The Grim Reefer
Ready for some NOBALL!!!
B L U E Plus
There is a Blue Plus which is blue. Aquablue Special which is ATI's 60/60 lamp and Aquablue Plus which is Giesemann's 60/60 lamp. The 50/50 lamps are white with a slight blue tint.
The T5 Q&a Thread
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B L U E Plus
There is a Blue Plus which is blue. Aquablue Special which is ATI's 60/60 lamp and Aquablue Plus which is Giesemann's 60/60 lamp. The 50/50 lamps are white with a slight blue tint.
plancton
Active member
Grim:
Two questions:
Is it true that having more blue light creates better coloration on corals?, I ask this because I bought an exotic blue monti cap
The blue polyps that you see in the picture became brown and only the body remains blue. I´m having this sort of problem on other corals too, namely my Atlantis original superman, its polyps are maroon instead of bright red.
I use JBL bulbs and people tell me the problem is that I use to many white ones, (jbl 15000k):
This problem has made me believe that the I can only achieve good coloration with MH, so I was thinking about changing, but wanted to try a new brand and bulb selection for the first time.
Its a total of 6 bulbs with independent parabolic reflectors. In order for many of my corals to change their brown polyps to blue I was thinking maybe adding lots of blue plus?
Can you have to much blue plus?
I contacted ATI once and told them I wanted to use only blue plus, they say it wasn´t ideal for the corals to have only blue plus and that it would look to dark as if to deep in the sea etc., so I don´t know, in the last picture I just showed you I´m thinking about 2 ATI aquablue on the extremes that would be to separated to the center, and 1 kz fiji pink in the middle to bring out the reds. Whats your opinion?
Two questions:
Is it true that having more blue light creates better coloration on corals?, I ask this because I bought an exotic blue monti cap
The blue polyps that you see in the picture became brown and only the body remains blue. I´m having this sort of problem on other corals too, namely my Atlantis original superman, its polyps are maroon instead of bright red.
I use JBL bulbs and people tell me the problem is that I use to many white ones, (jbl 15000k):
This problem has made me believe that the I can only achieve good coloration with MH, so I was thinking about changing, but wanted to try a new brand and bulb selection for the first time.
Its a total of 6 bulbs with independent parabolic reflectors. In order for many of my corals to change their brown polyps to blue I was thinking maybe adding lots of blue plus?
Can you have to much blue plus?
I contacted ATI once and told them I wanted to use only blue plus, they say it wasn´t ideal for the corals to have only blue plus and that it would look to dark as if to deep in the sea etc., so I don´t know, in the last picture I just showed you I´m thinking about 2 ATI aquablue on the extremes that would be to separated to the center, and 1 kz fiji pink in the middle to bring out the reds. Whats your opinion?
I created my own thread but didn't get much of a response. So I figured I'd ask here. So I set up my T5 retro in my canopy. I have two ballasts. One Icecap 660 and one NO ballast. So I'm wondering where to mount them? It seems that if I mount them anywhere but in the canopy it's gonna be a pain to take off the canopy. I thought about mounting the ballasts on the wall behind the tank but I'd have to leave a lot of slack in the wiring to be able to take the canopy off. So if I mounted them inside the canopy, are they going to be ok? Are there any precautions that I'd need to take? Where have you guys placed them?
The Grim Reefer
Ready for some NOBALL!!!
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15410270#post15410270 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by plancton
Grim:
Two questions:
Is it true that having more blue light creates better coloration on corals?, I ask this because I bought an exotic blue monti cap
The blue polyps that you see in the picture became brown and only the body remains blue. I´m having this sort of problem on other corals too, namely my Atlantis original superman, its polyps are maroon instead of bright red.
I use JBL bulbs and people tell me the problem is that I use to many white ones, (jbl 15000k):
This problem has made me believe that the I can only achieve good coloration with MH, so I was thinking about changing, but wanted to try a new brand and bulb selection for the first time.
Its a total of 6 bulbs with independent parabolic reflectors. In order for many of my corals to change their brown polyps to blue I was thinking maybe adding lots of blue plus?
Can you have to much blue plus?
I contacted ATI once and told them I wanted to use only blue plus, they say it wasn´t ideal for the corals to have only blue plus and that it would look to dark as if to deep in the sea etc., so I don´t know, in the last picture I just showed you I´m thinking about 2 ATI aquablue on the extremes that would be to separated to the center, and 1 kz fiji pink in the middle to bring out the reds. Whats your opinion?
