Anyone have this lighting setup?

[hahnmeister]

1 â€"œ 80Ws 12000K Aquablue Special T5 HO Fluorescent

^^^ you know thats just a 11,000K daylight bulb, right? Considering you already have XM 10,000Ks... I would stick to all blue+/20,000K/actinic+ ( I say all three names because the name changes: bottom line... they are blue bulbs with a 450nm peak rather than 420nm purple/actinic).

 

[The Grim Reefer]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7958497#post7958497 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by hahnmeister
1 â€"œ 80Ws 12000K Aquablue Special T5 HO Fluorescent

^^^ you know thats just a 11,000K daylight bulb, right? Considering you already have XM 10,000Ks... I would stick to all blue+/20,000K/actinic+ ( I say all three names because the name changes: bottom line... they are blue bulbs with a 450nm peak rather than 420nm purple/actinic).

Or even go 2 blueplus and one actinic. Unless of course you want to run the T5's only for a good part of the day, then having the Aquablue would make sense.

 

[mkarston]

ok, i see. Thanks for the insight.

So would you definatly say then that 3 80W 57 T5 HO would be my best "blue for the buck"?

 

[hahnmeister]

yep. you can even run those three on an icecap 660 so they get a slight overdrive (to 100watts each) and make even more blue light.

 

[Kewlworm]

I have one more question, is 2x54w T5-HO Actinic more blue than the 48" 110w VHO URI super actinic bulbs?

What are the different between them (in color)?

Thanks!

 

[The Grim Reefer]

The Blueplus T5 will put out way more visible light than the VHO actinic but they wont pop colors as good. The regular actinic T5 on their own are not great. The combination of blue plus and actinic T5s looks really good.

 

[Kewlworm]

Oh, man, this is frustrating, lol.

So, if I were to use the 3x XM10K 175w MH as my main light. What combination supplement my corals best (for looks)? I love the glow corals has when under actinics.

Thanks again!

 

[The Grim Reefer]

Color is subjective. 10K halides with VHO actinics is considered the gold standard by a lot of people. Some prefer using the blue plus T5 for SPS. If you are going to run a 660 ballast you can run both a VHO actinic and T5 blues plus on the same ballast. Get the best of both worlds.

 

[mkarston]

Has anyone every setup there lighting like this? I guess I could swap, what I'm showing T5's with VHO or do a combination of both as the grim suggested.

This would require 2 IceCap 430 ballast, but for this size tank (and expesially if I use T5's with the movable reflectors) it seems it would be extremely flexible and allow me to really tweek my lighting.

Just a thought...

Craig

 

[The Grim Reefer]

Only 2 T5 lamps of any length on an Ice Cap 430.

With the lamps running that direction you are going to see colored bands as you look at the tank from the front.