Lighting Colors/Spectrum

[aaronlp]

Its time for me to get some new hallides and t-5s beacuse its that time of year to repalce them again.

Heres the thing..im picky with the colors that the bulbs put out and what colors catch the viewers attention. Hopefully this can be turned into a sticky to help other as well. If anyone can please post pictures of of your lighting, whether it be just t-5s, t-5s with the hallides, compacts or just the hallides itself to give everyone a feel of what color spectrum and colors they will be having and seeing in the tank. WHat lights from experience have made your corals "Pop" and what has been best result for growth.


Super Appreciated!!!

 

[IronMan72]

It is often very difficult to get a picture that faithfully reproduces the colors of a reef, or most other subject matter, as perceived by the human eye. I'm just not sure it's possible to get a good feel for what a bulb, or array of bulbs, will look like from just a photo.

 

[aaronlp]

well lets do it this way reviews and what lights people have in their tanks compared to growth and color show

 

[Tonynlo]

Very old images from my previous tank. Pictures were taken about an hour apart.

Halide - 2x250W Phoenix 14K with 0 supplemental lighting

T5 - ATI Sunpower

(Bulbs = AquaBlue Plus, GE, Purple Plus, Blue Plus x3)

 

[truebeliever71]

Lighting and color is a matter of taste. What is most pleasing to me or another guy could be hated by another. There's a couple ways of going about this. First is to look at other people's tanks. Find out what they are using for bulbs (manufacturer, model, color temp) and then test things out and decide for yourself.

I myself like either the combination of a good quality 14-15000K MH bulb with super actinic suppliment (super actinic has more violet/purple look) or what I'm running now which is 18000K and Royal Blue LEDs. Though I am considering on picking up a few violet or red LEDs to add to it.

 

[jacksonpt]

As said previously, this is all about taste/preference. I'm constantly playing with my T5 combinations trying to find something that looks good AND grows well. I've got a combination of Geisemanns and ATIs right now that I like pretty well. We'll see if it grows anything though.

I don't run MH, so I'm not sure how much help my input is to you, but thought I'd throw it out there anyways.

 

[aaronlp]

As said previously, this is all about taste/preference. I'm constantly playing with my T5 combinations trying to find something that looks good AND grows well. I've got a combination of Geisemanns and ATIs right now that I like pretty well. We'll see if it grows anything though.

I don't run MH, so I'm not sure how much help my input is to you, but thought I'd throw it out there anyways.

yeah its jsut hard deciding what type of t-5s to mix with mh.