Which of these T5 combinations to pick?
 

Choice 1: 2 10000K Aquasun (UV) and 2 Super Actinics (UV)
Choice 2: 2 11000K Aquablue Plus (G-mann) and 2 Pure Actinic 03 (G-mann)
Choice 3: 2 11,000K Aquablue Plus (G-mann), 1 Actinic Plus (G-mann) and 1 Pure Actinic 03 (G-mann)
Choice 4: 1 6,000K Midday Sun (G-Mann), 1 11,000K Aquablue Plus (G-mann), 1 Actinic Plus (G-mann) and 1 Pure Actinic 03 (G-mann)
Choice 5: Something else

It would be over a 33 Gallon. I plan to keep a bit of everything (Softies, LPS and SPS) I would like to aim for the "natural look" and nothing too blue. Something that would give a really nice color and radiance to the corals.

Thanks in advance

I think choice 4 will give you a better 'non-blue' look than all the others, but it still wont look plain yellow or white.

Order from front to back IMO would be:

Actinic(Either/or)
6000K
Actinic(Either/or)
Aquablue Plus

mix up the bulbs...it works well.

And I really like the look of the aquasuns just so you know.

Nate

Oop wow. I totally missed the UV bulbs! Thats definetly another one that should work out like you want.

I have 2 6500 k and 2 actinic. This in my opinion, gives me max intensity without becoming '' white '' while bringing out a richer colour than in natural daylight. Now just envision that while sipping on a glass of fine merlot ---or a slurpee.

Thanks for your help!

It seems that people would either go for choices 3 or 4 (I posted this on few various sites) They are both tied with 8 votes while choices 1 and 2 are tied with 3.

Would anyone be able to post a visual reference of what choice 3 and 4 would look like?

Thanks very much

Why not just 2 aquablue and 2 actinic plus for a blue look, or 1 aquablue 1 sun and 2 actinic plus for something a little whiter. I run 6 bulbs, 1 GE daylight 2 aquablue and 3 actinic plus. When I setup 8 bulbs over my 180 I will be overdriving them, so I'm going to try 4 aquablue and 4 blue+. I don't think you get much par from the actinic bulbs, so I don't plan to use them unless I have to.

actinic is mostly for our viewing pleasure is it not?

Mostly for our viewing pleasure. If you feel you have enough light light from your other bulbs, it won't matter if you use a pure actinic. Most par and best viewing is a aquablue, blue+ combo IMO. Check out this thread for more info. http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/sh...hreadid=918935

I was running 2 11000K Aquablue Plus and 2 Actinic Plus and found it very "un natural" blue...almost smurf blue, I switched to 3 11000K Aquablue Plus and 1 Actinic Plus and it seems better to look at.
I am contemplating removing 1 11000K Aquablue Plus and replacing it with a Pure Actinic 03 just to see if I like it any more.

I've got 3 x Blue+, 2 x Actinic+ and 1 x daylight bulbs in my T5 HO setup and I need to look at somthing different because everything is getting too bleached out. The daylight bulb puts out tons of light and is bleaching all of the coralline under it. When I bought my T5 bulbs, you couldn't get the true actinic bulbs so I would really like to get rid of one or two of the aquablue+ bulbs (very white in colour) and replace with another actinic+ and or true actinic.

I still have yet to see another T5 HO setup in person... doesn't seem to be any other Canreefers on the lower island. I'm going over to J&L & Ocean Aquatics (who both sell T5 bulbs) on the 16th and will pick up some more selection so I can figure out what I like best.

So far... my T5 setup has been bright as hell but is way too white in colour.

I hear ATI is coming out with an AWESOME bulb to replace their recently retired 10k (Super White).

I don't believe that actinic is mainly for our veiwing pleasure, light is absorbed in water as it penetrates deeper, red is the first to go, then orange, then yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet finish the list off. Actinic light promotes some distinct colours of coraline algae and no light at all or next to no light promotes other coralines. So.... blue light is available to almost all corals and inverts, most of our lights in our aquariums (fluorescents) are tri phosphors meaning they are made up of phosphors that give off light in three specific spectrums, usually red/yellow-green/blue cheaper lights only use two so they'd be missing out either red or blue and blue is the more expensive to create if I remember right so we'd end up with pinkish light. Tri phosphors are designed to give daylight appearance, 5000k to 6500k (daylight deluxe). You can also find cool white and warm white (both of the later are not tri phosphors).

Then again I may just be blowing smoke out of my butt, it's just my opinion.

Doug