Is this lighting ok?

FREE ITEMS w/ 24" 96W HO T6 Light Fixture Purchase
2x Odyssea 24W HO T6 Bulb Daylight 12000K
2x Odyssea 24W HO T6 Bulb Actinic Blue
2x Dual Bluemoon LED.This is what I have on my tank now.Everything seems to be doing great.Reason why I am asking is all I read about is t5 lighting? Are t5's the same as t6? We are going to replace one of the daylights with a blue. My fish hate the dayligts on.

 

I am learning alot of new stuff about lighting but you have to add in whether it is an all fish or reef tank >>> what are you keeping in it? and what gallon is it?

 

It is 40gal oceanic cube. I have frogspawn,mushroom,starpolyps and some fish going pretty slow. I did frag the frogspawn and mushroom doing really well. I do have pictures on my profile with all the stuff in my tank.

 

I'm still learning to navigate this site. I can't even see my album yet. That is good that you can keep a frogspawn under that lighting. Mushrooms and star polyps don't require much lighting. As for the fish, they should hide if they dont like the lighting but you have to remember, in the wild the sun is alot brighter than a t5-t6. Blue is just a different spectrum, like a black light. Your coral will look cooler but its said to grown slower under higher Kelvin. (i.e. 6500k is a grow bulb, 20,000k is for effects)

 

Thanks for your quick replys. Like I said going slow still learning alote.

 

lol.. as you say quick replies I was giving opinions to someone else so it took a bit... no problem! The purpose of this site is to help fellow reefers. Learning is half the fun... keeping everything alive is the rest. good luck.

 

6500 is indeed a grow bulb, but more for plants than corals. Corals thrive under lighting of 10000K to 20000K, depending on the species. Shallow water corals need light in the 10000-12000 range, because this light is yellower and mimics the conditions that occur when the light has not been filtered by much water. Bluer light ranging from 14000-20000 will be better for deeper water corals, with higher kelvin equalling deeper water. Some species can handle a large range of lighting conditions while others are very specified. Actinic (blue bulbs) are used to add supplementary light in spectrums between 420nm and 460nm because those are particularly useful in photosynthesis.

Star polyps actually need more light than people think. Also some mushrooms, like Ricordea sp., have heavy light requirements too. Lighting is an extremely complex reef subject.

 

i think T6 lamp would be harder to find than a T5. i know none of my LFS's dont carry them. but that just could be my area and theres always the web good luck

 

I have the T6's and the bulbs you buy from Aquatraders are not the same size(length) as the ones you buy elsewhere...it might say at AT 48" bulbs, but they are really 47.5. Not sure if it's the same with other sizes, but I've got a hunch it is!

Go with T5's, the availability of different bulbs is much better than T6's

 

Aquatraders is where I purchased my light they dont have my replacement bulbs. Not happy with that. And all my lfs do not carry my t6 bulbs. The one I have been going to alote said he would be more than happy to order them for me.So I will keep doing some buisness with him.Thank you all for the inputs,I wish I did more homework on lights! I did all my homework on my fish and water more than the lights. I guess thats how we all learn.