ATI T5 bulbs

double0banks

New member
Setting up a frag tank with a 6 bulb 54w fixture and I am debating the ideal bulbs to have max growth while holding the best possible colors. Growth over color though. I was thinking one of these may work:

3-blue special
2-blue plus
1-color pro

4-blue sp.
1-blue +
1-color pro
or
4-blue sp.
2-blue plus

any suggestions, including reasoning and bulb placement would be greatly appreciated. Thanks
 
Growth over color, use all Aquablue or perhaps 4 Aquablue, 1 UVL Aquasun, and 1 GE 6500K. This would be a "PAR buster" setup but not a lot of blue color. Would probably bake soft corals like Xenia and mushrooms. SPS would love it.

Color over growth, 2 Blue+, one Color pro, one UVL Super Actinic, and one Aquablue.


Good color and growth, use 3 Blue+ and 3 Aquablue (this is very opinionated but is a decent color mix).
 
As a side note, unless this is a very wide frag tank, just move the rack up higher and you can get by with 4 bulbs. Part of the point of a frag tank (IMO) is to help subsidize the cost of reefing by selling/trading off other corals, and running 4 instead of 6 bulbs is cheaper both in setup, electricity, and bulb replacement.
 
If I were to invest in the six bulb fixture to have it down the road over a larger tank could it be run with 4 bulbs to cut electricity costs over this narrow 55g? Also, the 55g is fairly deep, would the 6 bulbs still be too much for softies if I had them very low in the tank?
 
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