new t5 bulb help

I have a 55 gallon with 2 150w mh and 2 t5 54w. I purchased some more bulbs for the t5 I got an ATI super actinic and a blue + liked the pop on the corals and the cool blue color.

The problem is that the way my metal halides are positioned along with the t5s the I need a little bit more white light in the front of the tank from the t5s. With the actinic and blue plus I had some weird blue purple shadows when the mh kicked on.

The question is what kind of bulb could I get that is white enough to take away the shadow and will still add a little bit of blue to give the coral that little bit of extra something they are missing with just the actinic in there.
Would a 50/50 bulb be just about perfect? if so what brand?

Thanks for the help.

 

also could you tell me whether this is enough light to grow SPS without any kind of problems? I would try to keep them in the top half of the tank. clams in sand?

 

That is plenty of light for SPS in a 55. As for a whiter bulb, no idea. Sorry.

 

How deep is your 55? That sounds like plenty of light to me.

 

its the standard rectangle. about 18" minus a two inch sand bottom.

 

Usually when using MH and T5s, the T5s are usually used for actinic supplementation. If you want to get a more white bulb, you could do a UVL 75/25, it's about 15,000K temperature. Aquascience also make a 15,000K bulb which is nice.

 

I found the aqua blues to be very white, I swapped one of the 2 I got for a fiji purple and am really liking the colors now. When you say you purchased more bulbs, does that mean your still using 2 t5's over the 55 and you got new bulbs to play with the color? what kind of 150w halides are over the tank now?

If the actinic bulb you have is the one i'm thinking of its really not all that good par-wise. An ATI blue plus has about double the output of the actinic ones do, and the blue plus is a much deeper blue color.

~Will.

 

I have 2 14000k vipers 150w. Yes is was getting new bulbs because mine were old and to also play with the color. I still use the two t5's they are just pushed to the front of the hood. I would like something that puts out a lot of par and has a blue to it just not as much as the blue +.

I really like the color the uvl super actinic puts out. so i will probably leave that one in. As for the other one I am just running an old 10000k so I am looking to replace that one.

 

You want to replace a 10,000K with a whiter bulb or bluer bulb? I wouldn't go any lower kelvin rating than that, but you could use a 6700K bulb, GE makes one. If you want a bluer bulb you could go with what I previously suggested or even try a 12,000K white actinic or Aqua Blue.

 

At worst try an aquablue by ati or geiseman. If you sue a GE 6500k, or similar, it will look weird with only 2 t5 bulbs.

I tried running 1 GE 6500k in the middle of 2 ati blues on my 3x39w t5ho lit 35g.

What brand/ K rating are those halide bulbs? and what kind of ballast? electronic or magnetic?