T5/MH combo suggestions

Salty1962 · Mar 30, 2016

The Phoenix 14k bulb is a great bulb, you will get very good growth from it. That's all I ran in my previous tank. I mentioned the Purple+ because the Phoenix has a blue appearance and the Purple+ will bring out a full spectrum to see the best of your corals. The Coral+ is a good bulb but with the Phoenix I don't believe you'd see much difference in color. The Blue+ and Purple+ don't wash each other out, I believe, JMO, they really compliment each other very well. The ATI website has a reference picture to give you an idea of what each bulb will do for color on ys. May be helpful to you for making a decision on the bulbs. I'm not an expert on this, I just know because I bought one of each bulbs on sale and tried each one until I got my sweet spot which was the Blue+ and Purple+. Good luck, your trying to decide something that is very challenging.

120reefkeeper said:

That's the one:)

d2mini · Mar 30, 2016

Personally, I love the new Giesemann Super Actinics, especially for dusk/dawn.
I ran them with my Radiums, which I don't think are too far off from the Pheonix bulb which i have now in a different fixture.

Here's a couple pics.

And then something a little different... added some LED and changed the T5's a little bit.

Aaron Stone · Mar 30, 2016

Thank you very much for that d2mini, those photos were very helpful. The actinics are nice, but I like how the Coral Plus pulls out the reds and oranges a little more. I think I am going for a bulb each of the Coral Plus and the Blue Plus.

hybridazn · Mar 30, 2016

Aaron Stone said:
Thank you very much for that d2mini, those photos were very helpful. The actinics are nice, but I like how the Coral Plus pulls out the reds and oranges a little more. I think I am going for a bulb each of the Coral Plus and the Blue Plus.

If just running those 2 bulbs the coral+ will most likely wash out the blue+ and you won't even notice it running. You would need to run 2 maybe 3 blue+ over 1 coral+ to visually see the blue

Aaron Stone · Mar 30, 2016

hybridazn said:
If just running those 2 bulbs the coral+ will most likely wash out the blue+ and you won't even notice it running. You would need to run 2 maybe 3 blue+ over 1 coral+ to visually see the blue

UI am sorry, I meant to say Purple Plus and Blue Plus. Would that work a little better?

Pete polyp · Mar 30, 2016

Aaron Stone said:
UI am sorry, I meant to say Purple Plus and Blue Plus. Would that work a little better?

It depends on what you're going for. Coral plus it's going to pull out more orange and red compared to the purple plus. The coral plus is going to be about the equivalent of 16,000k as it is not an actinic bulb. It reminds me a lot of the old 50/50 power compact bulbs on the color it produces. The coral plus is going to wash out the blue tremendously. The purple plus isn't going to wash out the blue as nearly as much and will pull the warmer colors some. The coral plus will pull more of the warm colors than the purple plus. Currently I'm using 2x 250w ushio 20k with 2 blue plus, 1 coral plus and 1 12k t5. While everything is on the overall appearance is very white. The coral plus and 12k washes most of the blue out.