Who's using ATI / Reef Bright combo

Joe G

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What's been your experience with this light combo?
What has the Results been like ? Growth color ect ...
What is your light schedule ?
How hight off the water do your lights hang?
 

-Logzor

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I run a 7 bulb fixture with ATI bulbs and two Reefbrite XHO units. Both of the XHO's are blue.

I run:

3 Pure Actinic
3 Blue+
1 Purple+

My schedule is from 1:00 PM to 11:00 PM.

The XHO's run the entire schedule. I run mostly actinic up until about 5 or 6 PM where all the lights fire up. Things begin to taper down around 9 PM.

Getting great growth and color but it's a very blue look.
 
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Joe G

Joe G

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How high off the water line do your lights hang.

How deep is your tank ?

I have a 6 bulb ati fixture
And two reef brights .
1 is xho and the other is the regular model both are blue.
Ati bulb combo is
Blue plus
Blue plus
Purple plus
Coral plus
Blue plus
Blue plus


For the last three months my light schedule has been.
Regular reef bright 2-12
Xho 3-11
4 bulb ati 4 -10
2 bulb ati 5-9

I have the lights hanging about 10 inches off the water .

My experience so far is small polyps losing color and pale sps.
Growth is awesome but colors are very pale .
I just changed up my lighting schedule so the ati are on longer then the leds to see if that helps .
 

ghostman

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I have a cube tank with 2 ATI Sunpowers, 8 bulbs each. I have a reefbrite XHO on the front and back, all blues. Color of the corals is great, growth is great as well. Each ATI has 6 B+, 1 C+, and purple. Reefbrite said are on for 9 hours, and the T5s are on for 6 hours. I love the schedule and look of the tank. I will say that the reefbrites add a bit of pop to the corals.
 

-Logzor

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How high off the water line do your lights hang.

How deep is your tank ?

I have a 6 bulb ati fixture
And two reef brights .
1 is xho and the other is the regular model both are blue.
Ati bulb combo is
Blue plus
Blue plus
Purple plus
Coral plus
Blue plus
Blue plus


For the last three months my light schedule has been.
Regular reef bright 2-12
Xho 3-11
4 bulb ati 4 -10
2 bulb ati 5-9

I have the lights hanging about 10 inches off the water .

My experience so far is small polyps losing color and pale sps.
Growth is awesome but colors are very pale .
I just changed up my lighting schedule so the ati are on longer then the leds to see if that helps .

Keep all else the same but try swapping in 2-3 Pure Actinic bulbs for your Blue+/Coral+. You'll find you get better color and maintain the growth.
 
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Joe G

Joe G

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Ok I will try out a different light combo .
Maybe it's not my lights causing my corals to look crapy .
I never used leds so I was thinking maybe the tank was getting to much light which was causing corals to lose color .
My old tanks colors were so vibrant and now everything is pale .
corals are growing and have polyp extention, but look crappy .
All my levels are on point so not sure what's causing the issue maybe it's just a new tank and it's going through a funk .
Salt 0.125
Alk 8.5
Cal 450
Phos 0
Nitrate 0
Nitrite 0
Mag 1400
Temp 78-80

If any one else is using t5 / reef brights please chime in and give us your experience
 
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Joe G

Joe G

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Oh yea it will also help to know the water depth of your tanks.
My tank is shallow only 16 inches tall that could def be a factor also
 

reefndude

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I'm thinking of adding couple led strips to my 6 bulb fixture. Interested in everyone's experience as well
 

-Logzor

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Oh yea it will also help to know the water depth of your tanks.
My tank is shallow only 16 inches tall that could def be a factor also

Joe I think it's possible your reef is getting too much light. This is partially why I suggested running all the Pure Actinic bulbs. Light inhibition will be based on a lot of factors, such as food supply, the amount of flow, and of course the amount of light/duration. If it's the main issue, then correcting the lighting is going to be the easiest fix. You could also shorten your light duration. I've seen vast improvements in my reef since running heavy actinic, though. I think it's a potential solution to consider.

Some folks have this great fear of running more actinic due to PAR loss. Really we don't need all the PAR we throw at our reefs. I'm still growing acropora at the bottom of my tank and towards the front glass.
 
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Joe G

Joe G

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Logzor,
I agree with u about the tank getting to much light .
At least that was my initial thinking and that's why I started the thread to see who else is using the same light set up and how they run it.
It seems like many of u guys run the lights the same way I was so I'm starting to think maybe it's something else .
Stating last week I only am running the reef brights three hours a day to see if that helps.
Only time will tell .
Thanks for all your input
 
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Joe G

Joe G

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I run a 7 bulb fixture with ATI bulbs and two Reefbrite XHO units. Both of the XHO's are blue.

I run:

3 Pure Actinic
3 Blue+
1 Purple+

My schedule is from 1:00 PM to 11:00 PM.

The XHO's run the entire schedule. I run mostly actinic up until about 5 or 6 PM where all the lights fire up. Things begin to taper down around 9 PM.

Getting great growth and color but it's a very blue look.

Two more quick questions .
What your tanks dimensions?
And how high off the water does your fixture hang?
Thanks
 

-Logzor

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Two more quick questions .
What your tanks dimensions?
And how high off the water does your fixture hang?
Thanks

Tank dimensions are 48 x 30 x 24

The light is approximately 6 inches above the rim of the tank.
 
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JMSKI333

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I have the ATI sunpower 6x54w non dimmable with a 48" reefbrite Blue LED strip bolted to the front of it. Looks like they are meant to be together.

