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T5ho bulb mix
- Thread starter ThatGuy
- Start date
i've seen alot of people putting less actinic, and going more in the direction of combining more blue plus's with two whites, or one whits and one purple and getting the higher k look while giving the corals more usable light. i have no "actinic" bulbs right now and am happy with the look, and the tank does look brighter
Coralife
I thought atinic's produced more usable light than whites.
from what i understand, and i'm by no means an expert. is that actinic lights are much more for us than for the corals, while the extreme blue bulbs are still in the spectrum that is beneficial to the photosynthetic properties of our corals, and the whites are crucial in their own right and round out the spectrum. i use 2 blue plus, one 10k white and one purple plus in my four bulb fixture. if i could add 2 more i would do one special blue and an additional white. and these are the ati colors, cause thats the brand i have used for a long time and am very happy with.
Coralife bulbs are pretty worthless. The PAR is extremely low. When you replace your bulbs it is probably best to stick with ATI. There are some other random bulbs that have good PAR, but ATI makes such a good range of bulb colors now, if you don't know a whole lot about T5 bulbs, you can't go wrong with any ATI combo you chose.
And the "actinics have less PAR" thing doesn't hold true for T5s. That was true for T8s, VHOs, and PCs, but not so with T5s. It is actually one of the big advantages of T5s. For example, the ATI Blue Plus (solid bright blue color to the eye) has more PAR than the Current 10k! When you get new bulbs, you should have at least 3 ATI Blue Plus bulbs and then sprinkle in an ATI AquaBlue Special, ATI Coral Plus, ATI Purple Plus, etc. to get a color combo you like.
My combo for example is 3 Blue Plus, 2 AquaBlue Special, and 1 Coral Plus in a Current Nova Extreme Pro fixture (middle of the road fixture) which gives about a 14k look with great PAR. I increased my PAR by 25% when I replaced the stock bulbs with the ATI bulbs! That's like adding another 1.5 bulbs without paying the electric for them.
Here is a good site for more T5 info:
http://home.comcast.net/~stevelarsen00/site/?/page/Lamps_and_lamp_combinations/
And the "actinics have less PAR" thing doesn't hold true for T5s. That was true for T8s, VHOs, and PCs, but not so with T5s. It is actually one of the big advantages of T5s. For example, the ATI Blue Plus (solid bright blue color to the eye) has more PAR than the Current 10k! When you get new bulbs, you should have at least 3 ATI Blue Plus bulbs and then sprinkle in an ATI AquaBlue Special, ATI Coral Plus, ATI Purple Plus, etc. to get a color combo you like.
My combo for example is 3 Blue Plus, 2 AquaBlue Special, and 1 Coral Plus in a Current Nova Extreme Pro fixture (middle of the road fixture) which gives about a 14k look with great PAR. I increased my PAR by 25% when I replaced the stock bulbs with the ATI bulbs! That's like adding another 1.5 bulbs without paying the electric for them.
Here is a good site for more T5 info:
http://home.comcast.net/~stevelarsen00/site/?/page/Lamps_and_lamp_combinations/
There is also a thread on reef central kind of run by the guy who put up this info. I think it's called the T5 info thread. It's long very very very long. But there is a ton of good info there as well.
What kind of corals do you have and plan on keeping in the future?
I definatly plan on going with ATI's this time around. The only reason I went with the Coralife is its the only brand my LFS carried at the time(fixture didn't come with bulbs) I set up the fixture. When it comes to ATI's is there Aquablue special thier version of the white and the Coral plus the purple?
I know of this thread and I just couldn't bring myself to read it
. LOLRight now I mainly have LPS, Zoa's, and a few softies. But I would love to have 2-3 SPS at the top but have failed thus far.
They just sit there without growth. I have a green monti I got off of tanksnstuff that is still very alive and a nice green but has 0 growth.
You are going to need more than two 10k's and 4 actinic to grow SPS. When I was using my 6 bulb T-5 fixture I was running 2 Giesmann Pure Actinic, 2 ATI Blue Plus, 1 ATI Aquablue Special, 1 Purple Plus.
