URI Bulbs.. which ones do you prefer?

*edit i mentioned URI everywhere in here but should be UVL... for some reason www.jlaquatics.com my LFS has them labeled as URI...*

So i currently have a 2 x 96w coralife 36" pc fixture over my 46 gal bowfront. have a 10k bulb and a 50/50 bulb both are coralife bulbs. my 10k daylight seems to have crapped out on me so was going to replace both bulbs with some new UVL bulbs. I like the look of the 50/50 coralife bulb which is 50% daylight and 50% actinic so looking for a similar light spectrum from UVL.

Thing is UVL bulbs have all these different names and it's hard to find any real feedback on which ones look best and are the most beneficial for a reef. There's the Super Actinic, Actinic White, 454, 75.25, and 50/50.

I know that in t5 setups people use a combination of several of the above but i can only pick two of them with my pc fixture.... what do you guys recommend? and don't tell me to go with mh or t5 cause i just don't have the money at the moment

 

You have to mean UVL, not URI. Right?

 

yes URL, formerly URI i guess, my bad...

 

I use the Super Actinics in my set up.

 

I don't use UVL bulbs anymore as I have sen other brands work better. ATI and geisseman are the 2 best t5ho bulb brands out there.

if you want to use UVL bulbs, they mostly make a pinkish hue, versus a blue hue. So if you want to use some UVL lights, go ahead, but in order to get a blue hue you will need to put a different brand of bulb in the array as well to get that color.

I suggest using ATI blue + for this purpose because they have the highest PAR ratings and give off a great blue light that no other t5ho bulb can match. (IMHO)

 

I have UVL bbulbs on my tank and love them but to be honest I upgraded from the bulbs that came with my Marineland fixture. They were pretty low end so there was no where to go but up as far as quality went.

 

I only have a pink hue out of one of my 6 bulbs so not all of the bulbs are that color. Its one of the mixed type bulbs, either the 75 / 25 or the 14000 bulb they have. The actinics are fantastic and the 10K look very nice and white.

 

I guess if you compare the current brand to the better brands, then yeah, UVL's are much better than those.

They still don't have a 20,000 k blue bulb though. That "color" bulb is probably the best selling bulb in t5ho due to many folks (like myself) using t5s with their MH rigs.

 

thanks for your input guys... i was desperate for some bulbs so i went to my LFS and the guy said that i should get an actinic white and pair it up with the 75.25 or a 454. he said the 454 is extremely blue, and from what i saw from what some peeps posted on the web, it looks like a highpowered blue moon light... so i went with the 75.25 and now my tank has a slight pink hue to it... i'll post some pics soon.

i'm tempted to try the 454 in place of the 75.25 and see how that goes, but then that might make my tank look too blue. anyone have experience with the 454? and i'd like to try the ati bulbs but no one locally sells them (vancouver, bc)...