6 bulb combo and lighting?

[9campbec]

6 Blub combo
Hi All,

I'm building my first reef tank and could use some help. After much debate I picked T5 for my lighting and purchased an 6X80watt ATI sunpower light. My tank is a 125 and I was looking at different Bulb combos and how i should run them.

This is the current combo I'm looking at getting
blue+
true actinic
coral+
purple+
true actinic
blue +

Any feedback would be great on the combo and how long to run the lights. I know the ATI sunpower has 2 channels which i planed on putting the 2 actinic bulbs on one channel to run morning to evening with the other main bulbs coming on during the day.

Thanks in advance

 

[cham]

Great bulb choice, I run pretty much identical bulbs in mine.

The two channels that are sunrise/sunset I run for about 12 hours (8am to 8pm). And the others as a mid day on 5 to 6 hours. Some run all the lights longer, but IMHO reefs never see more than a few hours of full sun, granted our lights aren't as powerful as full sun, but the ATI fixture with ATI bulbs on our shallow tanks is quite powerful.

When I started the hobby, getting enough light was a real concern. With todays T5 & LED tech it has become very routine.

 

[9campbec]

sounds great, do you know which bulbs are on each of the channel's? I tried to look online and the only thing i could find was the second and second to last was the second channel which is why i put the actinic bulbs there for sunrise and sunset.

 

[cham]

I have the 8 bulb and it's #3 & #6

Purely a guess but I would think the 6 bulb would be #2 & #5

 

[9campbec]

ok I will just have to get it set up and find out for sure, as for time do you think running the Actinic lights from noon-10pm and the other main lights from 2pm-8pm would be good? I also picked up a neptune apex which i will be running the lunar module for night time in the tank

 

[cham]

Should work just fine


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[Mark9]

I'd replace one of the actinic's with a blue+

 

[Bpb]

I think it's a fine bulb selection. I enjoy the look of true actinics and think they're underused currently. Yes most other bulbs will touch on that end of the spectrum a little, but none of them will have almost all of their wattage going into it. What sort of coral stock are you aiming for? That'll be a pretty blue looking color overall.

 

[Mark9]

For viewing pleasure, yes, go with the actinic's.
Having 1/3 of your light actinic may not be the best for growth.

 

[scooter31707]

my combo is as follows:

blue+
blue+
Coral+
Blue+
Purple+
blue+

 

[Bpb]

You can also use a Giesemann tropic or GE 6500k in place of the coral+ to boost par a hair more. It's a pretty dang white bulb. I use 1 in my 8 bulb combo and it easily competes with the rest of the bulbs to whiten up the look.


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