Adding T5 supplemental lights

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jboone82590

jboone82590

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...yes and no. It'll help. But with sticks, light is only about 1/4 of the equation. Flow, parameters, stability, and food are all equally as important in coaxing color out of sticks. With softies...the color is more of a you get what you get situation. No matter what conditions. Better water will give bigger polyps and faster growth yes...but not as dramatic of a color impact. Small water quality and light adjustments on an acropora can take it from solid brown to glowing vibrant rainbow colors. But those lights will help
I kinda new that I know water params are a major factor when it comes to sticks but I mean with my LED I can't change the color of the lighting and when the daylights are on the coral (for a lack of a better term) don't glow. Will the T5 make them do that?
 

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It'll help. With the t5ho you won't need to really dial the whites up much at all. Matter of fact a lot of coral growers use only ATI blue+ bulbs with great results. A lot of sticks don't even glow though and just look best under white light because many don't develop fluorescent pigments and instead develop a nice array of reflective colors that look great under white light but basically disappear under blues
 
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It'll help. With the t5ho you won't need to really dial the whites up much at all. Matter of fact a lot of coral growers use only ATI blue+ bulbs with great results. A lot of sticks don't even glow though and just look best under white light because many don't develop fluorescent pigments and instead develop a nice array of reflective colors that look great under white light but basically disappear under blues
Good to know thank you
 

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I added 4 t5 to my kessil 160s for shadowing reasons. It was over a 90 gal tank so was also to boost the lighting a little. Was really happy with the addition.
One ati coral+, one ati blue+, and 2 zoomed 420nm (just because I had them lying around, will swap for more ati when time comes to change)
Before:
image.jpeg


After:
image.jpeg
Did you change your LED lighting schedule when you added the T5?
 

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