Bulb Combo:

ATI Blue +
ATI Purple +
ATI Blue +
ATI Coral +
ATI Blue +
ATI Blue +

Height from water: approx 6"

Light Schedule from Apex:

Reef Brite:
If Time 09:00 to 22:30 Then ON

Actinics:
If Time 11:00 to 21:30 Then ON

Daylights:
If Time 13:30 to 19:00 Then ON

Notes:
I originally purchased the reefbrite to get more pop from my challices. Now that I am more SPS dominant, I keep the LED lights because they add a nice blue tint to my water and helped me get my desired light color that I have been seeking for like 6 years. The Reefbrite still adds an extra "pop" to the corals. You definitely notice the difference with it on and off. Hard to say on whether or not it increased growth or not. I have had it on my tank for so long that I never noticed anything substantial growth wise. I should add that I have had to replace the power supply twice in probabaly 4 years or so.

I hope this helped. I highly recommend you getting one.
 

Rob&Gab

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8 bulb at I 8 bulb sun power, ran with a 36" reefbright tech silver version over a 48*24*12. Nothing hanging 17" above the tanks rim 18" off the waters surface,6bulbs kick on at12pm 2bulbs Kik on at 1pm 6bulbs turnoff at 5pm 2bulbs witch are at I actinic and reefspec 22k actinic turn off at 7-8pm depending when time I shut them off. The reef bright is on from 12pmtill about 9pm.

SPS HEAVY all corals and ZOA's monties act. Sitting g 6" under the waters surface. With a RW8 RIGHT SIDE OF TANK ran on w1 knob turned 3/4th way too the right. And full power I have fish and 1.5" sandbed frag/display


Colors with my bulb combo are amazing g grow is awesome, but it also I 70% of your levels if there stable or not and phos and nitrates And all cal mag ext. Lol
Solljust give full detail while I'm at it

Salt ESV watercanged ever2weeks some time once every few months 3weeks.

Alk7.5-8 hanna
Cal 410-440 salifert
Mag 1350-1380 salifert
Nitrates 10ppm salifert
Phos .03 Hanna
Saline level 24-26


Nothing in the sump beside a filter sock and a reefoctopus diablo DC skimmer , I Manual dose and top off.

Got some macro alage in the oerflo that's it lol.
 
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Joe G

Joe G

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8 bulb at I 8 bulb sun power, ran with a 36" reefbright tech silver version over a 48*24*12. Nothing hanging 17" above the tanks rim 18" off the waters surface,6bulbs kick on at12pm 2bulbs Kik on at 1pm 6bulbs turnoff at 5pm 2bulbs witch are at I actinic and reefspec 22k actinic turn off at 7-8pm depending when time I shut them off. The reef bright is on from 12pmtill about 9pm.

SPS HEAVY all corals and ZOA's monties act. Sitting g 6" under the waters surface. With a RW8 RIGHT SIDE OF TANK ran on w1 knob turned 3/4th way too the right. And full power I have fish and 1.5" sandbed frag/display


Colors with my bulb combo are amazing g grow is awesome, but it also I 70% of your levels if there stable or not and phos and nitrates And all cal mag ext. Lol
Solljust give full detail while I'm at it

Salt ESV watercanged ever2weeks some time once every few months 3weeks.

Alk7.5-8 hanna
Cal 410-440 salifert
Mag 1350-1380 salifert
Nitrates 10ppm salifert
Phos .03 Hanna
Saline level 24-26


Nothing in the sump beside a filter sock and a reefoctopus diablo DC skimmer , I Manual dose and top off.

Got some macro alage in the oerflo that's it lol.

Thanks for your input .
Our parameters are very similar .
Alk 8-8.5 dkh hanna checker
Cal 400-450 hanna checker but it's acting up So I just ordered salifert
Mag 1400
Salt 0.25
Nitrate o
Nitrite o
Phos 0 also just ordered hanna checker for phos I will repost when I get it in.
Temp 79-80.5

What is very different is our light cycle .
I noticed your light cycle is much shorter them mine. I am definitely gonna shorten my light cycle and raise my lights a couple more inches to see if I can regain my corals colors .
My Light fixture hangs 13 inches of the rim
My current light cycle is 2 bulb actinic
2-12
4 bulb 3-11
Reef bright 4-10
Reef bright 5-9
I already shortened the reef bright light cycle they were on for 8 -10 hours before .
 
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tonymission

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I have the ATI sunpower 6x54w non dimmable with a 48" reefbrite Blue LED strip bolted to the front of it. Looks like they are meant to be together.

Bulb Combo:

ATI Blue +
ATI Purple +
ATI Blue +
ATI Coral +
ATI Blue +
ATI Blue +

Height from water: approx 6"

Light Schedule from Apex:

Reef Brite:
If Time 09:00 to 22:30 Then ON

Actinics:
If Time 11:00 to 21:30 Then ON

Daylights:
If Time 13:30 to 19:00 Then ON

Notes:
I originally purchased the reefbrite to get more pop from my challices. Now that I am more SPS dominant, I keep the LED lights because they add a nice blue tint to my water and helped me get my desired light color that I have been seeking for like 6 years. The Reefbrite still adds an extra "pop" to the corals. You definitely notice the difference with it on and off. Hard to say on whether or not it increased growth or not. I have had it on my tank for so long that I never noticed anything substantial growth wise. I should add that I have had to replace the power supply twice in probabaly 4 years or so.

I hope this helped. I highly recommend you getting one.

Can I see a picture of how you out these together? Maybe sounds stupid but wondering how to do the combo. I have a 48" 8bulb Sunpower over one of my frag tanks
 

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