light bulbs

[Melonbob]

OK, heres the situation.

I have a coralife 36" t5 fixture that is only 21w. I am basically stuck with coralife bulbs for this as it in not 39w. I believe I can get 6700k, 10,000K or true actinic and thats it.

Then I have the nova extreme (not pro). I am open to anything 39w with this. any brand, etc.

Now I want to change all my bulbs, but have no idea what I should get. My corals haven't gone downhill, but aside from my anthelias, everything is stagnant, not growing at all. Now, I had some major issues with calcium/alk which definately contributed to this, but I am thinking the stock bulbs aren't helping any. Not to mention the algae that keeps coming back.

Can anyone help me with a combo for these six bulbs? I think its time to try something new. The 21 watt actually adds alot of light, but the yellow is annoying...

 

[RyanG]

If you go 10k with the 21w it should help to get "better" color. Are you running both fixtures on the same tank? If you are you could use daylights in the Nova and run the true actinics in the coralife

 

[Altohombre]

check out UV Super Actinic Bulbs to replace your actinic. I have also heard good things about the UV 75/25 bulb, and the GE 6500k (think that is the number).

 

[Melonbob]

yes, I am running both lights on the same tank, the Nova on legs in the back, and the coralife right in front of it. I would like a combo that will take advantage of both

 

[reeffreak]

This is what I would do.
Nova....
UV Super Actinic
GE6500k
ATI Blue Plus
ATI Aquablue Special 12K(this is a daylight bulb with a slight blue hue)


I'm not sure about what you should do with Coralife.For me,I would ditch it.The bulbs I've listed above has the best PAR in it's category.
You can call/email Reefgeek.com for advice on bulb choices and buy the bulbs there.

 

[Melonbob]

OK, this is likely where I will pick up bulbs. They have UV Actinic White (12k 50/50) and UV Super Blue Actinic on sale right now. They also Aqua Science (Blue 22k, Duo 17.5k, and special 15k) any input? I wanna order today

 

[Melonbob]

oops, link

http://www.reefperfection.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWCATS&Category=130

 

[Melonbob]

I'm still thinking along the lines of buying two actinics for the 21W, and running a combo of 4 non-actinic lights in the nova. The actinics are only to make the aquarium more visually appealing right? If thats the case then I should be using all my high wattage for daylights, no? And will the two 21W actinics be enough to balance out the 4 daylights, or am I gonna end up with a yucky yellow? I am lost

 

[reeffreak]

I'm not sure if having all daylights in one fixture and actinics in the other such a good idea.I can see the water split partial blue/partial white.A fish looking washed out swimming under the daylights then looking bluer when under the actinics.Usually two actinics aren't enough to balance out the whites.There are options though,maybe two of the daylights in the 12-14k would help.

I'm not sure how good or bad the Aquascience bulbs are compared to the UV and ATI bulbs.I haven't read any PAR readings on those bulbs.