T5 Par & Bulb Selection

[sphelps]

I've been running T5s for a while now on a few different setups. The best bulbs available to us in Canada are the ATI line up, they produce the highest par ratings that I have seen compared to other bulbs.

The most common bulbs used are the;
Aquablue special (around 14000K), if you like whiter tanks this bulb alone will produce the color you like.
Blue + (around 22000K), basically just a bright blue bulb, you can add a few of these to create a more blue tank, I believe a 50/50 mix of the blue+ and aquablue will create similar color as a 20K halide.

Also new from ATI are 2 new bulbs;
A Pure Actinic which has a pink/purple glow and acts much like a black light making corals glow, however I've found similar pure actinic bulbs to be drowned out by the much brighter other bulbs.
A new daylight, similar to the aquablue special but is said to have a 5% red spectrum just like the KZ coral light bulb. The extra red gives some more color pop from opposite colors like blue, purple and green.

HTH