So, these bulbs are useless for coral growth.
The T5 Q&a Thread - split
- Thread starter eagle9252
- Start date
So, these bulbs are useless for coral growth.
rtparty
Raise The Reef!
No. The Aquablue is a great grower actually. The actinic won't grow anything though.
TropTrea
New member
Not at all. As other said and will repeat as is tis very important that people understand this.
1. Aqua Blue is partly Blue and Partly full spectrum. It will give some coral growth but most importantly it will bring out some of the reflective colors in the corals.
2. Atinic Bulbs are designed to simply bring out the florescent colors. However they do produce a slight amount of growth. In a T-5 fixture with multiple bulbs they are great to reduce the actual PAR as well when it is in excess for the corals the fixture is lighting.
3. The Blue bulbs Blue Plus, Super Blue are the best bulbs for coral growth and getting a high amount of usable PAR to the corals. But they do little for reflective colors. These Blue bulbs also do a fair job on florescent colors.
A well lighted tank is a balance between growth, florescence, and reflective colors. However everyone has a different perspective on how this balance should look to there eye. And for different corals the effects change with the same lighting.
Av8bluewater
New member
Thanks
If you ran a Reefbrite actinic...
For my 12 hour What two bulbs would you pick?
Also.. I just moved my fixture from about 10" to 8". I was reading a TOTM thread and the guy said he has his 3-4" and believes it's necessary to really bring out best colors. What are you guys doing? My tank is 24" deep corals in bottom half.. Well mid tank.. will grow to 3/4.
Anyone got links to individual bulb PAR values?
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TropTrea
New member
If you run the reef fright atinic still go with the GE, purple plus, and the rest Blues.
As far a height of the water I run mine between 3" a 6" above the surface of the water.
I try not to go go by PAR numbers as without knowing the spectrum of the bulb the Par numbers can be misleading. The green light and yellow light is recorded by par meters equal to blue light. Yet Green and yellow light has near zero effect on coral growth.
rogergolf66
im an addict lol
Ok so once again I'm playing around with different ideas and combos. Learning a lot about t5 and coral light preference.
Ok so reminder the 8x54 ati unit is to much light for my tank. To make things worse even more light I have 2 led strips 460nm
So I'm thinking
7:30- 7:30pm led strips
9:00- 4:00pm 6 bulb t5 w/combo
Blue plus x3
Actinic x2
Purple plus
10:00-12:00 2 bulb t5 w/combo
GE 6500
Purple plus.
I am thinking the actinic will lower the par to stop bleaching the coral but the 6 bulb combo will bring in great color.
Having the 2 bulb on for short time to help the reflective colors. The times are a bit shorter to minimize duration to also help stop the bleaching. If this works out I can increase duration slowly.
Looking for thoughts and feedback of pros and cons growth color or problems?
Thx
Roger
Ok so reminder the 8x54 ati unit is to much light for my tank. To make things worse even more light I have 2 led strips 460nm
So I'm thinking
7:30- 7:30pm led strips
9:00- 4:00pm 6 bulb t5 w/combo
Blue plus x3
Actinic x2
Purple plus
10:00-12:00 2 bulb t5 w/combo
GE 6500
Purple plus.
I am thinking the actinic will lower the par to stop bleaching the coral but the 6 bulb combo will bring in great color.
Having the 2 bulb on for short time to help the reflective colors. The times are a bit shorter to minimize duration to also help stop the bleaching. If this works out I can increase duration slowly.
Looking for thoughts and feedback of pros and cons growth color or problems?
Thx
Roger
rogergolf66
im an addict lol
Well I had to much light with differnt combo. Im thinking that the 2 actin8 will lower the par enough.
Im also looking at it with the led I have 3 light switches
Led
6 bulb and 2 bulb
So since everything on with differnt combo was to much light. I lowered the par on 6 bulb but should help increase color of corals. Figured the 2 bulb could be a short durantion to just help peak the par back up for a short time to help the corals reach a point just before photo inhibition then turn off let the blue light keep them going the rest of the day.
Just a thought. Looking for feedback
Im also looking at it with the led I have 3 light switches
Led
6 bulb and 2 bulb
So since everything on with differnt combo was to much light. I lowered the par on 6 bulb but should help increase color of corals. Figured the 2 bulb could be a short durantion to just help peak the par back up for a short time to help the corals reach a point just before photo inhibition then turn off let the blue light keep them going the rest of the day.
