Judge my bulb arrangement

Chago09

New member
I am running 4 T5 HO bulbs and wanted to use the following arrangement of bulbs. Let me know if this will promote nice colour, brightness and ofcourse growth.
(all bulbs are giesemann)
Front
Aqua blue+
Actinic+
Aqua Blue+
Actinic+
Back


Would this be good or should I replace a actinic+ with a 10k for something like that to promote more growth. Any more ideas would be much appreciated.
 
This is going to be more personal preference than anything. Although some corals do like certain colors, specifically some corals like a bluer coloration due to the depth they are naturally found, but since most people have such an assortment of corals from all different areas of a reef, it's not as big an issue as you think. The lighting is sufficient so color is up to you

Heres what I got going on my 4 x 54w T5 fixture: from front to back, I have one of the "purple bulbs" one of the Midday bulbs, one of the blue bulbs, and last, another purple. Forgive me, I forget if the blue or the purples were the actinic + bulbs and don't recall what the other one is named. This combo gives an overall coloration closer to that of a 20,000k spectrum, while what you have there is going to look really white.

Also, depending on the corals you have, I've heard several reports that claim that a midday spectrum, closer to 6700k is better for overall stoney coral growth, vs. a 10,000k spectrum or higher that you are getting with the aquablue + bulbs. Although my corals had nice growth when I kept those bulbs over them, I like the results from the miday better. It's just more yellow in appearance and without sufficeint actnic supplementation, the tanks going to look more like a freshwater tank in my opinion.
 
lol it probably says right on the bulb which one is which LOL

I really want the right mix so it looks kinda blue so the corals florescene nicely. But I don't want it too blue where nothing grows. See where I live I have to order everything on line. So I don't get too see what they look like first. I don't want to spend over $100 on bulbs and not like them lol.

Any suggestions would be great please.
 
The original 4 listed would look very blue. It's what I'm running along with 2 mh's (10000k). Here are just the two blues and two purples
<img src="http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j94/ahullsb/aquarium/march%20of%20two%20thousand%20seven/DSC_0008.jpg">
 
Too blue is not neccessarily going to impede growth, this all depend on the type of coral and relative location in nature. Those that come from shallow lagoon type waters are probably not going to benefit much from the extra blue spectrum while certain species like various euphyllia tend to do better under more actinic.

I've used the combination you listed in your original post and personally, I don't think it looks real blue, it's almost straight white. Aquablue + run about 14,000k if memory serves, and although this is more in the blue spectrum, the actual color the human eye see's looks white. The bulbs I'm using looks very blue, so a mix in between those may be to your liking.

If you check my photo album, the tank shots I have there are under a similar setup to what you asked about, only instead of having two of the aquablue +'s, I have only one and a midday
 
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