I just retrofitted a 72" fixture i had with 3 X Icecap 660 ballasts and 12 X 36" ATI bulbs. I wanted a cool blue look that would make all of my colors pop without the flourecent look of all actinic supplementation. After quite a bit of reading i went with the following array:
4 X Pro Color
4 X Aqua Blue
2 X Blue Plus
2 X Actinic
While the color isnt bad its not what i expected. I honestly did not see a huge difference between this array and my stock Current blue/white array which was a bit of a disappointment. I was considering replacing either 2 of the pro color or 2 of the aquablue with 2 blueplus.
I know this is a very subjective topic but im still interested in recommendations and any pics of T5 only arrays.
ATI Pro Color is, at least to my understanding, like the KZ Fiji Pink. In theory these bulbs are great when sprinkled in with 5 or more other bulbs at helping certain colors pop. I have never seen them being recommended by anyone as a significant amount of bulbs though. I would take two of them out.
What you replace them with is up to you, but you may even want to go with two more actinic to help the colors pop. You may end up with a blue looking tank over all, but there you start to get into personal choice.
To be honest I am still playing with what bulbs I like.
As a random tid bit, I swear I will post more details at some point, but I found the PAR on a ATI Blue Plus bulb that is over a YEAR old to be higher than bulbs several other bulbs where were only a couple of weeks old.
I thought going with the aquablues instead of a 10K bulb would give me a bluer look than it did. Maybe i will pop out two aquablues and two procolor and add two blueplus and two actinic?
When we were running t5’s I was really pleased with a combination of 2x10,000K, 2x420nm, 1x460nm, and 1x6,500K. That combo seemed to give me a fairly balanced color of light, but the two types of actinic bulbs seemed to make everything fluoresce quite nicely.
its not only the bulbs you pick but the placement as well. you can get different looks by moving the placement of bulbs usually by placing the bluer bulbs up front give the bluer look.
BTW there’s a T5 thread over on RC. Not sure if you’ve checked that out.
Here’s one post (and recommendation) for a 6-bulb fixture from there …
Quote:
Originally Posted by Misenplace101
Grim,
Okay...it's that time to replace my stock bulbs on a 6bulb NEP. I would like a setup that promotes growth along with the crisp color pop of the sps's.
Thank you
Front
ATI Blue Plus
UVL Actinic White
ATI Blue Plus
ATI or Giesemann Aquablue
ATI Blue Plus
ATI Blue Plus
I’m with Ted and Glenn - changing the order of the bulbs will make a huge difference in what the overall color looks like. Your eye picks up white different if it has to look through a blue spectrum to see it.
I made the same suggestion to another reefer recently and he came back really please with the end results.
[quote=“Cdangel0, post:9, topic:2751”]
I’m with Ted and Glenn - changing the order of the bulbs will make a huge difference in what the overall color looks like. Your eye picks up white different if it has to look through a blue spectrum to see it.
I made the same suggestion to another reefer recently and he came back really please with the end results.[/quote]
It was me! . I had to think about it too because from front to back bulb number 2 and 6 are the dusk/dawn lights so i went with.
Aquablue’s are pretty much 10,000K’s except Giesemann i believe are closer to 11,000k or 12,000k but the Actinic+ are the ones you want for the blue look with the higher PAR value than the pure actinic/420nm spectrum… those things are too much like blacklights for my taste.
I went from 3 and 3 current usa 10k and actinic+ to the same config with giesemann and the difference was amazing.
And don’t forget a Hagen T5 HO POWER-GLO. Its rated at 18,000K. A nice white with lots of blue spectrum in it. A very healthy lamp I’ve grown mini 2 1/2 gallon reef tanks i was raising Bangai cardinals in. With only a bitty 12 watt NO Power-Glo bulb and the soft corals and red bubble macro really liked it. Ive tried a couple 54W’ers in a tech light strip recently with some actinics. looked nice. It’s an overlooked T5 bulb choice, i thimpk.
I posted the same thread on reef-geeks and it seems like everyone on both boards has close to the same advice. I ordered 4 extra ATI Blue Plus today and im going to pull out two of the aqua blue and two of the pro colors. Then i will play with the order a little bit and see what looks best. Thanks for the input guys.
Sounds like a good plan. Take before and after pictures even if you don’t show them to us.(which I know is likely because I haven’t seen a photo of your tanks in 2 years)
At the rate im going it just might be another 2 years before i get anything done let alone pictures up! Here are a couple of really exciting ones to hold you over!!! ;D
Im completely overhauling my frag system, solana, and fishroom at the moment as well as upgrading my 265g to full reef. I ripped out my entire fishroom: equipment, flooring, baseboard, moulding, and all. I repaired the swisscheese drywall, installed a fancy new tile floor, put in a multimedia center, and painted. I was going to replace a small piece of drywall in the bathroom that was bothering me when io noticed some paint flaking on the bottom of another piece. Long story short i ripped out almost all of my bathroom drywall because of a leaky pipe(unlrelated to fish!), replaced all the plumbing with new copper, and redid the electrical to relocated the gangboxes. Im finally just wrapping up the drywall and paint and am getting ready to put in new baseboard and a door moulding. After that its just cleaning and detail work! Oh, and i should probably get around to taking the toilet from the middle of my living room and putting that back some time soon as well. Im hoping by today to bring my big frag tank downstairs and modify the stand to have it fit better in the new room. Hopefully sometime next week i can begin to actually do the plumbing and electrical for the new system. Lastly, i will be building a custome stand for my Solana, cutting out the false back, and drilling it. The im going to wall fish a drain and return down to the fish room and have it tied in with the frag tank. Once all thats done(2-3 months maybe?) i promise to try and get some pics
up!
I have made a several changes to the 265g in an effort to migrate it from FOWLR to full reef. As i posted earlier, i removed all the OEM ballasts and replaced them with 3 Icecap 660’s. With my fixture being more than 40" from the bottom of the tank i thought it the extra power was worth the cost. Obviously i upgraded the bulbs as well. I put my Vortech MP40 from my 75g into the tank and purchased a new one so that now i have 2 MP40’s on opposites side of the tank running full blast. Im not sure if this will meet all of my flow requirements longterm but they seem to be doing the trick so far. I also built an auto-skimmer cut off in case the thing goes nuts. I bought a 5 gallon Carboy with a small footprint and wired it with a SS relay and water level sensor so that if for some reason the skimmer goes nuts it wont flood my tank. I picked up one of those CO2 scubbers and will hook that up on the intake of my skimmer shortly in hopes of pushing my PH up. I also finally engineered a way to do “semi-automated” waterchanges and fully automated top-offs by wallfishing some plumbing from upstairs. Im hoping to begin a bi-daily waterchange regiment shortly. As far as livestock goes its pretty much empty. I moved my hippo tang, pair of maroons, chromis, and royal gramma from my other tank in November and just add new fish last week. I bought a harem of lyertail anthias(8 total) and a jade filefish for aipstasia control. as for corals i moved my valida colony to the tank back in Nov because i didnt have room and its doing ok. it has new growth and bright purple tips but the colony itself has turned a dark brown. other than that ive got a couple of misc softie frags and a giant frogspawn colony in the tank. im going to be stocking it pretty heavily over the next year.
. I had to think about it too because from front to back bulb number 2 and 6 are the dusk/dawn lights so i went with.
