T5 Bulb Combo for a Lowboy Frag Tank

[Hubtech]

Hello all,

I'm setting up a lowboy with a 4 bulb t5 light. was thinking about B+, C+, B+, C+ BUT I've never run t5's before and this is just what I've come up with over the inter webs. I will eventually add some LED for fun, but for now just worried about growing mostly lps, zoa, and maybe eventually sps.

Any pros with advice?

 

[Chef Tommy]

Hello all,

I'm setting up a lowboy with a 4 bulb t5 light. was thinking about B+, C+, B+, C+ BUT I've never run t5's before and this is just what I've come up with over the inter webs. I will eventually add some LED for fun, but for now just worried about growing mostly lps, zoa, and maybe eventually sps.

Any pros with advice?

Using a 4 bulb over my 75 gallon with same corals, plus one monti & one acro from Walt Smith. I have it set up with 3 ATI blue plus & one actinic. Everything is doing great but am planning on a lumi light from reefbrite for some shimmer that I miss. Look up a video on YouTube for Jason Fox coral farm tour. He talks about similar lighting on his tanks too. He also mentions how under certain depths blue light is only one reaching many corals, brought back science class memories! Lol. I also do prefer the blue lighting & when I ran led my tank was more blue than it is currently under the T5.

 

[kschweer]

I like the combo you suggested originally. 2 blue+ and 2 coral+. You can mix in an actinic bulb if you want like suggested above, the only thing to think about is that the actinic bulb does not have nearly as much PAR as a coral+ or blue+ bulb.

 

[gar732]

When last I ran a 4 bulb future I ended up with 3blue+ and 1 purple+. With 2 purple+ it was a bit too white for me.

 

[dutch27]

I run a 4-bulb. I started with 2B+ 2C+, and it was way too white for me. I went to my current setup of 3B+ 1P+, and it's better, but still not what I wanted. I'm going all B+ next round, looking for closer to a 20k.

If the goal is growth of zoas & LPS, the BCBC combo will be great. If you want SPS and are only concerned with growth, I'd go 4x C+, and maybe supplement with some blue LEDs to get that pop out of things when you want/need it.

 

[BoomCorals]

For what it’s worth I’ll be running a 6 bulb over my lps and softy low boy. I run 8 bulb over my sps low boys. The 6 bulb will probably be
B+
TA
B+
P+
C+
B+