4 bulb t5 combo using bulbs i have..?

[Joining the reef]

I like a blue hue more than white or pink. I have 5 bulbs to play with at the moment.. Ive been playing but want to see what other people think.

 

3 blue +

1 purple +

1 aquablue special

 

right now im using 3 blues and aquablue but my actinics are straight blues, with i like for the coral but i find it very blue

 

What 4 would you use and in what order front to back? First and last are set on 1 channel and middle two bulbs are set on another channel. Thanks!

[Bill Nye]

I like it pretty blue and just bought 3 blue + 1 purple +. The purple + is pretty strong but it balances out the blue from the blue+ so the corals dont get washed out.

 

Front

Blue +

Purple +

Blue +

Blue +

Back

[kush.]

I like it pretty blue and just bought 3 blue + 1 purple +. The purple + is pretty strong but it balances out the blue from the blue+ so the corals dont get washed out.

 

Front

Blue +

Purple +

Blue +

Blue +

Back

do you find that you get good coral growth with that combination?

[Bill Nye]

Blue + has very high par numbers from what I've seen and purple+ is not very far behind. I have only had them installed for about a week so its too early to tell but this is a very common combination.

[Nanofreak79]

I know,you have the purple plus, but I traded mine for a KZ Fiji purple and liked it much more. Here's my setup.

Back

 

 

Blue+

 

 

Fiji purple

 

 

Blue+

 

 

Blue+

 

 

Front

[Joining the reef]

thx for input, im going to try and switch the aquablue for purple plus tomorrow and see how the color temp changes!

[SouthFlorida_Tron]

I'll be trying 2 blue+, kz blue, and coral+ in a few more months.

[Nanofreak79]

I used the coral+ before. I'm thinking of adding that instead of the Fiji. I have a new gen laying around but it's to white for me.

[Polyp Addict]

I like a blue hue more than white or pink. I have 5 bulbs to play with at the moment.. Ive been playing but want to see what other people think.

 

3 blue +

1 purple +

1 aquablue special

 

right now im using 3 blues and aquablue but my actinics are straight blues, with i like for the coral but i find it very blue

 

What 4 would you use and in what order front to back? First and last are set on 1 channel and middle two bulbs are set on another channel. Thanks!

 

3 ATI blue + and 1 ATI purple + will give you about a 14-16k look. I like the crisp cool color it gives off. I get good growth from the bulb combo as well. I think you'll like it.

[SouthFlorida_Tron]

Any photos of this combo?

[ny300z]

i have a 4 bulb setup

 

2 Blue+

2 Aquablue

 

love the color and growth.

[kush.]

Blue + has very high par numbers from what I've seen and purple+ is not very far behind. I have only had them installed for about a week so its too early to tell but this is a very common combination.

cool, i might give something like that a try then as its time for new bulbs and i want to add more a blue hue.

 

anyone with experience with giesemann bulbs? and good combos with that brand? My lfs carries corallife and giesemann but not ATI

[kush.]

i was thinking from the giesemann brand:

back
lagoon blue

aquablue plus

aquapink

lagoon blue

front

anyone think this will be a nice colour combination, or too blue?

[Bill Nye]

I am not familiar with the lagoon blue or aquapink bulbs but Im imagining they are simiilar to blue + and purple +. I am not a fan of aquablue plus as its very white (almost yellowish) and washes out blue light very easily especially in a 4 bulb combo. I would remove the aquablue and go with another blue + (lagoon blue?) or if you want a whiter look go with a coral + type bulb instead of the aquablue.

 

I bought my 4 bulb fixture used and it came with 2 blue + 1 purple + and 1 aquablue + and it was very very white.

[05XRunner]

i bought 2 blue+ and 2 coral+ for my fixture. thats what this guy is using in this setup and I love the color. so hopefully that saves me from buying all kinda bulbs trying to find the perfect color. hopefully they are here tues, wed at latest

[Bill Nye]

Interesting video. That seems pretty blue for 2 blue + 2 coral +...probably bluer than my 3 blue + 1 purple +. IMO its very hard to get reef lighting to look the same on camera as it does in person so I would imagine it won't look that blue when you get them in your fixture but I've been known to be wrong before

[kush.]

interesting. I just looked up a comparison to see what giesemann bulbs act similarly to ATI bulbs in terms of colour spectrum and came across this site: http://blog.reefgeek.com/2013/07/popular-t5-bulb-combos.html

it tells you what colour combination for different size fixtures to give you the desired look you want. I find this interesting for two reasons.

1. if i want a 14k-16k spectrum (crisp with blue undertone?) it recommends 2 actinic plus, aquapink, and lagoon blue. my first reaction was why would most of my lighting be actinics (i thought actinics had much lower par readings)

2. the giesemann site recommends 60% basic bulbs (lagoon blue, aqua blue, and midday) and 40% colour bulbs (atinics, aquapink, and aquaflora)

so why would reefgeek recommend 25% basic, 75% colour since 1 bulb is meant primarily for growing coral and the rest are meant for colouration

am i wrong about actinics not growing coral well?

[Bill Nye]

http://www.practicalcoralfarming.com/t5spectrums.html

 

If you look at this site it compares the spectrum of the Blue + and the Giesemann Actinic Plus. Very similar looking spectrum curves but it says the ATI bulb has about 20% more par than the Geisemann. IMO I would just order the ATI bulbs online as you will have a lot of information about bulb combos and they are a known commodity. I have heard good things about Geisemann bulbs but you don't find many posts about people using them and specific bulb combos. The reef geek article seems to be an ok guideline but I would say that their 14-16k bulb combo of 2 blue + 1 Purple + and 1 Coral + would be more like 10-12k but maybe I'm biased as I think my bulb combo is not quite 20k.

[kush.]

http://www.practicalcoralfarming.com/t5spectrums.html

 

If you look at this site it compares the spectrum of the Blue + and the Giesemann Actinic Plus. Very similar looking spectrum curves but it says the ATI bulb has about 20% more par than the Geisemann. IMO I would just order the ATI bulbs online as you will have a lot of information about bulb combos and they are a known commodity. I have heard good things about Geisemann bulbs but you don't find many posts about people using them and specific bulb combos. The reef geek article seems to be an ok guideline but I would say that their 14-16k bulb combo of 2 blue + 1 Purple + and 1 Coral + would be more like 10-12k but maybe I'm biased as I think my bulb combo is not quite 20k.

well that certainly made it easier for me to say it is worth ordering ATI bulbs online. roughtly 20% more par on ATI compared to geiemann? yes please.

[SouthFlorida_Tron]

That color is definitely more of a red - pink 12k.... Lol

 

 

Even my 2blue+ 2coral+ is icy 14...

[05XRunner]

Camera usually shows being more blue so I am expecting it to be a touch less blue in person but still looks good

[Polyp Addict]

Here's a really good guide for t5's imo

 

http://home.comcast.net/~stevelarsen00/site/?/page/Lamps_and_lamp_combinations/

[Joining the reef]

So after playing around a bit, so far I personally like :

 

Front

Blue +

Aquablue Special

Blue +

Blue +

Back

[Joining the reef]

been playing with bulb combos think the above is my favorite 4 bulb as i like blue look

although 3blue + and coral plus is pretty nice too i think

[05XRunner]

yea 3 blue+ and 1 coral+ how i am running it and I really like it. I am thinking about buying a Super actinic to replace one of the blue+ to see if it adds any extra pop in the corals.