Is this lighting too much for my 40 breeder?

B

BigDaddyD1992

New member
Im wanting to put a ATI 36" SunPower High Output T5 Light Fixture 4 x 39w with 3 ATI Blue Plus bulbs, 1 ATI Coral Plus bulb, and 1 36" Reef Brite Lumi Lite Blue/Actinic. My first question is, is this going to be too much lighting for this tank? My second question is, should i do a different combo for ATI bulbs? My 3rd question is what should my lighting schedule be with this set up?

Corn Fed Iowa Bred
 
Not to much light. I would do two blue +, AB and coral + myself, then just do the blue led. If you do all three blue + and a coral + with blue led your tank is going to be really blue imo. Schedule wise i'd run dusk/dawn for an hr blue led only and then full on for 6hrs, maybe blue + and led for 2-3hrs inbetween. But your light schedule can be whatever you want to make of it.
 
It's not too much light and I know someone who runs 6-54 watt bulbs and another person who runs 4-80 Watt bulbs. It really depends on what you plan on keeping coral wise in the tank also.
 
You should be fine with that on the tank. I'd say if you wanted to go SPS heavy then get the 6 bulbs. Some people like running 6 just so you can get better color combos with more bulbs, but it would also mean more expense when replacing. Long as you aren't getting into heavy SPS or Light hungry SPS, you should be fine. I'm not even sure what the price difference is for a 4 bulb vs 6 bulb fixture. It may or may not be worth it.
 
I have owned an ATI 4 Lamp and its an awesome fixture. The problem is getting the right color is hard with just 4 lamps. IMO...with the 4 lamp fixture you might consider getting two reefbright leds. They bolt right on. But that means more wires, etc. Later on I replaced my 4 lamp with a 6 lamp ATI and achieving the right colors was MUCH easier and didnt need at add the reefbrights.
 
I use 4 39w bulbs over mine which consists of 3 x iquatics aquablue plus and 1 x iquatics aquablue 50:50 which gives me a nice blend. But i could do with a couple more bulbs to try mix the colour up as with 4 bulbs its either too blue or too white if you change from what i have already.
 
I had almost the same setup on my 40B and I needed to raise the light some as it was too much light. How close to the water is your light?
 
Ou8me2 said:
You should be fine with that on the tank. I'd say if you wanted to go SPS heavy then get the 6 bulbs. Some people like running 6 just so you can get better color combos with more bulbs, but it would also mean more expense when replacing. Long as you aren't getting into heavy SPS or Light hungry SPS, you should be fine. I'm not even sure what the price difference is for a 4 bulb vs 6 bulb fixture. It may or may not be worth it.
Click to expand...
The price difference between the 4 and is about $90 ($382 vs $471) and the price of the reefbrite led strip im wanting is 85 so I could go with the tje 6 bulb fixture with no reefbrite, but i would say half the reason i want the reefbrite is for additional blue light and the other half of the reason is for the shimmer from the leds. I guess i could just hold off on getting the reefbrites for a few months and start off without the leds and just t5s.

Corn Fed Iowa Bred
 
You won't notice much shimmer when the T5's are on. I run 6xT5 with a DIY LED strip mounted in front (about 30 cree royal blue/blue).

I have to run C+ x2, B+ x2, P+ x1 and a 10k KZ bulb to balance the blue from the LEDs. It's realllllyyyyy blue if I don't run a lot of white.

Picture for reference of this combo:
3WDcNKZl.jpg
 
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