T5 Bulb Combinations w/ Pictures

For blue bulbs, you really only have 2 choices. A true "blue" bulb such as an ATI Blue +, AquaScience 22K etc. or an actinic bulb which is more purple/violet such as a UVL Super Actinic.

 

OK last question Guitarman then I will stop buggin ya! What is the benifit of a true atinic(purple) bulb, that a true blue doesnt have?

 

I don't know if there's an actual benefit from actinic to blue lighting, the difference is where the color peak. I think blue is 470nm and Actinic is 420nm. I've found if using these bulbs for dusk/dawn effect, the actinic is more pleasing to the eye. The blue is just that, blue. Both make corals glow or pop, IMO, a true actinic does a little better job, but the blue bulbs generally have better PAR values. So in the end it comes down to a personal choice. And BTW, I changed my bulb setup to using two daylights, a Actinic White and a Gman 11K.

 

The Actinic 03 (true actinic) peaks at a lower wavelength, ~420nm. It's less obvious the bulb is there from the overall look of the tank. Actinic 03 doesn't provide as much in the coral's usable spectrum for photosynthesis, which is the ~460nm found on the "actinic blue" bulbs many people use.

 

ok I went to the LFS and seen the Gmann bulbs on display and in the tanks. The atinic plus is not much diffrent in color than my current aquaticlife atinic. The the blue plus however seems very white in fact more white than my bulb. Also I noticed the 11k (blue +) was very close in color to aQscience 15k bulb. How could this be? anyway I will use the blue plus for sure. but probably go with a 20k for my blue as this is more blue it seems to me than the atinic plus. The funny thing is I didnt realize how much blue it took to make a tank look blue. They have a tan running two blue plus and 4 atinic + and the tank doesnt look very blue to me at all. I think I will probably run only one daylight bulb myself.

So
1 aqscience 15k
2 aqscience 20k
1 ATI True Atinic.

I wish I could see this combo before purchase.

 

The Aqua Science is a 22k, it's a blue bulb, very similar to the ATI Blue +.

 

Yes, this is what I want. I just can get a ascience locally.

 

I've used them before. They have pretty good PAR, but are expensive. IMO. I didn't really notice much color improvement in my corals, but didn't notice any big negatives either.

 

Alright, so I've done every combination possible with my NEP 6x54 with these bulbs and here's the results.
4 ATI's: 2 Blue+, 2 Aquablue,
5 GMann's: 2 Aquablues, 2 Actinc+, 1 Pure Actinic.
1 UVL Super Actinic
1 KZ Fiji Purple

I currently own the listed bulbs and I strongly favor the ATI for white and blue bulbs... The UVL SA is amazing combined with a blue bulb and it smokes the GMann PA for color and PAR. And the KZ FP is basically a daylight bulb that pop's colors and has decent PAR, I like it alot.

Now I like the "bluer" look and ran for a few days without any white bulbs by only using actinic and blue bulbs plus my KZ FP, but with 3 clams in my tank I know they need strong white light, so that's not wise long term.

For dawn/dusk an ATI Blue+ front and a UVL Super Actinic back is freaking awesome and the best combo for color and fluorescence of corals.


I really liked this aswell and if I didn't have clams this would probably take the cake for color. Front to back:
ATI B+
GMann PA
KZFP
ATI B+
UVL SA
ATI AB

But this is what I currently run and will keep. That's about 1834 total PAR..
ATI B+
ATI AB
KZ FP
ATI B+
UVL SA
ATI AB

 

First, very nice looking tank, the colors are great. I also like your combination. I just received my UVL SA in the mail to replace the one that broke the first time so I have the following bulbs to mess around with.

3 ATI Blue+
1 UVL Actinic White
2 UVL Super Actinics
1 GM AB
1 UVL AquaSun

I'll post pics of what I end up doing.