T5 lamps

I'm new to T5 so what you all think about this combo:

2 ATI Blue Plus, 1 ATI Aquablue and a UVL Actinic White lamp.

 

should be fine. slight blueish tint.. you running them all them on at once, or do you have seperate timers for the blue plus's?

 

Well.. that would be my next question.. I don't know yet. Gonna have to play around with it. I have two plugs. So it will have to be all or 2 and 2.

 

will these be supplementing mh's?

 

No it's in my small tank with T5 only.

 

I would put the ATI Blue plus in front and rear and then put the ATI aquablue to go on with the dawn/dusk lights and the UVL Actinic to go on with the daylights. The good thing about T5's is you can run your lights a lot longer than MH's so in essence it's a trade off. I love the T5's and they last a long time. My T5's are 8 wide so I have from front to rear:
ATI Blue+ 450nm
GE 6500K Daylight (weak day light)
UVL 75/25 14K (purple hue)
ATI Blue+
UVL Aquasun 10K Pink (nice touch)
ATI Blue+
ATI Aquablue 12K
ATI Blue+
I have 3 moonlight strips across the back of the tank for 24/7.
I have all kinds of corals doing very well with this combo. BTW the moonlights serve another purpose from what I've noticed and that is when I had a blackout some fish turned up dead or missing. With the moonlights not the case, hey I could be just lucky but I'm convinced it helps. You've never heard this anywhere but here!

I'm not a wiz at lighting but this was recommended to me an expert in T5 lighting because I wanted more of a bluer look rather than the stark bright light of 10k's. If you want him to recommend light bulbs for you visit Reefcentral.com and look up Grim Reefer. The man knows what he's talking about and so does tangster here on 3reef but I haven't seen tangster lately. 3reef is a far superior site and I only went to reefcentral because someone mentioned him to me here.

 

Thanks Marlin. Actually I got the combo I listed above from Grim Reefer.
Just checking to see what people thought.
I only have 2 power cords and the unit is a Hellolights retro with 4 X 24W.

 

I have never seen an actinic white T5 lamp in person, but I think that will be a nice bright white combo with a hint of blue. I found aquablues really wash out and overtake most actinics no matter where there placed. If possible, try to grab a couple extra bulbs to play around with and have as spares just in case. I really like the pro-color and fiji purple.

~Will.

 

It's a good setup to try but I think a lot of people like a little more blue than you are likely to get. It's really going to depend on personal taste, it might be just what you're looking for or you might be dissatisfied. I would also recommend getting at least one other bulb in case you don't like it, I would recommend another Blue Plus because lots of people like it bluer.

Also the UVL Actinic White isn't very blue, it's more pinkish. You can see all those bulbs here from my initial setup. I changed it and removed the Actinic White and put in 4 Blue Plus with the AquaSun and Aquablue. Granted I don't have any coral in it yet so I might change it yet again but that's how I like it right now.

 

Here is what you will end up with;
The Blue + = 60% actinic and 40% daylight.
The Aqua Blue = 100% Blue
The UVL = 50% actinic and 50% daylight
It sems to be a lot of the blue spectrum and no 100% daylight. If someone else is using the combo and are keeping hard coral and you want to or already are then go for it.