Show Me Your ATI T-5 Bulb Selection Over You Reef

[427HISS]

A while back I bought a ATI fixture that the owner sent it to some company to install some LED pucks. I'm getting ready to build a in-wall 125g mixed reef. I had bought a few different LED lighting systems, but my wife and I don't care for them, so that's why we bought the ATI lighting.

We started the reef hobby back in the 90's with VHO's, then retired in 2000 to have other hobbies. And now, we are back. The onset of LED lighting surprised us, but after looking at the colorization of our corals and fish, we are dissapointed, so that's why we bought into T-5 bulbs.

Being back to tubes we don't know what spectrums to get today ?
Maybe a 50/50 mix of white & blues ?

It'll be a mix of corals, SPS, LPS and some leathers. Not, a dominate SPS tank, more of LPS's.

So, let us know what you have and please post your pics and vids showing the colors of your reef.

 

[Retro Reefer]

Can’t go wrong with the ATI blue+ bulbs.. I run 3 of them with one true actinic in a 4 bulb hybrid fixture along with one coralbox LED module. Not the best pic, taken with iPad and orange filter which makes the colors a little more vivid than they are in RL but it’s very close to what you see in person.

 

[RMS18]

Running the 8 bulb 48" system with:
Blue Plus
Coral Plus
Super Actinic
Aqua Blue Special
Blue Plus
Super Actinic
Purple Plus
Blue Plus

Just added a Reefbrite Lumi lite for a little day time shimmer but mainly for a moonlight. - No picture of this modification

 

[kevin_e]

This was mine on my old setup.

ATI Blue Plus
ATI Purple Plus
ATI Coral Plus
ATI Blue Plus
ATI Blue Plus
ATI Coral Plus
ATI Blue Plus
ATI Blue Plus

 

[RCS82]

What bulb total are we looking at, 4/6/8?
Gonna guess 5' bulbs for a 6' 125?

 

[427HISS]

Yep, 6' so it has 6 bulbs. I need to take a photo of the hood and more detailed information regarding the added LED pucks. It's been two years and don't have my desktop computer that has all of it. The room behind the in wall aquarium is the office, but we are returning back into the aquarium room. So I have it all torn apart,...again.

 

[427HISS]

We're old school as well, but we just don't think that the LED's are here yet.I have two of one of the most popular lights on the market, but when fish swim buy, their color change, same with corals and they create the 70's dancing effect, that most of us have complained about.
Then the COST......wow ! I viewed a build here of a very large and beautiful system tank, and he has 9 lights at apx. $5,400 !
But, I love the things you can do with these lighting systems, except for the corny & stupid lighting ! lol

If the halide's with blue supplemented lights were not so expensive to run, needing the use of a cooler , I'd go back to them.

But, we like the corals and fish color under the T5 lighting and not needing a chiller. The cost of replacement tubes are expensive though.
Wish they were $10-$15 rather than $20 ! $120 at least,...per year, but don't they recomend changing every 9 months ?

 

[427HISS]

I'm bumping myself...lol

So the Blue Plus, is the whitest of them ?

 

[dragon99]

I've been running 3 Blue+ and 3 Coral+ for the past year. I'm quite happy with it. I started with 4/2, but it was a bit too blue.

Here's some ideas straight from ATI.
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/which-ati-bulb-combination-should-i-choose.205103/

My tank with 3 each B+ and C+