Help Selecting t5 Bulbs

[reef6414]

Hey all,

It has been almost 9 months and I think it is about time to replace the bulbs. I have a 4 bulb 48" fixture. Right now I have two actinic blue bulbs and two unknown white bulbs....whatever is standard in the coralife fixtures. I figure mixing up the bulb combinations would have an effect on growth and the overall appearance of the tank.

I was wondering what everyone uses to bring out the colors in their corals. Pics are welcome and encouraged!

Right now I am keeping softies and a couple LPS ( towards the top).

I was looking at the Giesemann Bulbs. Your input is greatly appreciated.

 

[Xtc_link]

I noticed that most "pop" from colors when I added the actinic.

6 bulb fixture on my 75. I have ATI (locally stocked) bulbs currently. 2x Coral plus, actinic, blue+ and a 5600k ge


On my 150 I run all eBay black-boxes.

once these bulbs die I might switch to e5 but I'll prolly just order 3 more black boxes, lol.

 

[Salty1962]

ATI Blue+ and Purple+. I run 3 Blues with one Purple. Great color and PAR.

 

[Bpb]

4 bulb? With all softies and Lps, if I were using only those Giesemann bulbs I would go

Actinic Blue
Super purple
Super Actinic
Actinic Blue

It'll be a very deep blue look with tons of fluorescence. The purple bulb will actually give the tank more of a white daylight look when mixed with the blue but still appear very vibrant and you will have no problem growing anything. The full spectrum will be covered, just without a bunch of yellow light.

 

[reef6414]

Do you all have photos of these light combos? I don't want to go too blue. Would two Blue and two Purple lighten that up a bit? Spectrum covered and all?

 

[Bpb]

No photos of that layout. I run 8 bulbs. I just know that Lps corals tend to look better under heavy actinics. But if you want to whiten it up some you could try two blue+, a coral+ and a purple+. That's an ultra popular bulb combo.