ATI HO T5 Bulbs

[Paulm7373]

Hello, I'm looking at replacing my T5 bulbs which have been running for a year and a half now with 4 x 24w ATI HO bulbs and am looking for suggestions on what combination would be ideal. I have a 52 gallon sw reef tank which is slightly over 2' wide and approx 2' tall. I have mostly lps corals and one sps acropora coral sitting right up the top. I also have a separate blue LED fixture which I primarily use for blue moonlight an hour just before lights go out and also running in conjunction with the T5s from 5pm. I need to choose the right combination from the following ATI bulbs to give me a good overall spectrum of lighting:

Blue Plus
Aquablue Special
Coral Plus
Actinic or Purple or Pink Plus

One LFS recommended I use one of each (4 in total) but would also welcome any suggestions as well as what your experience with ATI T5 tubes is like.

 

[mr_X]

I would just use 2 Blue Plus, and 2 Aqua Blue Specials. You aren't going to like the look of the Purple Plus, and The Coral Plus is between the Aqua Blue and the Purple Plus, so if you want a little purple, I would suggest replacing One of the Aqua Blues with this, but I prefer to not have a purple lamp in the mix. There's plenty of lower NM in the Blue Plus.

 

[Paulm7373]

Ok thanks, not so sure I want a purple look in my tank either. What is NM? Also, would these bulbs be sufficient enough for sps corals such as acros? Would these bulbs also make my torches fully extend out more? Atm their tentacles look much shorter and thinner.

 

[mr_X]

There are many different reasons why corals don't stretch out, or grow differently. I don't know why yours aren't, but I do know that ATI lamps are among the highest PAR T5's in the hobby, and the Blue Plus is the nicest looking blue bulb I have seen.
Nanometers is just a measurement of visible light. The lower the wavelength, the more usable light you are getting for your corals, since in the wild they are subject to mostly the blue light (somewhere between 400-460nm), they seem to benefit best from this. Photosynthetic creatures that grow on land, like plants, like more of the red and yellow spectrum, and less of the blue.

As far as acropora, I don't know. The only way to find out is by trying it, or using a PAR meter to see what kind of usable light you are throwing at them.
If you have it pretty high up, it may work, but I would rather see you with a 6 or even 8 lamp fixture over your tank.