The T5 Q&a Thread - split
- Thread starter eagle9252
- Start date
O>K> this is driving Me crazy, I'm thinking now of going a LITTLE bluer, but still have fish look good (clown, PJ cardinal, hippo,royal gramma, yellow clown goby,sixline) and coral pop and growth. so 2-blue puls 1-purple plus(?) and ??????. What is difference between coral plus and aquablue special? They both say 15000k? Do I need purple plus? waht about 2-blue plus and some combo of coral plus and aquablue special? It's hard for me to picture since I've never seen these color bulbs just Mt 10000 and 12000k and 429nm and 460 nm. Thanks
Michigan Mike
Freedom costs a buckofive
A little bluer would be the ATI aquablue special, KZ koral light or Gmann aquablue plus.
More blue than that needs a ATI coral plus, KZ new gen.
No you don't dont need a purple bulb, but it pops your reds&yellow colors in your fish a lot.
jasonmxrcr
New member
I really need some help here. I have preordered the ATI led powermodule from reefgeek. I don't have the slightest clue as to what 4 bulb combo to go with. I was hoping to use the led's for sunrise/sunset and a couple of the t5 for a high growth midday pop. I would be fine with 12 to 14 k look during midday. And transitioning to a bluer look for morning and night. Going from metal halide to t5 I really don't have any experience with t5's. Adding LED's to the mix further complicates the choices. Any recommendations would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance.
Thanks in advance.
toofrigginswt
New member
I have the 10x54 ATI powermodule. Initially I had the following:
Blue +
Blue+
Blue+
GE 6500k
Blue +
Coral +
Blue +
Purple +
Blue +
Blue +
The above setup was waaaay too white for me and started making all my sps look brown.
So I played around with my bulbs and found that I liked the following:
Blue +
Blue+
Blue+
Coral +
Blue +
Blue +
Blue +
Purple +
Blue +
Blue +
Is there anything wrong with my setup the way it is now? Am I covering all of the spectrum? It's on the bluer side, which i like but I just want to make sure if that I'll still be able to get the proper growth and color. My tank is 60x24x20. Thanks in advance.
Blue +
Blue+
Blue+
GE 6500k
Blue +
Coral +
Blue +
Purple +
Blue +
Blue +
The above setup was waaaay too white for me and started making all my sps look brown.
So I played around with my bulbs and found that I liked the following:
Blue +
Blue+
Blue+
Coral +
Blue +
Blue +
Blue +
Purple +
Blue +
Blue +
Is there anything wrong with my setup the way it is now? Am I covering all of the spectrum? It's on the bluer side, which i like but I just want to make sure if that I'll still be able to get the proper growth and color. My tank is 60x24x20. Thanks in advance.
Michigan Mike
Freedom costs a buckofive
Tough to say since no one in the US has one. But taking in account you will leave your LEDs on throughout the day & adding more blue to your T5 combo, you could try this combo.
1 ge6500
1purple
2 blue plus
Michigan Mike
Freedom costs a buckofive
You may want to add another coral plus or purple plus to the combo to play with.
jasonmxrcr
New member
Thanks Mike, I was wondering if the 6500 would be an option, or if the par difference between it and the blue was negligible. I might just have to buy an extra bulb or two and play around with the combo.
Michigan Mike
Freedom costs a buckofive
Ya the blue plus has tons of PAR.
The GE will brighten things up, I believe with your LEDs that could be a good looking & growing combo.
TropTrea
New member
It is realy hard to truely compare the PAr of the two. If you used a metr for the measurement the GE would probably read a higher PAr because most PAR meters loose sesativity when you get under 430 nm. The other thing to consider is that coral utalize a greater percentage of the light in the 420 to 480 nm range than they do in the longer wavelenghts. But if you do not enough light in those longer wave lenghts the corals will suffer as well. So some "full" spectrum lighting is helpfull even though you do need a lot for the corals. The stronger "full wavelenght" bulbs are there more for personal color preference than for coral growth. They bring out the reflected colors also in corals as well as in the fish and other decorations.
As a side note I just purchased two new ATI Blue Plus bulbs. They are not putting out the visually the same spectrum which is noticable to the eye naked as a pair I purchased 6 months ago. These new bulbs are not blue as but slightly brighter than my old ATI blue plus bulbs. I'd love to see a spectrum analized on the newer bulbs compared to the older ones. My suspecion is the main frequency is probably 10 nm longer and they have a wider spectrum than prior?
toofrigginswt
New member
Back
Blue +
Blue+
Blue+
Coral +
Blue +
GE 6500k
Blue +
Blue +
Blue +
Blue +
Front
Okay I just tried this combo and I actually like the look of it. What do you think of this combo? Do I really need to have that purple+?
Michigan Mike
Freedom costs a buckofive
No, if you like the look it will grow coral just fine.
toofrigginswt
New member
Thanks so much Mike.
TropTrea
New member
Overall it should be great for your corals. There is no shortage of blue to meet there needs and you have the full spectrum to cover them on other wavelenghts. So the next big thing is your personal taste and you say like the effect so I would keep it at that.
But I will warn you as time goes by your tastes may change as your eye gets used to looking at this combo.
toofrigginswt
New member
I'm sure I'll end up changing it overtime. If this was your setup, would you add anything different?
masonicman
New member
Grim or Michigan Mike,
Know anything about this bulb vs Blue plus?
Reef Blue Actinic 54W Aqua Medic
Also I currently run 2 Blue plus 1 Fuji and 1 54W 12000K Aquablue in my fixture. Does the GE 6500k give a better look then the Aquablue?
Know anything about this bulb vs Blue plus?
Reef Blue Actinic 54W Aqua Medic
Also I currently run 2 Blue plus 1 Fuji and 1 54W 12000K Aquablue in my fixture. Does the GE 6500k give a better look then the Aquablue?
Last edited:
Michigan Mike
Freedom costs a buckofive
Nope, I sure don't. Sorry.
A lot of people don't like either bulb because they are strong bulbs that can wash out the blue bulbs very easily.
I like the Ge6500 with a blue plus on each side of it. It really is a great growth bulb that has enough red spectrum so you don't necessarily need a purple bulb as much.
Its cheap enough to give it a chance if your looking for a bit sunnier looking bulb than the aquablue special. I think its good for 12k look with purple & blue undertones, no washed out colors IMO but others will disagree...I think blue washes out colors more than the GE6500 because it has a lot of blue in it. A blue & GE combo looks perfectly white.
Here's iPhone 3 pics of 2 blue plus,1 Fiji purple, 1 ge6500
TropTrea
New member
Nope, I sure don't. Sorry.
Here's iPhone 3 pics of 2 blue plus,1 Fiji purple, 1 ge6500
Interestingly if the color is true on your pictures mine my tanks main tank and my T-5 Frag tank are much more an aqua tint than yours.
My main tanks is running 1 GE, 2 Purple Plus, 5 Blue plus, and 12 watts of 454nm LED's. My frag tank is running running 1 Aqua Blue plus, 1 Purple plus, and 2 Blue plus.
However both of my LED tanks are bluer than yours.
Michigan Mike
Freedom costs a buckofive
No probably not true, not many pics are unfortunately. I think the top pic is much closer.
It was a iphone3 so its not the best camera.
It was a iphone3 so its not the best camera.
jasonmxrcr
New member
Mike, those pics are nice. Are you running those in the order listed I the post? I like the color though. I have always been a fan of the 14000k look. I love the colors of the coral at 20000k, but overall it's too blue for me. That being said I hope the LEDs of my new fixture will allow me to adjust the color from 14k to 20k for sweet colors morning and night.
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