Light Combinations

[homefry319]

Hey just looking for opinions on light combinations for color. My hood is a Hamilton Cebu Sun 1 250w MH and 4 24w HO T5's.

Right now it has a 14,000k Hamilton MH and 4 Hamilton Actinic Royal Blue T5s. I was curious what you think would give the best color to corals, Im sure they'll be a mix of SPS, LPS and maybe some mushrooms.

I was thinking of keeping the MH bulb I have and just changing the T5s. Maybe doing two purple and two true actinic.

any thoughts?

 

[kbuser92]

I like the bluer, rather than purple look, personally. I think 14,000 °K and actinics look really good, but I think that 2 of each would look good, too. Its personal preference, mostly.

 

[mariobrothersleeve]

I think those are great colors. I love the purples too. I can honestly tell you I know no effect purple has on corals, but the color blend is great. I ran the colors you were asking about for such a short time before I switched to leds. I can tell you that our local reef society (that runs t5) use those bulbs. I believe what I used were ati bulbs and they were great for the 3 months I used them

 

[homefry319]

Thanks guys, I'll have to check some of the LFS see if they have any tanks setup with some T5 combos

 

[d2mini]

I would do at least one ATI Blue+ and one ATI Purple+. Both are PAR monsters and have awesome color.
That leaves two left. I would probably try another Blue+ and then either another purple+ or a third Blue+.
For the mh, something in the 12-14k range will work. Geissmann had a "Coral" bulb in this color range. I really liked it. I had it paired with 4 T5 bulbs, i just can't remember if i had 3 Blue+ and one Purple+ or two of each.

btw, those Blue+ bulbs are way more blue than "true actinic" bulbs.