Help with a good t5-6 bulb combination

[Mikeyp1055]

I will be setting up a 6 bulb t5 light fixture and I'm wondering what a good bulb combo would be

 

[jarrodsanborn]

4 blue +
1 coral +
and 1 purple plus.
looked awesome to me, good par, about 14-16k, and has enough purple in it to remind me of the old vho+halide look i had for a while.
if you like less blue, substitute the purple bulb for a 6500k bulb, if you want 20k or way more blue, run 5 blues and a purple

 

[JohnK]

Personally I prefer more like 3-4 aquablue or coral+, along with 2 blue+ and one other. A lot of it depends on your personal preference, to me 4 blue+ doesn't look right at all.

 

[Cherokee_Dude]

I had mine setup as;
Early light cycle (Switch 1, two bulbs) Actinic, Blue Plus
Main light cycle (Switch 2, four bulbs) Coral+, Blue Plus (2), Purple +

As Jimmy said, this is personal preference and around an 20k early light and main lighting 18k look.

 

[jarrodsanborn]

Moral of the story: buy ati and you can't go wrong

 

[ruffp61al83]

which ati ones are good?

 

[JohnK]

which ati ones are good?

All of them

The Blue+, aquablue, and coral plus all have great PAR and very nice colors. The purple and actinic blubs are nice supplements but not so strong in PAR. Overall ATI T5 bulbs outperform all of the competitors.

 

[ruffp61al83]

k thanks need new ones after christmas.

 

[ruffp61al83]

coral plus is no color just 10000k right
no blue

 

[JohnK]

Coral plus is like aquablue special but with more purple. I don't know for sure if the PAR numbers are quite as good, but they are really nice looking bulbs. Pretty much elimnates any need for purple blubs (that have relatively very weak PAR) IMO/IME.

Forget about the old school 10K type of light when talking about the ATI bulbs. They have figured out how to get daylight bulbs that still have tons of blue AND have great PAR. The blue+, aquablue, and coral+ are all really strong in blue, but the aquablue and coral+ are strong across the board so they look mostly white. It's hard to explain, you have to look at the spectrual graphs and compare them to those of 10K MH lamps to see what I'm talking about. (look at the reefgeek.com website, they have the graphs for all the ATI T5s and probably most of the MH lamps)

 

[Mikeyp1055]

Ty for the help.very informative

 

[Frankyrivera]

Blue+ are like a pale blue light. Aqua blue special is like a white light with a hint if blue. Coral+ are white with a hint of pinkish purple. Actinics are lower par purple ish blue. I like white during the day and the actinic blue glow at night it's all personal preference good luck. Go ATI

 

[Bobbofin]

I ditched my Radion LED and bought an ATI 6x24" dimmable Sunpower for my 60 cube. B hooked me up with 2 blue+, 2 actinic, 1 coral+ and 1 aquablue special. I like it a lot. It's like a 14-15k but wow do the colors pop, especially the reds. My Radion did terrible on red corals. So glad I went back to T5s.

 

[gary]

I have a Red Sea max 250 t5 with 6 bulbs and run ati 3 blue plus, 2 aqua blue specials, 1 purple plus lots of Red Sea guys use this combo, corals look great under them!

 

[76hudson]

I'll second the Bobbofin setup above. I run the same and love it. (Ill also second his football team)

 

[steevareno]

I use this combo and love it!!!

4 blue +
1 coral +
and 1 purple plus.
looked awesome to me, good par, about 14-16k, and has enough purple in it to remind me of the old vho+halide look i had for a while.
if you like less blue, substitute the purple bulb for a 6500k bulb, if you want 20k or way more blue, run 5 blues and a purple