Ati bulbs

[Irishmike7979]

Would like to get some opinions about this recent purchase I made for my 4 bulb t5 fixture. Tank size is 55 gallon long



Always second guessing myself after I purchase somethin lol...

 

[AquaRick]

Looks like you bought 3 actinics and 1 daylight bulb. I'd go for 2x2. 2 Aquablue specials (these are daylights) and 2 actinics (either 2 blue + OR 1 blue + and one purple +)

 

[Convict2161]

Looks like you bought 3 actinics and 1 daylight bulb. I'd go for 2x2. 2 Aquablue specials (these are daylights) and 2 actinics (either 2 blue + OR 1 blue + and one purple +)

Ricks right. Your gonna want just what he said. I have 2 aquablue specials,1 purple plus and 1 blue plus on my African Cichlid tank and the colors are crazy!! I could only imagine the justice those bulbs will do on a saltwater tank.



Just to give you an idea these were taken under the blue and purple plus only. I know it's fresh water but wanted to show you how it makes the colors just POP!

 

[Schism]

Ricks right. Your gonna want just what he said. I have 2 aquablue specials,1 purple plus and 1 blue plus on my African Cichlid tank and the colors are crazy!! I could only imagine the justice those bulbs will do on a saltwater tank.

Just to give you an idea these were taken under the blue and purple plus only. I know it's fresh water but wanted to show you how it makes the colors just POP!

I just found my new bulb purchase. Those colors are amazing with the purple plus. Ive only ever tried the aquablues and actinics.

 

[AquaRick]

Ricks right. Your gonna want just what he said. I have 2 aquablue specials,1 purple plus and 1 blue plus on my African Cichlid tank and the colors are crazy!! I could only imagine the justice those bulbs will do on a saltwater tank.



Just to give you an idea these were taken under the blue and purple plus only. I know it's fresh water but wanted to show you how it makes the colors just POP!


View attachment 104418



View attachment 104419



View attachment 104421

Sweet looking pics man. Haven't seen too many folks use them for freshwater. Looks good!

 

[Irishmike7979]

Thank you guys for replying, so I should get 1 more aquablue or should I get a coral plus

 

[Irishmike7979]

This is why I got the idea to place this order

 

[boardsurfer]

Thank you guys for replying, so I should get 1 more aquablue or should I get a coral plus

Some say the Aquablue washes out the other colors somewhat. But I think it gives just the right amount of daylight mixed with enough blue to make it look nice, goes good with ati blue plus and has high par making it a great choose for reef tanks.

The coral plus would give more blue in place of Aquablue specials. Its color spectrum falls between that of the Aquablue Special and the Blue Plus. From the manufacturer: "This white lamp has a higher blue emphasis to enhance the fluorescent pigments in your corals while still having some peaks of red and green." They are bluer than the Aquablues and have less of the yellow green harshness.

 

[Irishmike7979]

Got the bulbs and they are awesome!! Installed them on Tuesday and am going to see how my corals are affected by just running the one aquablue special. Going to order another one and a coral plus bulb just in case.

FYI I ordered these off saltysupply.com for only 4.99 shipping. No special handling fees either and they were packaged better then some of the websites I've used before

 

[AquaRick]

Very nice. Provide pics if you can.

 

[TRDfan]

wow...this is the perfect thread for my research. I was debaiting on which ATI bulbs to get and this thread answers my question!!!

Also thanks for the tip on the fees irishmike!! most places where charging $9-10 for shipping

 

[Irishmike7979]

No problem I'll post the pics later when I get home from work!

 

[Irishmike7979]

From my iPhone so not that great of quality



















I have pics of what it looked like before in my profile

 

[TRDfan]

I ended up getting the getting 3 ATI bulbs (Aquablue special, blue+ and purple+) and 1 giesemann aquablue+ bulb.

I got 1 giesemann bulb due to the fact that i wanted 1daylight bulb closer towards 10k as possible. the giesemann was perfect with 60% 6k and 40% 15k which combines to a color output of 11k

BTW...i had my shipping chargers taken off ...i know a lil inside trick to getting the shipping chargers knocked out from any website if any1 wants to know

 

[Irishmike7979]

Umm yeah PM me please!?!

 

[Irishmike7979]

So my corals didn't like the actinic look as much as I did lol do I ended up buying an additional aquablue special and last week and I can already see the difference. Currently running one aquablue special with one blue plus on one timer and one aquablue special with the purple. Love the look for now but once the t5s run out I will be making the switch to LEDs. Love how they last for over 50000 hours. Wondering if I should do a DIY fixture or just buy 2 of the tectonics. Any thoughts would be appreciated since I'm just going to be doing research for a while.













The pictures were taken late at night when the corals were shrinking up, I will post some midday pics later today.

 

[Irishmike7979]

All four lights on

 

[boardsurfer]

What bulbs were on in the post with 3 pictures above? I really like the look of your tank in those 3 pictures. The pics with all four lights on seems a little more washed and not as vivid or crisp in color as the tank with the 3 pictures.

I'm not the best to ask about LED's because I've never had them, but I also plan on switching to LED's after this 'round' of new ATI bulbs for my T5's. I just got them in today, and will post before and after pics.

So I'll probably have these new bulbs for just under a year, and then make the switch to LED. I currently have higher temps in my tank because of the lights (and because they're in a canopy), so I always have 2 fans running. One in the canopy, and one across my refugium/sump to cool things off. It will be a lot nicer to have the 'wavelike' effect of the LED's, plus the decrease in energy consumption, and less heat as well. But that's down the road for me...

 

[Irishmike7979]

Thank you, that was only one aqua blue special and one blue plus on. I couldn't agree more with you about making the switch to LEDs, I will probably make the switch to them in May. What type of fixture are you going with? I was thinking DIY from rapidled.com

 

[nikki_kaiser]

Your tank looks amazing!