Cherry Corals help! Lighting
- Thread starter nellecat
- Start date
greech
New member
Assuming decent reflectors and ballast, two T5s over a 20 Long is fine for LPS. You may not get the pop that you see in their pics online without LEDs but they will do fine assuming all other conditions (mainly water quality) are being met. You may consider replacing your bulbs with a couple of ATI Blue+ or a Blue+ and a Purple+ if you like a bluer tank with some "pop". Both those bulbs will supply ample light to grow LPS.
What corals were you looking at?
What corals were you looking at?
greech
New member
http://www.reefgeek.com/lighting/T5_Fluorescent/Bulbs/
Depends on the look you want. The Blue+ are around 14K so a crisp blue/white. A Purple+ will enhance some reds and purples while an Aquablue Special will be more of a daylight. If it were me I would go with 2 Blue+ or a Blue+ and a Purple+ (or a UVL Superactinic or KZ Figi Purple) but I like blue tanks. If you like a more natural looking light you may want a Aquablue Special and a Blue+.
Giesemann, KZ, UVL and ATI are all good bulbs.
Those corals should do fine under that lighting.
Depends on the look you want. The Blue+ are around 14K so a crisp blue/white. A Purple+ will enhance some reds and purples while an Aquablue Special will be more of a daylight. If it were me I would go with 2 Blue+ or a Blue+ and a Purple+ (or a UVL Superactinic or KZ Figi Purple) but I like blue tanks. If you like a more natural looking light you may want a Aquablue Special and a Blue+.
Giesemann, KZ, UVL and ATI are all good bulbs.
Those corals should do fine under that lighting.
greech
New member
I think either will be fine for the corals you are considering. The Blue+ and Aquablue Special will give you more PAR and a little better growth over using 1 of the Purple+, Figi Purple or Superactinic. I think you will be happy with either but you could just order a Blue+, a Aquablue Special and a Superactinic type bulb and swap them in/out until you find the combo you like. Never hurts to have extra bulbs around anyway 
. I'm sure your getting tired of my opinion, so hopefully someone else will chime in soon .
. I'm sure your getting tired of my opinion, so hopefully someone else will chime in soon .i would get a 4 bulb ho t5 combo.you cant beet the deep blue solor extreme 24 inch 24 watt ho t5 unit indaviduall reflecters and all the lights are digatally controled and the legs fit any tank top or you can nang it.also they are a great company to deal with if anything breaks or goes wrong.the 4 bulb combo lets you pretty much be able to keep any coral in a 20 gallon tank with that fixture.light bulbs it comes with arent the best but work for the first couple of months as you set up so you dont burn out expensive ones.the digital controle of the lites is great.the legs slide and fit any small tanlk lid.construction of lights is good made of plastic polymer so it doesnt rust and is light.it is also not that expensive eather.i keep mine on a 38 tall tank with led boosters and i have anenome's sps lps everythin g and the light system is great and i have had a so called better one more expensive and it was crap compared to this.looks very sleek to.2 bulbs is ok over a 20 gallon but you cant mix to manmy colors in if you het the 4 bulb you can mix to youre liking and not worry if you have enough light cause you will.
Justin74
New member
I think greech and squat nailed it. Again echoing that individual reflectors are present, 2 would be OK. If only 2 bulbs are there I too would stick with the higher par recommendation and go with the aquablue special and actinic+(blue+ if using ATI; I however will only use Geisemann and UV). If you are able to go with 4 eventually, I highly recommend it, as well as giving UVLighting's Superactinic+ a try. Awesome bulb, and one of the few if not only bulb that combines both blue and purple equally. If it was up to me my choice without question would be:
Actinic+
Aquablue Special
Pure Actinic
SuperActinic+
The only potential deviation I'd make from that would be to swap out the pure actinic for a Fiji purple..Good luck!
-Justin
Actinic+
Aquablue Special
Pure Actinic
SuperActinic+
The only potential deviation I'd make from that would be to swap out the pure actinic for a Fiji purple..Good luck!
-Justin
u can also add stunner strips but you would not need that 4 24 watt on a 20 gal is primo and also it gives great coverage over the whole tank surface.some like ati bulbs and some preffer guissmenn.i never tried ati but i use guissmenn and i feel no need to change up.they have great par value and look outstanding .you can get the same color vareations as ati they are just named diff on the bulbs.justin covered the ati i will cover the guissmen
if you want a crisp white look go with 2 of the 11k powercrome mix and go with 2 pure attinics.if you like the deeper blue 20k look.go with one 11 k powercrome ,2 powerblue,and one pure attinic.they have a new pink bulb wich i hear is amazing you can switch out one of the blue for it and give you the 15k look instead of the 20k.and if you want the shimmer of halide lighting get lite blue mixed with 10k stunner strips and that will give you the shimmer.they sell all guissmenn at marinedepot.com.
if you want a crisp white look go with 2 of the 11k powercrome mix and go with 2 pure attinics.if you like the deeper blue 20k look.go with one 11 k powercrome ,2 powerblue,and one pure attinic.they have a new pink bulb wich i hear is amazing you can switch out one of the blue for it and give you the 15k look instead of the 20k.and if you want the shimmer of halide lighting get lite blue mixed with 10k stunner strips and that will give you the shimmer.they sell all guissmenn at marinedepot.com.
