T5 Bulb combination Suggestions

moonlightdriver

moonlightdriver

New member
I am looking for the best bulb combo for my reef tank. I have a nova extreme 8 bulb t5 light. what do you guys suggest for a bulb combination?

corals:
  1. Bubble Coral
  2. Flat Brain Coral
  3. Duncan
  4. Frogspawn
  5. Hammered Coral
  6. Hairy Mushroom
  7. Kenyen Tree
  8. Birdsnest
  9. Some Digi
  10. Polyps
  11. etc

Theses are some of the bulbs that are available...

Colors Available:

- BLUE WAVE Super Blue Actinic 460
- REEF WAVE Super Violet O3 Actinic 420
- CORAL WAVE Coral Growth Accelerator
- RED WAVE Super Coral Generator
- SUN WAVE Super Daylight 12,000k
- TROPICAL WAVE Full Spectrum Daylight 6,500k
 
moonlightdriver said:
I am looking for the best bulb combo for my reef tank. I have a nova extreme 8 bulb t5 light. what do you guys suggest for a bulb combination?

corals:
  1. Bubble Coral
  2. Flat Brain Coral
  3. Duncan
  4. Frogspawn
  5. Hammered Coral
  6. Hairy Mushroom
  7. Kenyen Tree
  8. Birdsnest
  9. Some Digi
  10. Polyps
  11. etc

Theses are some of the bulbs that are available...

Colors Available:

- BLUE WAVE Super Blue Actinic 460
- REEF WAVE Super Violet O3 Actinic 420
- CORAL WAVE Coral Growth Accelerator
- RED WAVE Super Coral Generator
- SUN WAVE Super Daylight 12,000k
- TROPICAL WAVE Full Spectrum Daylight 6,500k
Click to expand...

Those are wavepoint bulbs right? I currently have them on my setup for a couple of weeks now. I played around with the bulbs on my tank with the help of awesome RC members here (if you are reading this guys you know who I am talking about:) ). First off, if you have not purchased the bulbs I would advise you to look at ATI or Geismann (all people here swear by them) But in case you do have them or you like these bulbs the most they work as well.
What kind of look are you looking for? I set mine up to get close to the 14k look. Mine are staggered like so:

Front
Coral Wave
Blue Wave
Coral Wave
Blue Wave
Back

Looks pretty good to me! Although I would try to swap one or both coral waves for reef waves and see how it looks then :) Again I am going for the 14k look. If you are looking for more balanced look you can try my old set up which was:
Front
Sun Wave
Blue Wave
Coral Wave
Blue Wave
Back

Hope this helps!
 
I haven't bought them... I just just trying to do some research to see what would be best. I just was overwhelmed by how many different bulbs there was...
 
If you have not bought them I would suggest looking at ATI or Geissman bulbs. They are a bit pricier but you get what you pay for! Look on aquacave.com or marinedepot.com, they usually have pretty good deals there. I am looking to upgrade my lights to ATI so if you are looking for a deal we can work something out with my current ones. Like I said they have been running for only a couple of weeks. I might have more than six bulbs too. Just throwing some options at you.
 
how about what order of the bulbs?

For Example:

ATI has:
Blue Plus:
Purple Plus
True Actinic:
Aquablue Special:

What combination of bulbs would be best & It what order would you put them for a (8) bulb setup
 
I saw noticable improvements in both color and growth when I switched from cheapo bulbs to Geissmans.

I can never remember the names of the bulb colors, but basically I run 2 of the bluest actinics (they make 2, a pure actinic and an actinic +, one is blue the other is more purple... I run 2 of the blues) and 2 of their 10k-ish bulbs, I think they are called Aqua blue.
 
I run geissman in a tek 8 bulb fixture. My configuration is:
Actinic
Aquaflora
Actinic
Midday
Actinic
Aquaflora
Actinic
Actinic

I got the suggestions for this from thegrimreefer on the lighting forum.
 
I use the ATI bulbs and there awesome, I decided to use 3 ati blue plus(awesome bulbs) and KZ fiji purple bulb, however that bulb is obviously not an ATI.

Does anyone know how much better the Geissmans are over the ATI bulbs? What I am asking is would it be worth it to change out my ATI bulbs for them?
 
ok so I bought some Giesemann bulbs last night...

(1) Giesemann 6000K Midday
(2) Giesemann AquaFlora
(1) Giesemann 15K AquaBlue +
(1) Giesemann 2200K Actinic+

I only bought 5 and was going to run with (3) of my current bulbs

This is the combo I was going to run

Front
1.) Current Blue
2.) Current Blue
3.) Giesemann 15K AquaBlue +
4.) Giesemann AquaFlora
5.) Giesemann 6000K Midday
6.) Giesemann AquaFlora
7.) Giesemann 2200K Actinic+
8.) Current Blue

Any Thoughts?
 
How does the fixture turn the bulbs on. Is it everyother bulb per switch or does it turn on 2 in front and 2 in back. Depends if you want to simulate a dawn/dusk otherwise I would alternate your blues and your daylights. Check out the lighting forum. There is quite an extensive t5 thread. Let thegrimreefer know what bulbs you have and what fixture. He should be able to give you the best suggestion for your tank.
 
If you want a dawn/dusk in the morning/evening then put your blue bulbs in line with the switch that comes on first. Otherwise try to put your midday bulb towards the middle and the aquaflora on the sides.
 
My config is in my signature line. I am going to switch to the KZ to the ATI purple plus when it's time to change that bulb again this June.
 
Moonlight Diver; The bulbs you chose will appear on the whiter side, especially with the Giesemann Midday. Most people put the actinic bulbs on one switch and daylights on the other to simulate dusk/dawn, but it's all personal preference. Regardless of how you install them, be sure to use caution so you don't bleach any of your livestock.

wswftball02 said:
Does anyone know how much better the Geissmans are over the ATI bulbs? What I am asking is would it be worth it to change out my ATI bulbs for them?
Click to expand...
Giesemann bulbs aren't any better than ATI in terms of PAR; they are both made in Germany (along with "KZ" Korallen-Zucht) and any of those three brands will far surpass the cheaper stuff (Current, Wavepoint, Deep Blue, etc). ATI bulbs are typically the lowest priced of the three, hence the popularity online. As far as I know, unfortunately none of the LFS's here in Western NY carry ATI bulbs.
 
From what I have read, the ATI actinic blue and aquablue bulbs are generally higher PAR and lower price than similar bulbs in the market.
 
So I got my bulbs in ...

This is the order that I put them in:


1. Current USA - Actinic
2. Giesemann PowerChrome - AquaBlue 15k
3. Giesemann PowerChrome - Actinic 2200K
4. Giesemann PowerChrome - AquaFlora
5. Current USA - Actinic
6. Giesemann PowerChrome - Midday 6000k
7. Current USA - Actinic
8. Giesemann PowerChrome - AquaFlora

what do you think? Light is setup so the switch control every other bulb.
I am trying to eliminate my algae growth...
So I went out and got 5 new bulbs... (All Giesemann Bulbs)

I am looking for a more cool blue look but would still like to grow corals...
 
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