T5 bulb combination.

I have recently purchased a T5 lighting fixture with 4x39watt bulbs. At the moment I have 2 Solar Max marine blue 03 (460 nm) and 2 sun-lux 10,000k bulbs. These bulbs were less than half the price of the other brands they had where I bought them, so my first question is should I not buy cheap bulbs?
I am thinking of changing one of each type of bulb with ones of a different spectrum but after much research I am becoming more confused, so I thought I would ask for opinions. If it were you, which combination would you have? My tank is 24 inches deep, I have fish and a few corals (nothing fancy), I prefer the bluish look but I really want what's best for the inhabitants. I have no plans to go MH as I've only just got these.
All opinions welcomed. Thanks.

 

Hi Accentstencil

when you say nothing fancy with regard corals? can you indicate which species/ types they are

the 2 daylight and 2 blue sounds Ok to me ( I use 3 of each on my system) but I cant coment on the specific brands as I have no experience of them

 

If you want a bluish but not overwhelming blue, 2 each of Giesemann Aquablue+ and Actinic+ will be a good start....What is the tank size? 4 3' bulbs doesn't sound like much liught for a 24" deep tank?
What type of fixture is it?

Happy lighting!

 

There are better and worse T5 bulbs. Some of the really cheap bulbs put out.

I hate to do this, but the only place I know if that shows pictures and par values of T5 bulbs is RC in this thread.
Reef Central Online Community - T5 Lamp Pictures
Not all bulbs have been tested, but you can see the difference in par between some of the brands of bulbs.

Kim

 

Thanks for the reply Steve. The reason I said nothing fancy is because I don't know what most of them are, except for mushrooms and a sun coral. I've added a few pics and if anybody can id them I would appreciate it, then I can research them. I know I should have done that before I bought them but it wasn't until I found this forum that I realised that. Sorry, it's the best I could do with the photos. Also, sorry about some of the spelling but we spell a little different in Australia.

 

Thank you for the reply. My tank is a metre long (almost 40") and 24" deep and it is 250 litres (approximately 65 gallons). I've dismantled my T5 fixture and installed everything in the hood of tank. I've also added 2 exhaust fans, one on either end and they cool it down quite a lot, it only gets slightly warm. I've added some photos.

 

Thank you for the link Kim, it was very helpful.

 

Your corals look like first a torch, second favia/favities otherwise know as closed brains or moon corals. 3rd looks like a type of star polyps or a bryarium. All of which are not really high light corals.

Kim

 

Looks very nice.



I would suggest that you think about removing the bio balls from your sump since it is a reef tank. Bio balls work very well at half of the nitrogen cycle. The end result of the bio balls is nitrate, where without them, you can get more denitrafaction resulting in much lower nitrate levels.

Since it looks like you might have the room, if you could spread the lights out and add some good reflectors you will get a lot more light into the bottom of the tank.

 

Thank you for the advice. What should I use instead of the bio balls, live rock?