Lighting Over 75 "48?

[Tajjo]

Ok i have 2 250 watt ice cap pendants, and am currently running 14k pheonix bulbs. Anyhow this is an actinic question, i want to add sepplement lighing however i was leaning tward the 4 bulb t5 retro. Will this be way too much actinic? Will i have to use 10k bulbs to take some blue out? Should i just go with 2 t5? I realy appreate the help and comments from your own experience. By the way i will be running vho t5.

[Tajjo]

If any of you missed that, I am going to be running the 48" 4x T5 VHO (not HO).

link [url]Link (http://www.reefgeek.com/lighting/T5_Fluorescent/IceCap/SLR_Retrofit_Kits/48_inch__4x54W_SLR_T5_Very_High-Output_Retrofit_Kit_w!_Bulbs_by_IceCap)

Thanks for any feed back!

Tajjo.

[becact]

The good thing about T5s is you can tailor the color to your liking. It would be a waste to use all actinics, IMHO. Do something like 2 blue pluses, a 75/25, and a pure actinic. With your setup I would run the T5s 12 hours a day and the halides 6 hours or so in the middle of the lighting schedule. That's going to be a lot of PAR with all the lights on, you may burn some corals if you're not careful.

[imcosmokramer]

I use 1 blue+ and 2 pure actinics along with my 2 250w hamilton 14k and love the look. Tajjo, you have so many choices as far as bulbs go, and changing one of for bulbs will make a huge difference, so I don't doubt you can achieve the exact color you want with this new setup.

[Tajjo]

Thanks a lot lot to the both of you. One thing the both of you mentioned only 3 bulbs I'll begetting a 4 bulbsystem. Anyway what types of bulb should I look into? What is the trueblue if it's not actinic?

[imcosmokramer]

tajjo, if you look, becact mentioned

2 x blue+
1 75/25
1 pure actinic

that's a pretty good baseline, although, with your MH, you may not need the 75/25. I would still do 2 blue+ and 2 pure actinic (but it's all subjective)

Blue = blue
actinic will make coral look fluorescent (many people use the term actinic incorrectly)

[Tajjo]

Oh ok. I'm not fermiliar with t5. My apologies.

[Tajjo]

So the blue will just add to the color in water? Maybe then I'll use 10k? Any experience there?

[becact]

I have phoenix bulbs myself, and am trying to decide on supplemental T5 bulbs, so you are not alone! I too am worried the tank will be too blue with blue+ bulbs, but the advantage to them is that they provide enough PAR to keep the corals open when the halide is off. With only actinics the corals may go to sleep when only the T5 is on. With 4 bulbs you won't have a problem, probably, with whatever you run. I will only be using two bulbs, so it is a consideration to me!

If I were you I'd just buy 6 various bulbs and mix and match until you find what you like. Then either sell the other two you didn't use or save them for bulb change time.

"Actinic" means a bulb that peaks, and has all of its spectrum centered around, the 420nm wavelength. This color looks very dim to the human eye, but produces that blacklight like fluorescence we all like. Usually a blue bulb will peak around 460nm (more blue than purple), but still produce some light in the 440-420nm area. So it will look bluer, but still produce a little fluorescence.