To Much Blue or Right Amount.

[Tanged]

72x24 210gal tank.
2 corallife 36 inch 4 t5 ho bulb lunar light housing.
I have 2 corallife 10k bulbs
Plan to order 2 ATI purple Plus
2 ATI blue plus
2 ATI blue actinic
Each housing will have 1 blue actinic, 1 blue plus as dusk dawn. 10k, 1 Purple plus as daylight.

Other option is to use 4 blue plus and scratch the blue actinic.

Tank will be mainly Fish, live rock, and artificial reef. May add a few softies down the road, but not a gurantee right now. My question is, will one setup be much more blue than the other. I want a dark blue setup in dusk to dawn, but a really clear whiter color with blue tint in daylight, not the bright blue looks most are using.

 

[that Fish Guy]

In my opinion you can never have too much Blue.

 

[Tanged]

I like the tank clear with a slight tint. Dont like the look of a smurf tank

 

[Kyuss]

I think you'll be fine, the blue will get rather washed out when the 10k & Purple + come on. I have 2 blue+, 1 purple+, and 1 coral+ over my tank and it definitely isn't a smurf tank when the purple+ & coral+ come on. I think the actinics will show more thru the day lights than 2 blue+'s will though.

 

[FlyPenFly]

I used

Blue+
Coral+
Coral+
Actinic
6500k
Blue+
Coral+
Blue+

And it finally looks like a slightly cooler 14k Phoenix to me. I'm with you in that I do not like windex filled tanks. When I first got in the hobby I thought it was really cool but that goes away after a month.

 

[dmazz63]

I recently started a 90 gallon with the intent of moving my 30 Gal stock over. I've been having difficulty with the corals shrivelling up or not coming out at all when I put them in the 90 Gallon. I put the fixture up on 4" block to raise it even higher and took out couple of bulbs. Still the corals aren't responding. Could it be my lights? T5 HO 54W
My fixture order is as follows:
Front
1 open
2 Geismann Aquablue +
3 Powerglow 18,000 K
4 Geismann Pure Act +
5 Geismann Aquablue +
6 Open

I also have the following bulbs that I've changed or taken out:
Geismann 6000 K Midday
Geismann Act +
Fluval Actinic +

My water param's are perfect. The corals that are in there are:
Assorted ZOO's
Star polyps
Cabbage coral
Assorted Mushrooms
The pink hair stuff that waves in the current but doesn't come out any more.

The coral that's still in my 29 gal is still doing great. The lighting there is 2 corralife CF 50/50's 96 Watts each.

 

[YoungREEFA]

Whats your water quality

 

[ReeferBatman]

Tanged,

With that many bulbs, and few to no corals kept it's all down to personal preference... Try combo's to see what you like. I have perfectly good bulbs just laying around because I bought them to experiment with... didn't like them.

The purple plus gave too much 'pink' to the equation for my tastes...



dmazz63,

I found a par graph for the 18k light you listed;

Looks like a great all around 'white' bulb to feed a large variety of corals...

But for your listed corals, they like lower intensity + nm light.

I'd cut back to an ABspecial (funny how i recommend it for some tanks, and rally against it for others!) or another 'bluer' white bulb and make sure your photo-period is not more than 9 hours.

Keep water params up and see if that helps.

 

[dmazz63]

dmazz63,

I found a par graph for the 18k light you listed;

Looks like a great all around 'white' bulb to feed a large variety of corals...

But for your listed corals, they like lower intensity + nm light.

I'd cut back to an ABspecial (funny how i recommend it for some tanks, and rally against it for others!) or another 'bluer' white bulb and make sure your photo-period is not more than 9 hours.

Keep water params up and see if that helps.

Of the 7 bulbs I have listed above, is there any combination that would work for softies/LPS? If not please recommend whatever bulb combination I can use and I will supplement my existing bulbs. Also, if I lift my hood higher above the tank, would that help?

 

[Duna_]

Tanged,
The purple plus gave too much 'pink' to the equation for my tastes...

Agree.

I would use the ATI Blue Plus, one of the best reef bulbs, nice PAR, nice blue spectrum ideal for zooxanthellae.
Some reefers use only this bulb for the whole lighting fixture. But it can be too blue for many people. No need to use actinic in fixtures less than 6 bulbs, you'll lose too much usable light. The ATI Blue plus has a good actinic part, fluorescent corals glow nicely.

I use this combination: half blue plus, half coral plus, recommended in this forum. And I love it.
I was using the purple (too pink for me, lower par) and the white tubes (aquablue special), with the blue plus, and I really prefer the new combination I have now.

The Coral Plus is a nice bulb, very clear (white, with a bit of purple and blue) and nice spectrum, 15000ºK.
The tank looks bright, but not too much white, glows thanks to the Blue plus but has a tint of purple that likes the reefer. It makes the red coralline shine.

That is a perfect combination for SPS and LPS. I'm very happy with the results in my tank.


Some people like bluer and use 4 blue plus, 2 coral plus. You should try and decide the look you want for your tank.
I think for softies and LPS this could be a good option, too.

 

[ddropski]

i have a buddy that runs blue all day and they colors on his tank are amazing compared to mine