Just a thought. Looking for feedback
Dapg8gt
New member
I have noticed some real positive results swapping in 2 Actinic bulbs in place of blue plus.. My colors are starting to darken up so I'm going to slowly drop the light closer to the tank to contain the light spill..
I'm running
Front
B+
A
C+
B+
A
B+
C+
B+
I have my main daylights on for 6 hours and actinics start 2 hours before and end 2 hours after..
I may swap out the coral+ bulbs for a Ge 6500k and 2 purple + and see if I like the colors better imo the coral + kinda make the tank a little dull..
Do the purple + put out a lot of par? Do you think swapping an Actinic for the extra P+ I want will put me back up to the bleaching zone =).. I'm going to have to tinker with it and test the levels and wait I guess.. I think I want at least 5 B+ for growth right?
I'm running
Front
B+
A
C+
B+
A
B+
C+
B+
I have my main daylights on for 6 hours and actinics start 2 hours before and end 2 hours after..
I may swap out the coral+ bulbs for a Ge 6500k and 2 purple + and see if I like the colors better imo the coral + kinda make the tank a little dull..
Do the purple + put out a lot of par? Do you think swapping an Actinic for the extra P+ I want will put me back up to the bleaching zone =).. I'm going to have to tinker with it and test the levels and wait I guess.. I think I want at least 5 B+ for growth right?
rogergolf66
im an addict lol
I agree on the dullook witb cp. Thats why I out in the ge 65k I only had 1 purple pluss. Ordering another pp and actinic this week. I like the 65k ge looks more like my 20k mh radium tank. They r side by side so easy to tell the different look
Av8bluewater
New member
Did you guys notice better growth with a GE6500?
rogergolf66
im an addict lol
Im to new to the 6500k to determine but I like the color better
Dapg8gt
New member
I just personally like the color better than all coral + didn't notice a difference on growth at all.. Looking back it's when I was the happiest with the combo. Not sure what the Actinic I have to run is going to do to it though. It's crazy how just 1 bulb can change the way it looks to your eyes.
TropTrea
New member
The colors look deeper because with the Atinics there is less visable light to wash them out.
Timing has many variable to it between your total usable PAR and the Corals your keeping. If you could go ideal it would 12 hours of light and 12 hours of darkness. But this can seldom be perfect as our lights are either to powerful or too week, But yo do not want your lights on for less than 8 hours or more than 16 hours.
This is part of the reason why seldom recommend them unless someone wants a deep blue tank. With a lot of Blue light there color balance or red and greens is barly noticable. While the GE realy pops the yellos and greens in the tank.
The purple plus hit both ends of visable spectrum Blues and Reds. They probably do produce more PAR than most people give them credit for because 2/3 of there light is in the blues which are recorded poorly by most PAR meters.
I run two Purples with my GE. Unfortunatly the GE bulb is weak in the red end of the spectrum and it becmes personal preference if you want torun two or just one purple bulb to kick the reds a little. With an 8 bulb fixture my favorate combo is
front
1 Blue >>> dawn to Dusk
2 Purple
3 Blue
4 GE
5 Blue
6 Purple
7 Blue >>> dawn to Dusk
8 Blue
rear
Please note I custom wired my fixture.
TropTrea
New member
Shallow water corals that normaly get a wider spectrum of light had noticable better growth for me. But some of deep water corals that are not so light demanding showed a little slow down in growth to no change.
I should add that it is a 40g tank with 4- 39w bulbs, mainly holding zoas and shrooms. Maybe in the future it will hold some LPS and SPS frags. Thanks for the help!
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TropTrea
New member
If your looking strictly for growth go with
front
Blue
Coral
Blue
Blue
If your triyg to sell frags from there and want to show the color a little better
Front
Coral
Blue
Coral
Blue
TropTrea
New member
In that case go with just the one coral plus. Zoos and Mushrooms have fantastic florescence and they do not need added full spectrum lighting to bring out there colors. This also goes for many of the LPS corals. It is some of the SPS that benefit most with the fuller spectrum lighting with there reflective colors.
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