The T5 Q&a Thread - split
- Thread starter eagle9252
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BuckeyeFan
New member
rtparty
Raise The Reef!
3 blue plus and 1 purple plus.
GSMguy
New member
TropTrea
New member
With the 14,000K metal Hide the purple plus is realy an option since your already getting a lot of red from the Metal Hide. I personaly would go with all ATI Blue Plus bulbs. if your usinging the T-5's as simle suplemental light.
Watch out for teat though the Metal Hides do produce a lot and the T-5s have shortened life spans if they get too warm.
rtparty
Raise The Reef!
I am not worried about the small amount of red that a purple plus will bring in. It will help accent pink and purple corals more than a Phoenix bulb will. I have used Phoenix bulbs in the past and love them but they miss out on some pinks and can be overly blue to some people. Adding in the Purple Plus is very subtle and will help tone down the blue.
A phoenix 14k isn't 14k either. It is a lot closer to 20k.
TropTrea
New member
Sanjay Joshi used to have great web page on Metal hide lighting. He had all the test results on numerios different bulbs. I'm still hoping it will return for the Metal Hide enthusuiasts. But one big thing I remember from his page es were not to believe manufacturers Color Temp ratings. Only a smalll minirity were accurate and the hoiight the color temp the less accurate they became.
I remember from his data I started switching between the XM 10,000K and the Ushio 6,500K bulbs in my tanks and liked the resiults growth wise.
Then the question prevails is if you have 20,000K Metal Hides do you even need to suplement the blue?
GSMguy
New member
The pheonix is blue call it 22k if you like. You just reccomended all blue plus to suppliment it. This confuses me.
GSMguy
New member
Try my combo the Coral+ will bring out the colors that a pheonix and Blue+ combo miss.
MedRed
Active member
How would you arrange the bulbs?
FF Rainwater
New member
Someone plese help!!
ok i bought a new tank which is 96x30x30...i had two 60" 4- bulb fixtures on my last tank that i put on the new one but now i'm way short from covering teh whole tank so i'm going to add 2- 36" 4 bulb fixtures so everything is covered by 8 bulbs...i'm planning on upgrading all bulbs to ATI but dont know squat about them this is what the ATI website says do
1. Blue Plus
2. Aquablue Special
3. Purple Plus
4. Blue Plus
5. Aquablue Special
6. Purple Plus
7. Blue Plus
8. Aquablue Special
but why dont they say use the coral plus or actinics?? does that setup look good? anyone running something like this?? i dont want it too damn blue but i want teh colors to pop out and look good...please give me some input
ok i bought a new tank which is 96x30x30...i had two 60" 4- bulb fixtures on my last tank that i put on the new one but now i'm way short from covering teh whole tank so i'm going to add 2- 36" 4 bulb fixtures so everything is covered by 8 bulbs...i'm planning on upgrading all bulbs to ATI but dont know squat about them this is what the ATI website says do
1. Blue Plus
2. Aquablue Special
3. Purple Plus
4. Blue Plus
5. Aquablue Special
6. Purple Plus
7. Blue Plus
8. Aquablue Special
but why dont they say use the coral plus or actinics?? does that setup look good? anyone running something like this?? i dont want it too damn blue but i want teh colors to pop out and look good...please give me some input
TropTrea
New member
The reason they do not reccommend there coral plus is because they recommend it as a stand alone bulb. As I have been told two Coral Plus bulbs will give the same effect as one Blue Plus and one Aqua blue Special.
My personal taste is not a lot different than the listing. I would not use 3 Aqua Blue Specials but replace the one in Slot 8 with another Blue Plus.
The use of the Aqua Blue Spoecials as full spectrum bulbs is dabatable by many. Some love there colors others think they lack snap. I personaly would consider replacing one with a GE 6,500K for more snap in the fish and corals that rely on reflective light for there color appearance.
TropTrea
New member
I a metal hits Florescent combination I'm used to having the florescent as dawn to dusk lights that try to push the visual florescense to there max. Blue espencaly between 420 nm and 460 nm do this. When I think of Metal Hides I think of them as the Mid Day bulbs that give the brighter daylight effect.
If you look at chromatic color scale that actualy compares color temperatures you will find there are big steps between 2,800K and 3,200K but when you gete above the 10,000K level it is only a small step to take you to that inifinity point and completly off the scale. this is why calling lighting effects 16,000K or 22,000K are more in the eye of the beholders opinion that anything else.
Assuming the Pheonex bulb was a true 14,000K than the added blues would not hurt you but if it is closer to a 20,000K bulb then I would consider reversing the normal in my mind. By this I mean running the MH from dawn to Dusk and using T-5's to suplement the mid day cycle. With that revers effect I'd avoind the pure blue bulbs and go with something like a pair of GE 6,500K's and a pair of Purple Plus bulbs.
I have not seen Sanja's spectum graphs for that bulb in probvably 6 years so I'm not sure how much red and green light it produces. But most MH's do produce a lot even though it may not be there primarly color.
TropTrea
New member
Talking about Fresh Water it is a completly different animal. The Krib website had loads of good data on it for fresh water. I got the best fresh water growth and color for plants using a combination of a GE Chroma 5,000K with there Tri Phosphate 7,200K bulb. Both had extremly high CRI factors above 90. A CRI factor of 100 is suposed to be identical to being in the shade on a sunny day at noon.
FF Rainwater
New member
what about this
1. Blue plus
2. Aquablue special
3. purple plus
4. blue plus
5. GE 6500k
6. puple plus
7. blue plus
8. blue plus
would that be a good option to give it plenty of pop and not be too blue?? i just dont want to spend the $200 on these bulbs and not be happy with what i get
1. Blue plus
2. Aquablue special
3. purple plus
4. blue plus
5. GE 6500k
6. puple plus
7. blue plus
8. blue plus
would that be a good option to give it plenty of pop and not be too blue?? i just dont want to spend the $200 on these bulbs and not be happy with what i get
TropTrea
New member
Not knowing your personal color taste no one can guarantee you will be happy with anything. With the set up you listed above you may be happy or you will be one light bulb swap away from being happy. Only you will know if it not blue enough where you add another blue Plus, or if it to blue and you swap the Aqua Blue for another GE 6,500K , or you will be happy.
If 100 people looked at this combo I would guess 30% would say too White, 40% would say great, and 30% would say too blue.
FF Rainwater
New member
ok i can handle that...at least i know i can just swop a couple around and play with it..thanks for the help!!
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