Are actinic supplements needed when running radium 20k bulbs?

newbreefer316 · Apr 23, 2018

I'm running MH/T5 hybrid for the first time and wondering if my radium 20k bulbs need actinic supplement.

I'm currently running 2 blue+ and 2 actinic and wondering if I should swap out the actinic for coral+.

With the 2 actinic bulbs I'm running my t5 for 12 hours and I plan to ramp the radiums up to 6-8 hours, just set the fixture up this weekend so currently at 4 hrs.

Jeepguy242 · Apr 23, 2018

I use a reefbrite strip with my 20k radiums.

It does help with the pop of the colors but just slightly

Bpb · Apr 23, 2018

Depends on what you want to see visually. If it were my own light, and the 4 t5ho bulbs were on two channels, I’d run one Channel with just true actinics (not blue+), and the other with 6500k bulbs. The 6500k bulbs would obviously be on only with the halides. The actinics providing extra 400-430nm that the radium isn’t super heavy in and for a pretty dawn dusk light

newbreefer316 · Apr 23, 2018

Bpb said:
Depends on what you want to see visually. If it were my own light, and the 4 t5ho bulbs were on two channels, I’d run one Channel with just true actinics (not blue+), and the other with 6500k bulbs. The 6500k bulbs would obviously be on only with the halides. The actinics providing extra 400-430nm that the radium isn’t super heavy in and for a pretty dawn dusk light

That's about what I'd like to do but the t5 are only on one channel.

I'll eventually have to add something onto the light to handle the actinics then run 2 blue+ and either coral+ or aqua blue special. Aesthetically I like the mix of coral+ and purple+ so I may play around with that as well.

My only issue is the RB xho strips only hit a single wavelength and I've been a fan lately of actinic t5 bulbs. I'm interested to see how the orphek light strips test out.

reefwiser · Apr 23, 2018

Reefbrite and MH run LED’s for 2 hours before and after the MH

jda · Apr 23, 2018

I do not supplement mine - the coral do not need it. You cannot really see it anyway when the Radium is lit... if you can, it is slight. Before/after is different and to each their own here.