Where using ONLY Blue plus will hurt is color rendering. With little red or higher range green spectrum reds, yellows and pinks wont look right.
As far as things browning out I suspect it is lack of PAR. How old are the lamps you are running? Are your Nitrate levels good? If those lamps are more than 6 months old I suspect that is your issue.
As far as lamps I would get 4 ATI Blue Plus, 1 GE 6500K Daylight and 1 UVL Actinic White. All those blue plus will give you lots of PAR which should help color things up. They have enough actinic range light to make any colors you have pop and the higher PAR should help bring back any pigmentation you've lost by lack of PAR. The GE and UVL lamps will bump up the red, yellow and green colors which will make greens look brighter, Pinks and Purples look right (these colors and yellows tend to look lousy under just blue lamps)
The Grim Reefer
Ready for some NOBALL!!!
As long as the canopy is well vented, and running the IC ballast you have to run fans for cooling the lamps so the venting should be covered it should be fine as long as the ballasts don't get hit with salt spray.
solitude127
Proud user of IO Salt!
If I were going to do a 9 - 60" T5's over a 150, what bulb combo would you suggest?
The Grim Reefer
Ready for some NOBALL!!!
Probably 6 Blue Plus, 1 ATI Pro Color and 2 GE 6500K daylights. Do the Pro Color about middle or slightly front of center and a Ge in the 2 or 3 slot and the other 7 or 8th.
The Grim Reefer
Ready for some NOBALL!!!
It really isn't very complicated. The hardest part is mounting the endcaps, not the wiring. It;s just simple stab connectors on the ballast and endcaps and everything is color coded.
The Grim Reefer
Ready for some NOBALL!!!
If they are marginal lamps to begin with they could really be down on PAR now,
I wouldn't consider using any lamp that costs much less than 20 bucks with the exception of the GE daylights which are mass produced so the price is better.
Oh alright. I'm in the process of setting up a 120g (48"x24"x24") and I think you told me before to set the blubs up like:
Front:
ATI Blue +
UVL Actinic White
ATI Blue +
GE 6500k Daylight
ATI Blue +
UVL Actinic White
ATI Blue +
ATI Blue +
But should I go with the HO or the V-HO if I wanted to keep sps and clams.
Front:
ATI Blue +
UVL Actinic White
ATI Blue +
GE 6500k Daylight
ATI Blue +
UVL Actinic White
ATI Blue +
ATI Blue +
But should I go with the HO or the V-HO if I wanted to keep sps and clams.
The Grim Reefer
Ready for some NOBALL!!!
I would overdrive the 4 center lamps if you want clams on the sand.
The Grim Reefer
Ready for some NOBALL!!!
Yeah, you can overdrive them all. I would use the same mix of lamps.
The Grim Reefer
Ready for some NOBALL!!!
at leat 4" above the water. I wouldn't go any higher than 6 if you can help it
PogoMonogo
New member
Hey grim, thanks for all this t5 help. I have a 90g with a 2x250w hqi and 4x54w t5. I am going to be switching to an 8 bulb tek light. How far down do you think sps, at the moment I have 1 or 2 around halfway down. Any suggestions for bulb combo as well?
I have decided to go T5 on a 220G tank, 72"x24"x30" tall.
This tank is an upgrade from my current tank which uses 2-250W Radiums on an M80 ballast.
Looks liek I can fit 8, maybe 9 60" blubs above the Tank with an icecap retrofit.
So, a couple questions.
1. Will the 5' bulbs provide enough light spread down the sides of a 6' tank that the edges will not appear shaded?
2. What bulb combo woudl come close to the radiums visual appearance?
3. How will I do on a 30" tank as it relates to par? Clams on the bottom, the SPS can be in the top 24" of the tank.
4. Will i get a bigger bang for the buck if I just used the 10 bulb 5' ATI Powermodule versus the retrofit?
Thanks a ton!!
This tank is an upgrade from my current tank which uses 2-250W Radiums on an M80 ballast.
Looks liek I can fit 8, maybe 9 60" blubs above the Tank with an icecap retrofit.
So, a couple questions.
1. Will the 5' bulbs provide enough light spread down the sides of a 6' tank that the edges will not appear shaded?
2. What bulb combo woudl come close to the radiums visual appearance?
3. How will I do on a 30" tank as it relates to par? Clams on the bottom, the SPS can be in the top 24" of the tank.
4. Will i get a bigger bang for the buck if I just used the 10 bulb 5' ATI Powermodule versus the retrofit?
Thanks a ton!!
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