I’m using a pair the the ATI Blue Plus bulbs to augment my new Icecap 10K HQIs. they look bright sky blue. The 10Ks have a big spike at the 420nm blue spectrum and the Blue Plus’s have a bump at about 455-460 nm. perfect for chlorophyl A and B.
Acording to SanJays spectrum charts of MH bulbs, most 6500K-10,000K MH lamps have a big blue spike at 420 nm. but whe we move up to a 14,000K-20,000K lamp, the blue curve shifts to the right and the major blue spike is at 452 nm.
so i figure when using a 10K mh lamp i will augment with a 450 nm blue T5. and if i was using a higher kelvin MH lamp like 14K or above, i would augment with a true 420 nm actinic T5 or VHO. that way the optimal spectrum for both chlorophyl types, A and B are well fed with light.
I think there is something amiss on Sanjays new chart format. they seem to be skewed to the right about 30-40 nm, from his old charts. must be a graphics thing. I can ask him about that saturday at the frag swap. but you get the idea.
Actually I’m a history major and that was quite intense and a little confusing. So I am using all t5s no MH… But the aquablues are 14k, right? And if I were to use 3 aqua blues… The blue spectrum is not as well covered or is? Because if it isn’t I would need to stick with 3 actinics and not add a 10k. But if the blue is well covered by the aquablue+s I would actually need to add a 10k because the clorphyll a would not be satisfied? I’m sorry I am trying my best to understand but my brain is stuck in 1944 right now…
I should also mention some of my preferences. I like a slightly bluer tank because of the flourscents of the corals. And also, I really would like to try some of the deep water montiporas (I think its montis, maybe they were acros) torches, frog spawn, and hammers. I would love to make their colors pop out as much as possible. So I hope this may narrow down the discussion a bit. For right now I believe I just want to do half and half, aquablue+ and actinics, just to stay on the safe side and keep my corals alive. Fortunately, my 29gal is running very well and everyone is happy, so I can take my time with the 75gallon, but I do not want to mess up the lighting on this tank because I’m already spending lots of dough to get it up.
Thanks for all the info everyone! I decided to go with the 3 and 3, just to see how it looks… if I don’t like it, I will buy another of the color I need.
