Looking for suggestions... T5 bulb Combos
 

I am getting my first T5 fixture.... I know there are a lot of bulb options out there... and combinations.

I will have a 48" T5... 6 bulb.


Suggestions wanted on... which brand and which spectrums. 3 White/3 Actinic... 2 white/2 actinic/2 fiji purple... etc.

Looking for good combinations for optimum color and growth.


Thanks

http://home.comcast.net/~stevelarsen...55241857aa7f39

great little site I stumbled upon through RC earlier today

I would go with 4 actinic, 1 fiji purple and one white.

Hmmm
 

Would that be very blue? I have a 75G so not sure if that make a world of difference.

For a really blue look:

UVL Super Actinic or UVL 454 or ATI BluePlus
KZ Coral Light II (15,000K)
UVL Super Actinic or UVL 454 or ATI BluePlus
UVL Super Actinic or UVL 454 or ATI BluePlus
KZ Coral Light II (15,000K)
UVL Super Actinic or UVL 454 or ATI BluePlus

OR

This combo would be fairly blue:

UVL Super Actinic or UVL 454 or ATI BluePlus
KZ Coral Light II (15,000K)
KZ Fiji Purple
KZ Coral Light I or UVL Aquasun (both are 10,000K)
KZ Coral Light II (15,000K)
UVL Super Actinic or UVL 454 or ATI BluePlus

You could switch the outside two and have the Coral Light II on the outside.

OR

This will be fairly white, but have a nice blue tint:

KZ Coral Light I or UVL Aquasun (10,000K)
UVL Super Actinic or UVL 454 or ATI BluePlus
KZ Coral Light II (15,000K)
KZ Coral Light II (15,000K)
UVL Super Actinic or UVL 454 or ATI BluePlus
KZ Coral Light I or UVL Aquasun (10,000K)



All of my suggested combos will give you good growth, and good PAR. These are all my favourite bulbs.

I find some tanks can't handle Fiji Purple bulbs since there is a lot of red spectrum in them they may promote algae growth. I find their use better on established tanks over a year old without any algae issues. Some people LOVE the look of Fiji Purple others HATE the look. They are purple-red.

The ATI BluePlus and the UVL 454 have a very similar look. The ATI is more expensive and can be difficult to locate, although it has slightly higher PAR. The UVL Super Actinic has low PAR, but high PUR so it is indeed a good bulb. It is more blue-purple than the 454 and the BluePlus which are more of a true blue.

KZ Coral Light I has higher PAR than UVL Aquasun, but is more expensive.

FYI, in general actinic bulbs are mainly aesthetic as they have low PAR and there is no scientific proof that corals or fish require the actinic spectrum. They shouldn't make up the majority of your bulbs. The UVL Super Actinic is an exception as described above.

With a 6 bulb fixture i would not run an actinic bulb. The par is to low and you willnot notice the added blue when it is all mixed in anyways. Instead run the following listed below.

ATI BLUE PLUS OR KZ SUPERBLUE
ATI AQUA BLUE OR KZ CORAL LIGHT
ATI BLUE PLUS OR KZ SUPERBLUE
KZ FIJI PURPLE OR ATI PURPLE PLUS
ATI BLUE PLUS OR KZ SUPERBLUE
KZ NEW GEN

Every bulb listed has a par over 300 and are know to be the brightess and the best.

Everyone has there own choice of what they like.

imo all of your guys choices are super blue. Run at least 3 14,000k bulbs (eg. KZ New Gen)than 2 22,000k bulbs (eg. KZ superblue). These 5 bulbs are a must. The forth I would go with a fiji purple. This is my set up, great growth and I love the colors I am getting out of the combo. Took about 5 combos to finalize with this

^ Your combo will be bluer than my third combo. :p

ha ha touche. I love the New gen's, they are like the phoenix of t5's

+ on any of Myka's
++ on UVL(URI)

Aren't the Coral Light II the "New Generation"? Although I see New Gen listed as 14,000K on KZ site, and Coral Light II listed as 15,000K on J&L site. KZ site doesn't list Coral Light II. Hrm. Now I confused. I think J&L has the New Gens listed as Coral Light II, and have the Kelvin wrong. Maybe?? I can't read the labels on my "Coral Light II" bulbs anymore so I'm not sure if they say Coral Light II or New Gen.

Ms M
How do you like the 454 nm?

sure it would be blue but the only thing that make the coral fluorescent is the actinic. If you really want the fluorescence, then it's more actinic.

My MH goes off at 6:00 pm and from there my 75 gallons is only lit by 2 x actinic. Yes it's blue, but it's a nice contrast with the day light and it definitly makes the coral pop.

You could keep the daylight bulb but only use it for mid day, and then in the evening turn this set off and leave more actinic.

Are you able to turn on and off part of your lighting fixture? you could put that on a controller if they ave different plugs. My MH has 3 separated power cords and my T5HO is a sundial with 2 individual integrated timers to control both set of 2 x actinic and the other of 1 x fiji and 1 x 14,000k.

If you have this option, you can vary the light with the time of day.

but then if you are able to turn off the other lights and vizualise your aquarium with only actinic in the evening, it's really make their fluorescent pop out.

You never use actinic?

That`s one sweet bulb. Easily replaces the ATI BluePlus at a cheaper cost, and better availability. I have been playing around with the look using the Super Actinics and the 454s...back and forth...can`t make up my mind.

