So after this meeting I’ve decided I want to give my pets the best environment possible and give a better look to the over all tank. I have a current 6bulb t5 system bran spanking new. But it has all the original bulbs and I find it to have a very white look to it instead of the nice blue hue. Now I dont know what type of blue bulb I have but i have three of them and three whites. Honestly I never knew you had an option to change the types of bulbs. I use to just wait till I needed to re place a bulb and then I’d fine the exact same one. They are set up blue blue white white blue white. Now everyone please tell me what bulbs have worked for you and in YOUR opinion what would work best
Take a look into these two bulbs:
ATI AquaBlue Special
ATI Blue Plus
I swear by the two for T5 lighting.
Currently on my 120 I have:
ATI Blue Plus
ATI Blue Plus
ATI AquaBlue Special
ATI Blue Plus
ATI AquaBlue Special
ATI AquaBlue Special
ATI Blue Plus
ATI Blue Plus
The AquaBlue Special is a white bulb, but not a yellow one. It has a slight blue tint to it and is very far from a yellow incandescent bulb look some 10K T5 bulbs will give you.
The ATI Blue Plus pretty much perfectly matches a Giesemann Pure Actinic + in my opinion, but I believe at a cheaper price. If I need a blue bulb and can’t get an ATI I use Giesemann.
I have an LED strip on the ground in front of the tank I plan to add where the *** are above. This way I can have a more gradual sun rise and sun set. It contains ~2.5W Cree XPE LED at both Royal Blue(450nm) and White(7000K). There are some corals that just won’t color up right under LEDs and some say growth rates are not as great on very large SPS colonies. Using the combination I hope to get the both of best worlds. Eventually I will likely add another LED strip near the front replacing one-two of the T5 bulbs.
NOTE, most LFS don’t carry these in stock, but any good LFS can order them for you. If you don’t have a spare bulb now order some soon. Most good ballast will just shut off on you if a single bulb dies. Meaning if a bulb dies and you have to wait a week for a shipment half 1/3 of your lights could be off for a week.
I’m running all ATI’s… blue+, actinic,blue+,aquabluespecial, blue+,blue+… I love my “viewing” color cast, but i’m not sure if i have the “perfect” combo, but stuffs growing good. frags on my rack, are lit with two blue plus’s right over them, and grow like crazy.
Jon, doesnt Frazer zoo use all blue +'s??, if you dont know. take a peek next time you’re there. He had good color and growth the one time i saw it.
I have changed to LED’s but was running a 6 bulb T5HO before as was using 4 ATI Blue Plus 1 ATI AquaBlue Special and 1 UVL actinic white
cant get away from this anywhere^^^^^^^^
spam gone!
I see you guys are running ATI blue+ and actinic. But why is no one using the ATI Purple PLus? I was told at the lfs that the purple plus was the 420nm bulb… Please tell me that was correct because I just bought 2 of them to get the 420nm in my tank since I only had 1 bulb in my setup that did that.
here are the specturm graphs from ATI
From what I can see the Purple Plus has a Spike beween 430 - 440 and a peak around 450
and the Actinic has a peak right around 420 and a spike around 440
ATI Purple Plus
ATI Actinic
ATI Blue Plus
So the ati actinic is what I should have gone with? To supplement my mh bulbs which produce a 453nm
Honestly I donna the correct answer but I just bought one purple plus and one blue plus and in my opinion I love the color of my corals, my tank has a beautiful hue and everything looks very happy.
[quote=“saltcreep, post:3, topic:4624”]
I’m running all ATI’s… blue+, actinic,blue+,aquabluespecial, blue+,blue+… I love my “viewing” color cast, but i’m not sure if i have the “perfect” combo, but stuffs growing good. frags on my rack, are lit with two blue plus’s right over them, and grow like crazy.
Jon, doesnt Frazer zoo use all blue +'s??, if you dont know. take a peek next time you’re there. He had good color and growth the one time i saw it.[/quote]
I would treat this as gospel. John has AMAZING color, growth, and overall hue to his tank. If you doubt for even a second which bulbs to go with, swing by and check out his tank.
Thanks Craig :
: I do like the look, and i’m getting good results… I’m not sure if i have the “Perfect” bulb combo though. maybe more actinic? I’d hate to change anything when its doing good, but i’m always looking for some improvement.
besides Craig, i need to have good growth after letting you put your massive arm in my tank :
:
[quote=“saltcreep, post:11, topic:4624”]
besides Craig, i need to have good growth after letting you put your massive arm in my tank ::[/quote]
Crap John did you check to make sure everything is still there?? Craig has sticky fingers ::
[quote=“billrob71, post:12, topic:4624”]
[quote=“saltcreep, post:11, topic:4624”]
besides Craig, i need to have good growth after letting you put your massive arm in my tank ::[/quote]
Crap John did you check to make sure everything is still there?? Craig has sticky fingers ::[/quote]
:: everything is still there, but in several pieces! Craig was grabbing his group buy clam out, and i was talking to Lyn, i heard Craig say “Oh S@%T!” I looked over, and it was literally “raining” monti in my tank! >:::
You can’t even notice, and It needed to be trimmed back anyway, but its still fun to make him feel guilty lOl
lol like a bull in a china shop??
[quote=“dunk, post:14, topic:4624”]
lol like a bull in a china shop??[/quote]
funny, thats what he said “that’ll teach you to ever let a bull in your china shop”… man, i gotta stop teasing, i know he felt bad lOl
He’ll be OK and montis grow back with a vengeance, sounds like frags to me ::