T6 and t5 coralife question

I was given a t5 coralife light but it says for freshwater on the website.

It has a 6700k and colormax bulb in it, according to the manual the 10000k bulb and actinic light can be interchanged I also have a florescent t6 light it reads 11000k what would you suggest I do?

I don't have any coral in this tank but would like to start, I can't even get algae to grow though not sure what to do. For some reason I can't grasp lighting. My other tank has an actinic and 10000k bulb still no coral in either though

 

jdameli 1

T5 coralife - twin tubes? 1 x 10000K and 1 x Actinic - would be OK for a FOWLR or a tank with low light requiring inhabitants

4 T5 tubes - 2 x 10000k and 2 x actinic would be much better and with that you could keep a vast array of corals

The 6700K favours algae growth and lamps of this colour temperature are often used over fuges in reef set ups to help grow macros

but I have seen many people using lamps of this CT when compensated for by plenty of lamps of the higher CT away from the red end of the spectrum ( so if you had 6 tubes, 3 actinic, 2 x 10K + and 1 x 6700 K - that IMO would be fine)

Steve

 

I would advise against using the 6700K. IME it has bleached and faded my corals. Softies and LPS were affected the most. Greens and some blues took hits in my SPS.