As I've posted here before, I have pretty much every bulb from ATI, Giesemann, and KZ and have played around with about a million combinations of bulbs to get me the best combination of brightness, color, and growth.
For what its worth, based on both my experiments and what I've seen from around the web, the trick for getting the best out of your combination is balancing a strong green peak with the red and blue portions of the spectrum.
Over and over again, I see tanks with amazing color that use Aquablue Special bulbs(which have a huge green peak). Every time I tried the bulb, I hated how it made the tank look greenish and the colors were washed out. I kept trying different combinations and didn't really see growth AND color take off until I got the Aquablue special tamed.
Remember, only my experiences and my thoughts on viewing color are subjective, the color development in the corals is less subjective. There are many factors at work in an SPS tank that can lead to good color, but I feel that the water parameters have been more or less pretty stable during each of the combos and they were left in place for at least a few weeks to see the effect.
My setup: ATI Sunpower 8X39watt, positions 3 and 6 on 11.5 hours, all bulbs on for 6.5 hours of that time.
Some combos and my results:
#1:
KZ SuperBlue
KZ Fiji Purple
ATI Blue Plus
KZ New Gen
KZ SuperBlue
KZ SuperBlue
KZ New Gen
KZ SuperBlue
Results:
Growth: Slow
Visible Color: Good color representation, definitely blue overtone, a bit dim to the eye
Coral color: Blues Intensified a bit, greens faded some.
Note: Seemed to be better lower to the water, approximately 6" off the surface.
#2:
KZ SuperBlue
KZ New Gen
ATI Blue Plus
KZ New Gen
KZ Fiji Purple
KZ SuperBlue
KZ New Gen
KZ SuperBlue
Results:
Growth: Slow-medium
Visible Color: Good color representation, very visibly bright
Coral color: Tip color improved, but some corals seemed stressed and some tips lost color/burned.
Note: This worked better when I raised the light to about 10" off the water(which blinded me)
#3:
KZ SuperBlue
KZ SuperBlue
ATI Blue Plus
Giesemann Aquablue Plus
KZ Fiji Purple
KZ SuperBlue
KZ New Gen
KZ SuperBlue
Results:
Growth: Slow
Visible Color: Yuck "“ too yellow for my taste, very visibly bright
Coral color: Corals showed stress within days, some tips/sides of sps burned. Corals began turning brown.
Note: The Aquablue Plus is pretty yellow and hard to balance, and puts out a lot of UV
#4:
KZ SuperBlue
KZ SuperBlue
Giesemann Actinic Plus(Very similar to Blue Plus, a bit more actinic)
ATI Aquablue Special
KZ Fiji purple
KZ SuperBlue
ATI Blue Plus
KZ SuperBlue
Results:
Growth: Medium - Corals immediately responded with growth as soon as the Aquablue went in.
Visible Color: Pretty good representation of color, a bit dull though, a bit dim
Coral color: Bases and tips showed better color within days
Note: Putting the Fiji purple next to the Aquablue helped with the color wash-out, but the overall dimness was not desirable.
#5:
KZ SuperBlue
KZ New Gen
ATI Blue Plus
Giesemann Lagoon Blue(Strong Green and red peaks)
ATI Aquablue Special
KZ SuperBlue
KZ Fiji purple
KZ SuperBlue
Results:
Growth: High - Corals accelerated growth when the Lagoon blue went in next to the Aquablue.
Visible Color: Very good representation of color, Reflective and fluorescent colors glow nicely, Very bright.
Coral color: Bases and tips showed intensified colors, every coral is growing and responding strongly.
Final combo, the one I'm using now:
#6:
Giesemann Lagoon blue
KZ Super Blue
ATI Blue Plus
ATI Aquablue Special
ATI Aquablue Special
KZ SuperBlue
KZ Fiji purple
KZ SuperBlue
Growth: Very High - Corals accelerated growth further, and I have had to up my 2-part dosing significantly.
Visible Color: Very good representation of color, Reflective and fluorescent colors glow nicely, Very bright.
Coral color: Several corals are coloring up in ways that they never had before.
Note: This combo is my current combo and has been in place for about 1 month. The lights are 7" off the water, it looks great and the corals are doing very well.
To sum up: My experience suggests that a lot of blue light doesn't seem to do much for the corals until there is a strong green component to go with it. There are some studies from Germany that seem to support the need for the green spectrum(but its still not clear what the heck it does for the coral). As you add green, it's a delicate process to add enough red to balance it aesthetically. I found putting the Fiji purple toward the back helped moderate the red intensity some. KZ New Gen bulbs are good for overall brightness but they seem to be missing something for growth. The Aquablue Special bulb(or that in combination with lagoon blue) for me was the key.
