Best actinic T5's?

[soulbereaver]

My tank is relatively new. I bought everything new except for the lighting unit. I couldn't pass up the deal I got with the lighting. 2x 250W MH's with 2x T5's for actinic also built in. Unit is just over a year old and I pretty much got it half off the retail price

Now i've heard that VHO is best for actinic which sucks cause my fixture runs T5's, but in any case, what do you guys recommend to get the best colour out of your corals for T5's? I know nothing about T5's yet and have not had time to experiment much with lighting, nor do i have any friends in the hobby and the LFS uses VHO lighting so I don't have much to go by.

Any advice would be awesome.

Thanks.

 

[Obi-dad]

If you are talking about the purple actinics (420nm wavelength), IMO most of the brands of the T5 purple bulbs are very similar. I have both Geisseman and UV purple T5s.

T5's also come in blue bulbs (450-460nm). I have used ATI, Aquaz, Geisseman, a couple others. I think the ATI may have been marginally brighter. These blue bulbs are way cool, and give a great 'pop' to the corals. I use both the blue and purple in pairs, and get a few different looks with just blue on, just purple on, both on. But if you only have room for one pair of bulbs my preference is the blue bulbs.

 

[soulbereaver]

thanks obi-dad, yeah my fixture only has room for 2 T5's so that's all i really have to work with.

I really don't know what color to go with for the best color "pop" that's pretty much what I'm trying to find out. I know T5's come in a variety of colors and I don't know which colors do what. If you feel blue's give colors more "pop" then I'll probably go with those, are there different "shades" of blue? If so what spectrum or shade or whatever seems to help colors stand out or "glow" the most?

 

[divewsharks]

go with UVL Actinics, from what I am told by those who run them, they have the best pop.

 

[Obi-dad]

I have UVL actinics - they are the purple (420nm), they are nice, but look very close to the other brands of purple bulbs. IMO (and I run both) the blue bulbs (450-460nm) give much more pop, and look much more natural (if you have ever snorkeled or scuba'd you will notice you never see the ocean look purple).

I would recommend visiting someone's tank that runs these bulbs, you probably have a reef club in the area.

 

[Mark426]

Thats right, the 450-460nm lamps will give you the most pop. ATI Blue+ are my fave...BY FAR

 

[RokleM]

I was a fan of the UV T5's, but honestly have had very poor luck with them (they dim VERY quickly). I've pretty much given up there. I recently tried a blue+ because GrimReefer recommended it due to the nice punch and great par, and it's a VERY blue bulb. I think it would work very well for an actinic supplement.

 

[divewsharks]

Sorry I thought OP was only looking at pure actinics.
I personally don't run any pure actinics, I use ATI blue+ for actinic fluorescing of my corals.

 

[soulbereaver]

Thank you all for your suggestions. Now I have another question for you all...

My lighting fixture has 2 MH bulbs in the middle and 2 T5 bulbs, one in the front, and one in the back. Many articles I have read talk about mixing different T5's for optimal coloration. For instance ATI suggests mixing their "Pro-Color" T5's with their "Blue Plus" T5's to bring out more colors. (The Pro-Color brings out non-florecent pigments, Blue Plus brings out florecent pigments) If I only have room for 2 T5's, is this worth doing or should I pick one type over the other and stick to that? If I went with one Pro-Color and one Blue Plus, would that look ok or would I be short on Blue light to make the florecents pop?