T5 Color Temperature affects SPS Coloration?

[thebanker]

Does the color temperature of your aquarium's light affect the SPS coloration?

I recently swapped some of my stock Current USA bulbs for some ATI and Wavepoint bulbs. I've had some slight color-shift in SPS, some good, some bad. My pink seriatopora looks better, but my green slimer acro looks more "peachy" colored than it did originally.

Here is what I had, and what I have now:

Before
1 - Current USA 460nm
2 - Current USA 10KK
3 - Current USA 460nm
4 - Current USA 10KK

After
1 - Current USA 460nm
2 - ATI Aquablue Special
3 - ATI Blue Plus
4 - Wavepoint Red Wave

Would I be better off, coloration wise, to swap the Wavepoint bulb for another ATI Aquablue Special, or Blue Plus? I love the purple look of the red wave, but will trade it for a more 20K blue look if it improves vibrance of SPS coloration.

 

[scrapz]

i would swap the wavepoint with a ati blue +.

if you like purple do 4 blue+ /w 1 KZ Fiji purple or redwave

 

[thebanker]

Why would you put in a Blue+? For personal preference in the "look" or for improved SPS coloration?

If anything I may swap the Red Wave for a KZ Fiji Purple.

 

[darkside212]

the blue+ bulbs put out more PAR which will help growth while still having the actinic look.

I currently run 5 blue+ and one aquablue special on my 75G however I am switching to a diy LED

 

[thebanker]

The growth I have is fantastic with the existing set up, I'm looking to increase coloration. I know that there isn't one magic catch-all formula for bright SPS color.

The Blue+ bulb is great, I love the one I have and plan on getting another.

I guess the question becomes: does the red spectrum present in Fiji Purple & Red Wave bulbs change coloration of SPS?

 

[ryanjiang]

Do 2 ATI blue plus, 1 ATI blue spcial, 1 fiji purple. You will get 14K/20K looking, decent par and a wide spectrum. There is just no compare between current 460 and ATI blue plus, blue plus is pretty much the benchmark for 460 peaked lamp.

Fiji purple is prob. the best thing around for T5, your purple SPS will get crazy purple color if you place them close to it. It will promote red as well, but not to the extend of purple coral. The best thing about Fiji purple is that it promote purple/red, but the tank does not look too red overral as with other red lamp.


I have been running T5 for few month (3 blue plus, 1 blue speical, 1 fiji purple) my SPS grow very well and color is nice, you can check my tank here.

 

[thebanker]

Thanks for the advice ryanjiang it's very helpful. I'm going to look into a KZ fiji purple.

And I TOTALLY agree with you - by no means does the Current USA 460nm bulb compare to an ATI blue plus. I run them side-by-side and it's like day and night.

Don't get me wrong though, I LOVE my red wave bulb, but I'm wondering if it's affecting the coral's coloration. I did notice that both of my ATI bulbs take a long time to fully fire-up, I wonder if there is a correlation between the "fire-up time" and PAR output. FWIW the Wavepoint and Current USA bulbs both fire up at the same speed.

 

[DesertBandits]

with 4 bulbs I've always found 3 blue+ and 1 GE 6500K to have good balanced color with lots of blue and high par.