WWYD? SPS Lighting Question

[malx]

Hi, All.

Currently I am growing acros and some easier SPS corals in my SPS tank. My tank is 36" wide and I have four T5 bulbs and two Kessil A360W Tuna Blues. At its brightest I'm getting about 150-300 PAR which seems to be good so far, I can turn up the LEDs. Here's my question...

I am running 3 ATI Blue bulbs and 1 ATI Purple. I am thinking of adding a single T5 fixture on either side of the setup so the corals can get more light coming from the front and back rather than just above.

What color bulbs would you do? Would you do two more blues? Two whites? Two Atinnics? These lights would only be on for about 6 hours at the peak of the period.

Here's a drawing of now and future: https://www.screencast.com/t/MVxcuL2j

Here's the sepectrum of the Kessils. http://www.bulkreefsupply.com/kessil-a360w-tuna-blue-led-aquarium-light.html

Currently the Kessils will turn up to 42% white. I'm thinking maybe since I can turn those up more, to get atinics or maybe whites are better for side lighting. Remember the purpose is to light the sides of the corals so as they grow they don't get shaded.

Let me know!
Joey

 

[mcgyvr]

Most of it is personal preference of the color temp/amount of fluorescent "pop" you like,etc....
There is some differences in the "output/PAR" of the bulbs

ATI has a FAQ on their site showing the approximate "kelvin" look for certain bulb combinations..

 

[Ron Reefman]

Joey, is your goal here to add PAR, reduce shadows, change the overall color of the tank for your viewing pleasure or for the benefit of the coral?

 

[tkeracer619]

Two additional bulbs during daytime?

I'd consider ATI Aquablue Special.

 

[malx]

Joey, is your goal here to add PAR, reduce shadows, change the overall color of the tank for your viewing pleasure or for the benefit of the coral?

Hi, Ron.

I have two main goals in this order..
1: Reduce shadowing.
2: Increase PAR in the shadowed areas.

 

[malx]

Two additional bulbs during daytime?

I'd consider ATI Aquablue Special.

What do you think of this combination? https://www.screencast.com/t/dUR5NpJ4Xobu

 

[Ron Reefman]

I'd add the 2 bulbs (front and back) I'd do the front white (I don't know t5 bulbs anymore) and then try deep blue or white in the back. I'd try the deep blue in hopes of making the tank look deeper (front to back) by the back end looking more blue. I don't know if that would work, but it might be worth a try. I'm going to add a strip of blue leds to the back side of my Photon V2. If the finished product looks good, I might add a strip of white or light blue to the front of the fixture. But Reef Breeders hasn't released them just yet.

 

[zsuman101]

if you want too increase par with ati t5s use all blue plus, then you can adjust your white light spectrum with your kessils. the aquablue special and purple plus bulbs look funky to me. so you should be able to balance out the blue plus with the kessils without adding so much red with the purple and aqua blu sp.....zsu

 

[malx]

WWYD? SPS Lighting Question

I'd add the 2 bulbs (front and back) I'd do the front white (I don't know t5 bulbs anymore) and then try deep blue or white in the back. I'd try the deep blue in hopes of making the tank look deeper (front to back) by the back end looking more blue. I don't know if that would work, but it might be worth a try. I'm going to add a strip of blue leds to the back side of my Photon V2. If the finished product looks good, I might add a strip of white or light blue to the front of the fixture. But Reef Breeders hasn't released them just yet.

My tank is in a wall and you can see through. So there is no front and back. It's visible from three sides.

I do like the thinking though!

 

[malx]

if you want too increase par with ati t5s use all blue plus, then you can adjust your white light spectrum with your kessils. the aquablue special and purple plus bulbs look funky to me. so you should be able to balance out the blue plus with the kessils without adding so much red with the purple and aqua blu sp.....zsu

Him, you'd do blue not white? Ok. How does Superblue look funky? Is it just an off color?

 

[Ron Reefman]

Joey, that set up is killer! Very cool. So it's a bedroom on one side, what room is on the other side?

 

[jda]

IMO, the bulbs on either side are just a temp fix. The real issue is that your Kessils are too much of a point-source and the shading will get worse. You might consider fixing that to address the root cause. Larger-length/width panels, bulbs with a larger reflector and another 4x T5 bulbs would take care of this for good.

If you do decide on the two bulbs, I like the coral plus, but I am a 14-15K guy and don't like the windex look too much. (For reference, I use 20K radiums and 14K phoenix unsupplemented, both of which are like 14-15K ish with a crisp white water that make the corals shine.) You can always blue up the water with the kessils if they are a bit too white.

 

[malx]

Joey, that set up is killer! Very cool. So it's a bedroom on one side, what room is on the other side?

Thanks Ron! The hallway!

 

[malx]

IMO, the bulbs on either side are just a temp fix. The real issue is that your Kessils are too much of a point-source and the shading will get worse. You might consider fixing that to address the root cause. Larger-length/width panels, bulbs with a larger reflector and another 4x T5 bulbs would take care of this for good.

If you do decide on the two bulbs, I like the coral plus, but I am a 14-15K guy and don't like the windex look too much. (For reference, I use 20K radiums and 14K phoenix unsupplemented, both of which are like 14-15K ish with a crisp white water that make the corals shine.) You can always blue up the water with the kessils if they are a bit too white.

Thanks for the tip. I may try two Coral Plus. You're right about the kessils offering too much point light but I built my aquascape with that taken into consideration so the corals that I need to get a TON of light sit directly underneath where the kessils are.

 

[jayball]

Thanks for the tip. I may try two Coral Plus. You're right about the kessils offering too much point light but I built my aquascape with that taken into consideration so the corals that I need to get a TON of light sit directly underneath where the kessils are.

I will +1 the coral+. Compared with the ABS it is even good as a standalone offering better florescent response while still giving full spectrum light(little too pink though, the green in the blue+ balances that).

 

[malx]

I will +1 the coral+. Compared with the ABS it is even good as a standalone offering better florescent response while still giving full spectrum light(little too pink though, the green in the blue+ balances that).

Thanks. I also have the Blue in my LEDs too that I can turn up.