Here is the ATI run down:
Purple Plus - similar to Fiji Pink, makes red, orange and yellow really pop.
Blue Plus - Very Blue (460nm)
Aquablue Special - more of a 12k, not 10k.
Coral Plus - 14k, I think if you took the three bulbs above and made one bulb out of them you would get the Coral Plus.
ATI does not make an actinic bulb. The Blue+ is a 460nm bulb so it is brighter than a regular 420nm Actinic. I tried replacing my actinic with Blue+ bulbs for dawn/dusk but it made the tank look like windex(way too blue for me).
I've seen people run 5 Blue plus and one Purple plus. It depends on the look you want for the tank, and is a matter of personal preference.
With the Coral Plus now available, when I use my 6 bulb fixture again for a frag tank, I'm going to use 4 Blue+ and 2 Coral+.
Before I got the new bulbs I had 2 actinic, 1 Blue+, 1 Aquablue Special, Now I'm running 2 Actinic and 2 Coral+ and 2 14k MH's. I'm loving it, and so are the corals!
Here is the ATI run down:
Purple Plus - similar to Fiji Pink, makes red, orange and yellow really pop.
Blue Plus - Very Blue (460nm)
Aquablue Special - more of a 12k, not 10k.
Coral Plus - 14k, I think if you took the three bulbs above and made one bulb out of them you would get the Coral Plus.
ATI does not make an actinic bulb. The Blue+ is a 460nm bulb so it is brighter than a regular 420nm Actinic. I tried replacing my actinic with Blue+ bulbs for dawn/dusk but it made the tank look like windex(way too blue for me).
I've seen people run 5 Blue plus and one Purple plus. It depends on the look you want for the tank, and is a matter of personal preference.
With the Coral Plus now available, when I use my 6 bulb fixture again for a frag tank, I'm going to use 4 Blue+ and 2 Coral+.
Before I got the new bulbs I had 2 actinic, 1 Blue+, 1 Aquablue Special, Now I'm running 2 Actinic and 2 Coral+ and 2 14k MH's. I'm loving it, and so are the corals!
Here is my 2 cents from my experience:
ATI Blue Plus: Solid blue bulb as said previously with very good PAR
ATI Aquablue Special: white bulb with a 12k look as said; again, great PAR
ATI Purple Plus: as said, like the fiji purple, very purplish, decent PAR
ATI Coral Plus: Suppose to be 30% Blue Plus, 60% AB Special, and 10% purple plus. Seems about right. Pretty good mix in one bulb
GE 6500k: Great par, 10k look, but I think it gives stuff a flat look esp in a 6 bulb fixture (what I have). I would not use this in a 4 bulb fixture
Geissman Midday: Similar color to the eye as the GE65k, but in my experience doesn't give that flat, washed out look. Still probably wouldn't use it in a 4 bulb fixture.
If I were you, I would go with 2 Blue Plus, 1 Aquablue Special, 1 Coral Plus. You will get great colors, PAR, and won't need any actinics.
ATI Blue Plus: Solid blue bulb as said previously with very good PAR
ATI Aquablue Special: white bulb with a 12k look as said; again, great PAR
ATI Purple Plus: as said, like the fiji purple, very purplish, decent PAR
ATI Coral Plus: Suppose to be 30% Blue Plus, 60% AB Special, and 10% purple plus. Seems about right. Pretty good mix in one bulb
GE 6500k: Great par, 10k look, but I think it gives stuff a flat look esp in a 6 bulb fixture (what I have). I would not use this in a 4 bulb fixture
Geissman Midday: Similar color to the eye as the GE65k, but in my experience doesn't give that flat, washed out look. Still probably wouldn't use it in a 4 bulb fixture.
If I were you, I would go with 2 Blue Plus, 1 Aquablue Special, 1 Coral Plus. You will get great colors, PAR, and won't need any actinics.
Its a 6 bulb system. So I would probably do another Blue Plus, and Aquablue Special.
i think you'll be happy with that. i think i've seen that exact combo... and your tank will look much brighter with the ati bulbs, i'm about 2 months away from having to replace mine.
