4 Bulb ATI Question

[jml1149]

Good morning!


In terms of PAR, is an ATI Purple+ comparable to a Coral Plus? I currently run 3 Blue+ and a Coral Plus, but it seems a bit to white. I'm not a fan of all Blue+, so would the Purple Plus be a fair compromise?

Thanks!

 

[DSC reef]

Not sure on par readings but maybe consider swapping a blue plus for a true actinic and keep the coral plus.

 

[Danny Venditti]

I run the same as you along with Radion AB+ setting slightly modified to increase blue period before and after and shortened the white period to 4.5 hours. Corals seem happier with the shortened period. how long are you running the coral plus and can you adjust it separately from the other?

 

[SDboatguy]

I believe the Purple + has slightly less par than the Coral +. Purple+ is a bit "pinkish" and fairly bright though. Have you tried changing the position of your lamps?

 

[SDboatguy]

Not sure on par readings but maybe consider swapping a blue plus for a true actinic and keep the coral plus.

+1

 

[LetItReef]

This might help:

 

[jml1149]

Thank you all for the help. I'm going go go Blue+ Blue+ Actinic Coral Plus for a while and see how it goes. Thanks for the video!

 

[Daniel Waters]

Good recommendation from DSC reef. If you find the coral plus and 3 actinics too white, I suspect you might find the purple plus a bit too much also. However, you might really like the purple plus paired up with the actinic....it really comes down to your personal preference. One of the "problems" with 4 bulb T5 setups (versus 6 bulbs or 8 bulbs) is you don't have as much flexibility in fine tuning your tank color as you can when you have the ability to swap in and mix / match from more bulb combinations.

I wouldn't worry about any slight differences in par between the different bulbs, though, as it should be minimal. In my opinion, if you're that worried about par, then you need to evaluate if you're running enough bulbs for your coral needs versus worrying about par differentials among bulbs.

 

[rossco]

Thank you all for the help. I'm going go go Blue+ Blue+ Actinic Coral Plus for a while and see how it goes. Thanks for the video!

That’s the exact combination I use on my frag section and the corals (including SPS) grow there just as well in the display.

 

[jda]

Do not worry about the PAR... just pick the bulbs that you like the color of. The differences in PAR readings are an issue with the spectrum that the hobby-grade meter will read, and not a problem with the actual bulbs. All of those are good choices and on a better machine would probably be within a rounding error of each other in output.