T5 bulb choice help

[chris88]

ati or aqua science is the way to go but with only four bulbs i would be very careful especially with soft corals going with to much of just blue light like the blue plus or the 22,000k.

In a 4 bulb set up i would go with the following

ati blue plus or aqua science 22,000k x 2

ati aqua blue or aqua science 15,000k x1

ulv actinic white or aqua science 17,500k x 1

tons of PAR realistic color and growth. A tank with to much blue doesnt allow the corals to expand fully or look realistic.

[Millepora_Maniac]

I would go with three Korraline Zuct bulbs and one geisemann

something like this front to back,
KZ 10, 000 k
KZ fiji Purple
KZ koralight
Geismann Actinic +

I've seen all of these bulbs in action, and there is no bulb better than the KZ's
You can get 'em from J+L, relatively inexpensive too. :-) Good luck!

[TheKid]

Bump for any agreements with the posts of any new suggestions
+ advice on where to get bulbs

[Millepora_Maniac]

Originally Posted by svaningen

Bump for any agreements with the posts of any new suggestions
+ advice on where to get bulbs

I would get them at J+L, Or Oceanic Corals. If you haven't been there yet, then go to oceanic, they have lots of frags. Including all of mine, and they tend to beat J+L's prices on SOME things, worth a shot anyways! good luck!!

[The Grizz]

I was talking with Kevin from Red Coral in Calgary the other day, for my tank (96"L x 22"W x 18"D) with 2 - 48" 4 bulb fixture's per side and primarily LPS & Softies he suggested the following per side:

2 - ATI Aqua Blue Special
2 - 10,000K (KZ or Geisman)
2 - 15,000K (KZ or Geisman)
2 - Fiji Purple

[lorenz0]

Originally Posted by The Grizz

I was talking with Kevin from Red Coral in Calgary the other day, for my tank (96"L x 22"W x 18"D) with 2 - 48" 4 bulb fixture's per side and primarily LPS & Softies he suggested the following per side:

2 - ATI Aqua Blue Special
2 - 10,000K (KZ or Geisman)
2 - 15,000K (KZ or Geisman)
2 - Fiji Purple

that is extremely white

to the original poster, its up to you. imo even a 6 bulb doesn't have enough bulbs for a good enough bulb choice

if i were you i would for sure run 2 22,000k bulbs and the probably 2 14,000k bulbs. no point looking into bulbs specifically for certain colors.

[ElGuappo]

i run from front to back.

kz new gen coral light 15k
kz old gen coral light 10k
giess actinic plus (thinking of switching to kz old gen coral light.)
kz new gen coral light

[Red Coral Aquariums]

Originally Posted by The Grizz

I was talking with Kevin from Red Coral in Calgary the other day, for my tank (96"L x 22"W x 18"D) with 2 - 48" 4 bulb fixture's per side and primarily LPS & Softies he suggested the following per side:

2 - ATI Aqua Blue Special
2 - 10,000K (KZ or Geisman)
2 - 15,000K (KZ or Geisman)
2 - Fiji Purple

2 - KZ superblue
2 - 10,000K (KZ or Geisman)
2 - 15,000K (KZ or Geisman)
2 - Fiji Purpl
I am not sure how we came up with the ATI AB special as they are 12k
Lorenz0 you are correct it would be white. I would go with the superblues.
Kevin

[Zoaelite]

Originally Posted by chris88

ati or aqua science is the way to go but with only four bulbs i would be very careful especially with soft corals going with to much of just blue light like the blue plus or the 22,000k.

In a 4 bulb set up i would go with the following

ati blue plus or aqua science 22,000k x 2

ati aqua blue or aqua science 15,000k x1

ulv actinic white or aqua science 17,500k x 1

tons of PAR realistic color and growth. A tank with to much blue doesnt allow the corals to expand fully or look realistic.

I'm really confused by this comment, your saying that to much blue light is bad for a coral for what reason? You're bulb choice is very blue as it is but corals not "expanding fully" under actinics is incorrect. I'm unclear as to the dynamics of photosynthesis and the use of light energy but I do know that blue light has a shorter wave length and higher frequency than other colors which would indicate it has more energy to facilitate dinoflaggeletic photosynthesis.

The limiting factor you run into is that with just 4 bulbs you can't fine tune your fixture like an 8 bulber. With my 8 bulb I run 5 actinic plus and 3 daylight's (All being giessmann), the tank is a 6 foot 170g with a 4 foot fixture. Currently running a heavily stocked very mixed system including 60 different zoa colonies and I couldn't ask for better color. As for "Non Realistic" when I just have actinics on the color in the tank is spectacular so I would readily take "Non Realistic" over "Blah and colorless".
Levi