Looks ?

Today my wife asked me a question and to be honest I didn't know how to answer it. My 29 Gal tank has been up and running for a little over a year. From what I have read my water is just now starting to age and my corals seem to be growing good. To me thats all that is important. Now her question was why dont my corals show alot of color when the day light are on. At first it didn't realy don on me because I see there color just fine, but then again I know what I am looking at. After I sat there a while looking at my setup thinking. She is kinda right I guess. I use two t5 ho 10k bulbs and two t8 420 attanic. I have plenty of light to keep everything I have alive and growing, but she right I dont have the color that I see in other tanks. Or should I say the color is there it just doesn't pop out at you. I am very interested in getting responce on this. The only thing I could think of was the t8 attanics don't have enough punch to go with t5 ho bulbs. So please throw in any suggestions I would love to here the

 

Ive noticed the same thing. When I run only my actinic lights (same kind you have: 420 t5s) my green birdsnest acro looks AMAZING! bright grren and fluorescent but with the 10k white lights on it just looks a medicore, slightly washed out seafoam green color. I like my tank a lot more with just the actinic lights on.

 

Your t5/t8 bulb combo isn't helping. Do you feed your corals? Maybe your corals just aren't as colorful as other corals.

 

Its because of your bulbs color choice. Your talking about the color "POP" that people get when the fill the tank with sometimes 14k but normally 20k lighting. Higher spectrum gives you more of a UV glow type thing.

Me personally I use a similiar lighting setup as you (all T5 though 2 x 10k & 2 x act) and I am quite mappy with it.

 

Ok so my asumption that the t8 attanics aren't strong enough to go with t5 ho day lights?

 

+1

its the bulb color choice. I find a 10k bulb to look very bland. Im a huge fan of a blue looking tank though. Anything under 14k to me just doesnt look good. I would switch bulbs to something with a higher kelvin rating. Now that your tank is healthy you should still experience good growth even with the change.

 

I would kinda doubt it. But then again Ive never used T8's over anything saltwater and have never seen them used in a reef setting. A 10k with just about anything as the actinic with still not have much "pop" as far as the colors go. Its great for growth, just not for coloration.

 

Can you buy 14k+ lights in a t5 format or are they strickly MH and LEDs only?

 

You are talking about the t5ho bulbs right?

I use the KZ New gen 14k as my daylight bulbs. I also run the ATi Blue +. Great par and color. Feeding your coral also helps bring out more color.

 

Run ATI Blue Plus for the T5HO and get 10000K to 14000K bulbs for the T8.