The 454 has very low PAR compared to the ati blue plus and the kz superblue with almost an identical spectrum.

Actinic bulbs are not going to give you enough par and the spectrum is to narrow, the new blue bulbs out there will double the par and still fluoress “pop” the corals very well. 6 bulb t5 on a tank deeper then 18 inches, you need to increase the PAR buy choosing better bulbs.

oh man you sound exactly like me a year ago. I'm sure myka might remember this but I used to yell and curse how they were a waste of a bulb. I also told her to prove it to me that they have any effect on your corals... oh i was wrong

I am actually running one now (Giesemann pure actinic) and I am getting some cool colors in that tank. Growth is great, can't complain.

Which bulb? the actinic or the 454 is giving you the colors?

Its actually a 421nm pure actinic

never got these colors before. Like my convexa is a nice orange/red and my green birdsnest is a cool teal color.

Please state your sources, I am genuinely interested. The PAR comparison I have seen are within 10% of ATI. I'm not familiar with the KZ SuperBlue, although I'm considering trying it out on my nano.

The 454 is not an actinic bulb, it is a blueplus bulb like the ATI and the KZ, all of which are actinic and blue together. Read what I said about the UVL Super Actinic regarding PAR and PUR.

The bulbs I suggested were all chosen with PAR (or PUR) in mind. Of course the blue combo I suggested will have about 15% less PAR than the whitest combo I suggested.

In all honesty though, I personally don't think PAR is quite as important as many people think. Water quality, stability, and flow are the most key factors to good coloring on SPS corals imo. You can have really nice SPS under modest lighting provided the water is pristine, the parameters are stable, and the flow is optimum.

Here is one of the tests done on PAR with the following bulbs. I couldn't find the updated list but i will search again when i get hoime for work. I do remeber the UV 454 bulb being below 250 and you can compare that number to the bulbs below. Also look how low the actinic bulbs are.

Aquascience
Special 15K 320*
DUO 15K 334*
22000K Blue 302*

AquaZ
Sun Pro 285
Ocean Pro 323
Blue Pro 266

ATI
Sun Pro 357
Aquablue 336
Blue Plus 311
Actinic 137
(Old Style)
Pro Color 215 vs 300 for a UVL Aquasun in a later test

Current Sun Paq
Daylight 10K 272
Blue 252

D&D/Giesemann
Midday 325
Aquablue 324
Actinic Plus 264
Pure Actinic 157


General Electric
GE Daylight 340
GE3000 319*

Helios
Daylight 309
Super Blue 225

KZ
Coral Light 342
Fiji Purple 330

UVL
Aqua sun 345
Actinic White 293
Super Actinic 210
75/25 "Aquablue" 254 vs 300 for an Aquasun in a later test.

Thanks Chris...that is really good data.

Anybody:
1. Is PAR value additive?
2. Is PAR value more important that LUX
3. If so...what is the optimal amount of PAR required for color and growth of SPS( say in a tank where SPS sit 15in above the light source) ?

Probably the best statement in this whole thread

I have seen killer tanks running only 4 bulbs but they keep up with their water quality in excellent shape

eg.


http://lh3.ggpht.com/_Z_cyj7O5i84/S3...0/DSC_1190.JPG

Par is extremely important and corals will not photosynthesis to their full capacity without enough of it, especially sps corals. Lux is just a term for brightness to the human eye while par is “photosynthetic active radiation”. It only takes into consideration the wavelength that corals use for photosynthesis, basically 400nm - 700nm. The lowest par most sps will do well with is 150 and the highest is around 600. I am not saying it can't be done other ways but this is the sweet spot from all of the data I have read which is more then I would like to admit to.
Now I am not trying to start a debate because we all know we can run a reef in many different ways and light is only one important factor. Water quality, stable parameters, etc all make a big deal. But from a lighting perspective, PAR is very important and PAR drops of a cliff the deeper a tank goes. Let’s say the par was 700 at the surface of a 24 inch tank it would probably be 100 at the sand bed with a good t5 fixture and good bulbs. Through in a mediocre t5 fixture and average bulbs and do the math it won’t add up well.

If I had the time I would love to prove you wrong Chris. PAR is important, but it is not extremely important. I mean, you can't grow SPS under a spiral fluorescent very well, but you don't need to blast your SPS with as much PAR as many people like to, or think they need to.

Myka i do partially agree with you. Some people are too concerned with par but I was just stating what I have read from research articles and test done with Par and coral growth. It is a fact that most sps or corals in fact will grow faster with more light aka higher par numbers. But there is a limit to this, after a certain point they become saturated and photo inhibition will occur and it can be harmful to the coral. 600 par is not that high, and 100 is actually very low. Put a sps frag on your sand bed vs. 4 inch from the surface and see which one looks better and grows faster.

Chris, I have only two SPS corals that would handle being 4" from the surface under my lights (a tabling Acro and a Candlelight Acro). They are halides, but the fixture is Chinese and the bulbs are from Home Depot (came with fixture). It is a 36" fixture over a 48" tank too. It has two T5s (UVL Super Actinic and KZ fiji Purple right now). Needless to say, this setup isn't high output by any means. I have Stags and Milles on the sand in my 24" deep tank that have better color there than higher up. All my LPS corals are off to the side away from the halides. My water is crystal clear though, so that makes a huge difference.