite (usually four T5 bulbs with the A360X's), but LED strips are becoming more and more popular. We've used the ReefBrite strips more often than the other strip options out there, so if you asked most of the BRS staff what we'd use, it would be the XHO's. Actually, ReefBrite recently released their own hybrid kit system that utilizes these XHO strips. As far as LED supplemental lighting goes, these kits are at the top of our list. They come in up to 48" length, which will be fine for your 60" long tank once you center the fixture over it.

Has there been an update to Ryan’s tank regarding the reef right xho/ kessil a360x combo? Would really like to know how that’s working.

 

[Bulk Reef Supply]

So to be clear,

Two XHO'S will be better for my reef than two Lumilite's?

The 4 Kessils will be 8" off the water surface and will be spaced every 12 inches.

I just want to make sure I understand which is the best option.
I don't want to break the bank and I don't want too mitch light.

I am looking for the right amount of light.

Ultimately, the lumilites and XHO's have performed very similarly for us. For example, here is the side by side data from our two BRStv Investigates videos. Keep in mind that we were running four of the LumiLite Pro's vs five of the XHO's, which explains the slightly higher par on the XHO data.

I've also included data from our standard LumiLite test (non-pro version). These lights were mounted just 2" above the water surface (the mounting legs are very short), so par will absolutely be negatively impacted if you mount them higher.

 

[Dj City]

Thank you for your help and information. This is what I needed to know for the most part.

One thing i'm not quite clear on though.
The 5 XHO's have a slightly higher par measurement due to using 5 of them vs the 4 Lumilite pro's.
How does the par stack up 1 vs 1? Is there a measurable difference? Is there a measurable difference in penetration and spread?

 

[Bulk Reef Supply]

Thank you for your help and information. This is what I needed to know for the most part.

One thing i'm not quite clear on though.
The 5 XHO's have a slightly higher par measurement due to using 5 of them vs the 4 Lumilite pro's.
How does the par stack up 1 vs 1? Is there a measurable difference? Is there a measurable difference in penetration and spread?

We have not tested them one for one in a controlled environment, but given all of the data we do have, I would expect them to perform rather similarly.

 

[Dj City]

I need a little help or maybe an idea or two.

So I mounted the 4 kessils to the top of the canopy using the hooks and triangles. This puts the lights 8 inches above the water surface.

How can I get them to be straight and even pointed straight down?
They all are at the same height but getting them to all point straight down is proving to be a problem.

Oh...
I got the Reefbrite Lumilite Pros actinic blue.
Those are easy for me to mount.