T5 Bulbs questions

[German]

Hi all,

The retrofit T5 I bought looks good. The PCs I had don't looks as bright. I'm planning on buy another set, so I will have 4 T5 bulbs. I have 2 10K right now, I'm not sure what to get for the other two, any suggestions?

BTW my tank is pretty much softies and LPS, if that helps.

Thanks for the advice in advance.
German

 

[pbetito]

2 atinic bulbs is what I would do, it will give nice balance and color.

 

[tanku]

try 2 ati blue plus.

 

[Paliya]

I've played around with a few bulb combo's and finally found one that I'm happy with.

Front to back:
ATI Blue plus
ATI Aquablue Special 12000k
GE 6500k
ATI Blue plus

I'm really happy with the ATI Blue plus bulbs.
P

 

[Justin74]

Re: T5 Bulbs questions

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9774051#post9774051 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by German
Hi all,

The retrofit T5 I bought looks good. The PCs I had don't looks as bright. I'm planning on buy another set, so I will have 4 T5 bulbs. I have 2 10K right now, I'm not sure what to get for the other two, any suggestions?

BTW my tank is pretty much softies and LPS, if that helps.

Thanks for the advice in advance.
German

Hey German. Glad your diggin your setup
Would you mind telling who made the 10k?
Reason why I ask is every brand has there own lil twist and nuances so much so that hardly ever 2 differently made 10k's will be identical. That being said the certain type of supplement spectrum will have noticeably viewable differences.

For example I use to have some 10k's that were made by Catalina and when I mixed them with Ati's blue+ the 1:1 ratio came out with a slight green tint, same can be said with GE's 6k(which they've now updated to a 6.5 and less PAR as an outcome as well). While Geismanns' 15k(which is adv. here in the States as an 11k but notes 15k on box and websight for some odd reason) mixes beautifully with either UVL's superactinic+, Ati's blue+, and Geismanns' actinic+ or true actinic. The true actinic bulb is a great bulb to have and really enriches the spectrum to any setup, the problems though are related to the fact that it is one of the lowest PAR bulbs, which is vitally important to those that can only run 4 bulb configs. If you have the width and depth to handle a 6+ bulb config then IMO it is a must have. If not then the other 3 aforementioned brands would all be excellent choices. Btw those 3 bulbs are very high in PAR values, some have even maintained tanks with just those blue spectrums, as there equally or close to the lower kelvin 15, 12, and 10k's in PAR values.

-Justin

 

[German]

Hi all,
The bulbs are the hellolights brand, TRU. I was planning on getting 2 actinic from them. Can't beat the price when you get them with their T5 kits. I have room in my canopy for two more. Doing six might be tight. When I built my canopy, I place the cross bar wrong, imo, so I think I can only have 4 tubes. One of these days, I will rebuilt it.

Currently my setup is 2 10k T5 and one 96W PC actinic on a 55Gal Long. With the new lights my zoo are finally opening up again and the Green Neap I got from Rich over a couple of years ago is looking better now

Thank for your help in advance,
German

 

[norcal99]

I would also recommend 2 ATI Blue+ bulbs. My current setup on my 20H is just about where I like the coloring, approximately a 20K look.

Front
UVL Super Actinic
ATI Blue Plus
Giesemann 11K Aquablue
ATI Blue Plus
Rear

I thought about that GE 6500K but heard it had low PAR ratings. Might give a more 13-14K look.

Paliya - do you have any pictures of your tank with your T5 setup? Curious what the color balance looks like with the GE bulb.

 

[Paliya]

norcal - I'll post pics when I get home. I hadn't heard about the GE6500k having low PAR. Truthfully, that's my least favorite bulb (very yellow), the only reason I have it is because I thought it had high PAR!! It appears that I have some research to do.

P

 

[Justin74]

The GE 6500k use to be the highest T5 bulb tested for PAR. But I have heard they've changed the color temp or something and is not as high anymore. Although it is still a high PAR producing bulb. Typically, anything with a lower kelvin will be higher in PAR, not always but generally. Not the best bulb for SPS IMO though. From my experience some of the acros just did not like that color temp or output, and had made for a hard time to color them up, although blue tips get very blue just the rest of em stays brown, again not all acros, but quite a few that I had.


-Justin

 

[tcnguyen]

Yup 2 10K and 2 Actinic would be nice or 3 10K and 1 actinic. They're not high output T5 are they?

 

[Jacob D]

I like to run just one 6k bulb in my setup, it really helps show the color of the fish. It's also good for greens and pinks in your corals.

 

[Justin74]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9801387#post9801387 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by mothra
I like to run just one 6k bulb in my setup, it really helps show the color of the fish. It's also good for greens and pinks in your corals.

I definately agree with that. My former pink stylo really got pink under it. But I think it also did some damage when it shifted spectrums at the end of it's life, I could be wrong but am awfully suspicious. Powerful bulb nonetheless. I would consider running one definately if I had an 8 bulb config. Just not aesthetically pleasing on lower bulb counts IMO.


-Justin

 

[Jacob D]

I have a 6 bulb config, nobody has ever said it looks yellow, doesn't look yellow to me, but everyone has their own taste when it comes to Kelvin. I replace my bulbs at one year so I haven't really pushed them to the point of color shifting, but I can believe that there would be some negative results in the latter part of it's life.