dumb light questions

Okay to start with please do not get all technical with answers. Please keep it simple.
I have a 6 buld t-5 and have 2 bulbs on 1 switch 4 on the other. right now I am running 4 18K and 2 420nm.
First question. Is 18K or 10 K better for the corals?

Should I be runing 3 & 3 or is it fine with 4 daylight?

Is the Fiji Purple for look's only or are they benificial to the tank inhabitants?

thnx
Danny

 

which brand lamps are you using Danny?

Im running 4 daylights 2 x 14k and 2 x 15k plus 2 x 22k actinic and everything seems to be growing OK to me

what are you keeping at present?
there may be better PAR performance in lower K lamps
but if you have 6 lamps over mostly softies , IMO if your happy with the look and the corals health appearance. your fine with what you have

Steve

 

The 18K would be better for color and the 10K better for growth. I would suggest 12K to 14K for the best of both worlds.

You can do the bulbs based on the color you want the water to appear. If you do go 3 and 3 I would make the 3 blue a 450 to 460nm blue like an ATI Blue Plus or Geisemann Actinic+ or UVL 454.

Fiji Purple is good on both points. It will pop your reds, pinks, purples and oranges.

 

18k and 420nm are both on the blue end, did you mean 10K? I've run all sorts of combinations in my old 6 bulb T5 fixture. I found the best for color and growth was 2 daylights and 4 blue/actinic. Specifically, I would run 2 UVL 12k, 2 UVL SA and 2 ATI Blue+. Sometimes I threw a 10k for a 12k or ran 3 ATI Blue+.

The Fiji Purple is just a different spectrum bulb, it's considered a daylight and I would use it as such, it just has more red in it. It good to bring out certain colors.

 

The lower the K (Kelvin) the yellower the color and usually the better PAR or light that your coral uses, but there is no "Pop" with 10k bulbs. If you go all 10k (a yellowish white), you may have better growth, but its going to make your tank look ugly. Really, as long as your happy with the color of the tank, don't worry about Kelvin temperatures. I've seen all SPS tanks run on nothing but supplements or blues....its really up to your own preference. The main thing is....don't run crappy cheap bulbs.

 

Many aquarists are getting away from "pure" actinic and going with Actinic+ and/or Blue+ bulbs now.

 

By pure actinic you mean 420 nm? and Actinic+ and Blue+ is 460/20k? I'm stuck with my Odyssea 24" PC 130W, I don't have funds to get myself a nice Tek T5HO yet, so I was thinking UVL 65W 420nm+65w 14K.

 

There's actinic 03 (420nm) and actinic blue (460nm). 20k is distinct from actinic blue, and is farther towards white (only because it has a small amount of daylight [yellow/red] phosphors), along with the k spectrum bulbs (with increasing yellow and decreasing blue phosphors as you get into lower numbers).

I don't know why people call them blue+, actinic+, or pure actinic, other than the fact that a bunch of companies (all of the German ones) use that as their branding - it doesn't accurately describe the type of bulb at all, since some are different types than others but both called blue+.

I like a bit of actinic 03 myself, as it makes to corals glow (actinic 03 is close to a UV lamp). The UVL 454 is my personal favorite, since it's 15% actinic 03 and 85% actinic blue - just enough to get the hint of UV, but not enough to burn the bejesus out of your eyes or anything in the tank with UV.

 

The Geisemann Actinic+ and ATI Blue Plus Are probably 50/50 on the 420/460 nm light. The ATI Purple Plus its the Blue Plus with some red added in. They all really pop the fluorescent pigments. I will need to compare the output of the 454 to my ATI Blue Plus just because it is so popular. I am certain though that it is as high of quality as ATI or Geisemann bulbs.

 

light combos are all up to you. whether it be 10k or 18k. most people like a bluer look though. fiji purple are good bulbs with alot of par(energy corals use).