I agree with Grim. My plan for a more 'colored' in T5 tank was to change my current setup of 2xaquablue, 2xblue+, 2xtrueactinic03 was to swap out the aquablues for two GE 6500K/sun bulbs. After seeing the results on a friends tank where he only uses 1:1 of GE 6500Ks to blue+, I want to change a bit. Sure, my tank looks nice and blue, but my corals are all just that... blue and green maybe. My buddy had the similar thing happen on his large 150g as well. He used to use 2x250wattMH 20,000Ks at each end, and a 400watt Radium in the center, with two rows of VHO actinics. The tank looked nice, bluer than anything I have ever seen... but none of his corals stood out. I have similar experiences with my pheonix bulbs.... very blue, great output, and great growers, but thats all. The corals all look sterile. He swapped out the lights for a 6' maristar... 3x ushio 14,000K 250wattDEs and T5s running blue+ bulbs. The tank has really come alive... corals that once looked plain and nothing under the blue light are showing other vibrant colors... its a complete turnaround.
I have a theory. For a good decade now, the quest has been for bluer light. We started with 6500K bulbs as the bluest, and while that was good, we wanted less of a urine look, and more 'deep blue sea'. We used actinics, and cheered when the first 10,000Ks hit the market. But perhaps we have gone too far now. Many have gone after bulbs that have loads of blue and actinic (14,000Ks and 20,000Ks) and often very little of everything else.
The pheonix 14,000K... loads of blue, but little else. The new Solaris LEDs... very blue... even the white LEDs have a spectral curve mostly in the blue spectrums. While this gives off great PUR (PAR is available radiation, and PUR is the radiation that is used), it doesnt stimulate the pigments very much. Its my inderstanding that the pigments are to sheild the coral from excessive light levels in specific spectrums. So while very blue bulbs and actinics will help our blue and green corals 'pop', they dont stimulate the pigments that would reflect red, yellow, orange, etc...
The bottom line is that while I have been running my tanks very blue these past few years and getting a tank that looks more pleasing and blue... the corals have faded into the background. Everything is blue. The corals have no need to show their red and warmer pigments because there is no light in these spectrums to reflect/sheild.
Just keep this in mind when you are selecting bulbs... try to represent a broad spectrum... all blue or something and your corals might not look so hot.
