The lighting

[Jerinanyon]

Just got a 6 bulb T5 light fixture from aquatic life for 450$. Now I heard these bulbs suck so I'm buying new bulbs. How does the combination blue plus, coral plus, blue plus, blue plus, coral plus, blue plus sound? Anyone have pictures or experience with these for color?

 

[Holygral]

Just curious why spend that kind of money and not get LED's? Never change bulbs, ramp up and down, full control and less heat and energy

 

[Macscale]

Yeah, at that price you could have gotten some amazing LED's, and it would cost less in the future.

 

[Jerinanyon]

Reef experts tell me how amazing t5's are for coral growth and that they are hard to get ratings for. They recomend t5s. And I'm also adding a strip of LEDs

 

[bribo12]

T5s also run your electricity and require yearly bulb changes. They work but those reef experts are probably old schoolers who refuse to see the light. Leds grow corals and grow them well

 

[mrvincent]

For that money I would have invested into a hightech LED setup with programmable Dimmer.

T5 don't suck, but require a lot of power and heat a bit, and need replacement each years. You would have saved money with the LEDS.

 

[carey]

aww leave the guy alone lol. He already bought it and it will definitely produce enough light for him to grow anything he wants.

I happen to still like my t5s too so dont feel bad. hehe

Anyways. I go with an even split of blue plus and aquablue specials. The purple plus ones give off a purple hue I dont like and the coral ones will be more blue than the aquablues but not as blue as the blue plus.

 

[Holygral]

its not picking on him, it about making better choices, the same as people asking about rodi unit. LED's is the future for the $ he spent he would have been way ahead with led's. 3-5 years from now he will be buying LED's, so the money he spent today will have to be spent again. He paid $500 for a fixture and now another $180 of new bulbs. Send the whole thing back and go LED's and be done with it. Wish I would have asked and listen to fellow reefers 10 years ago, I would be a lot richer,...........ok so Im not rich but maybe I wouldn't have to find ways to eat mysis soup every night

 

[carey]

I run t5's still on some tanks and leds on others. To be 100% honest, I have issues with the intensity of the leds and have never ever had an issue with t5's. You can tweak the color of the light by changing the bulbs out too.
I do agree about the leds being better as far as long term cost and energy savings, thats clearly a plus but great tanks can and still are being kept with t5's.
I just hated how everyone just bashed the OP and told him to return them or he made a mistake. Perhaps the op is going into this with his eyes open and just wants the t5's?

 

[mrvincent]

I run t5's still on some tanks and leds on others. To be 100% honest, I have issues with the intensity of the leds and have never ever had an issue with t5's. You can tweak the color of the light by changing the bulbs out too.
I do agree about the leds being better as far as long term cost and energy savings, thats clearly a plus but great tanks can and still are being kept with t5's.
I just hated how everyone just bashed the OP and told him to return them or he made a mistake. Perhaps the op is going into this with his eyes open and just wants the t5's?

Led penetrate water much more than T5 when we talk about PAR values. For this reason you shouldn't put the leds at 100% when you recieve it. I can't run my LED fixture over 55%Blue 55%White on my 20g, or my corals tend to bleach... But it's always fun to know I can turn them brighter. It give buffer for fine tuning.

 

[mrvincent]

its not picking on him, it about making better choices, the same as people asking about rodi unit. LED's is the future for the $ he spent he would have been way ahead with led's. 3-5 years from now he will be buying LED's, so the money he spent today will have to be spent again. He paid $500 for a fixture and now another $180 of new bulbs. Send the whole thing back and go LED's and be done with it. Wish I would have asked and listen to fellow reefers 10 years ago, I would be a lot richer,...........ok so Im not rich but maybe I wouldn't have to find ways to eat mysis soup every night

Yeah man, I'm new to the hobby and I can tell I'll never regreat my first light fixture (R420R 60w nano 16000k)

 

[mr_X]

Just got a 6 bulb T5 light fixture from aquatic life for 450$. Now I heard these bulbs suck so I'm buying new bulbs. How does the combination blue plus, coral plus, blue plus, blue plus, coral plus, blue plus sound? Anyone have pictures or experience with these for color?

I'm not a fan of the coral plus. I prefer Aquablue Special. I think you are going to have too much blue without a true daylight lamp or two in the mix.

 

[Jerinanyon]

I'll keep the 10k and 1 coral plus. 4 blue plus. And see how that looks if its going to be too blue with the coral plus x2

 

[Swicicki]

Personally I'm not a big fan of the way most LEDs look

 

[Jerinanyon]

I feel like having both is the way to go. I finally picked up a stand today for the tank (72 bowfront). Time to make the refugium out of a 20 gal freshwater tank I used to have.

 

[carey]

The aquablue specials are still blue-ish but has more white in it than the coral plus does, which is still technically a "white" just a deeper blue than the aquablues specials. The blue plus ones are ALL blue so I agree with the above, you might need more "white" in the tank.

When I had my big t5 unit I had 4 aquablue specials, 4 blue pluses and 2 purple pluses and found it cast too much of a purple hue rather than a blue hue. I ended up going with an even split of specials and blue pluses.
This is the split 50/50 whites and blues

Still looking for a shot of the purple bulbs lol

 

[carey]

Found it! There is alot of coralline on the rock but it looks silly with the extra purple plus bulbs. Keep in mind the huge difference and that its only 2 bulbs out of 12 that were purple pluses and I got this much purple.

 

[Jerinanyon]

The aquablue specials are still blue-ish but has more white in it than the coral plus does, which is still technically a "white" just a deeper blue than the aquablues specials. The blue plus ones are ALL blue so I agree with the above, you might need more "white" in the tank.

When I had my big t5 unit I had 4 aquablue specials, 4 blue pluses and 2 purple pluses and found it cast too much of a purple hue rather than a blue hue. I ended up going with an even split of specials and blue pluses.
This is the split 50/50 whites and blues

Still looking for a shot of the purple bulbs lol

A very nice clean tank! I want a bit more of a blue tint though. Which is why I want 4 blue

 

[Jerinanyon]

Casey I like the purple tint to the tank! Maybe a coral +, purple+, and 4 blue+