bulb combo?

Would it be ok to use 3 ATI blue +'s and one fiji purple T5 for my mixed reef? From what I have read the PAR in the blue +'s are very good. Does a daylight bulb have to be used? I know how blue it will be, but that's what I'm going for.

 

Its good to have some white light coming through also. Blue light is great because that wavelength penetrates deeper through water but you need white light as well. I use almost a 2 to 1 ratio with blue being 2/3rds of the light. Or a little less.

 

The fiji purple would not be enough?

 

You would want to but a 10KK to 12KK bulb in the mix. If you are set on using the 3 Blue+ get an UVL actinic white, it will be more pink than purple. Another thing would be to get an aquablue special with the other 4 bulbs. Extras are always good to have.

 

Almost all my lights are all blue (actinic and aquablue special), but I have one fiji purple and one daylight bulb. I think it's only 6500k. The tank is very blue, and I love it!! The one daylight bulb doesn't ruin the blue-ness of it, for me anyways.

 

maybe I'll try 2 blue +'s a aqua special and the fiji purple.. I just hope it's not too white and the colors in the corals still pop.

 

You do need a daylight bulb. Actinics don't put out a full spectrum, just blue, and a lot of photosynthetic stuff need red spectrum lighting to photosynthesize carbohydrates. It's actually nearly anything that has any blue or blue tint that needs the red spectrum lighting.

You have to remember that the color something appear as is what it reflects, so if a coral is pure blue, that means it's absorbing everything but blue, so it really needs everything from green to red to grow, and that the blue lighting is just for show.

The only time you can do full blue is if you're doing a mantis-only or another deep water tank, as full blue actually comes closer to approximating their full light spectrum.

 

What spectrum is the fiji in? I thought it was in the daylight spectrum...

 

It looks like it doesn't have the yellow/green of "daylight" branded bulbs.

http://www.iquaticsonline.co.uk/ebay/large/t5/spectrums/t5-14k-white-spectrum.jpg

http://www.bubbles-shop.com/loja/images/ATI blue plus.jpg

Google Image Result for http://www.practicalcoralfarming.com/images/t5lighting/11141114ati%20aquablue.jpg

 

look on reefgeek.com, they have charts that show the spectrum of each bulb