Explain your lighting choices

[Europhyllia]

I've noticed in a lot of the pictures people tend to go for a very dark/ blue look.
Is that something people just prefer visually?
Or do some corals like this better?

Compared to everybody else's tank mine looks pretty stark white.
I have a couple of actinics but they only show before and after the white lights turn off.

I chose the white bulbs ( 10000k to 15000k) because I read this article
http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2002-08/dw/index.php
and I was interested in coral health and growth.

Since I rely 100% on T5s I figured I needed to get all the light intensity I could get.
How do others feel about the kelvin ratings of lighting?

[Kyle46N]

Some of the pics of people's tanks can be deceiving. Camera's make them look more blue than they really are. On that note...I do prefer 20k's MH. I know for growth, less K is better, but I like my corals color to pop, and I'm in no hurry...lol.

[TexasTodd]

It depends on what you want to grow.

Halide are best for sps and deep tanks but make heat.
T-5 efficient but not as intense as halide and actinic still is not as good as vho but good especially with european bulbs, bulbs also last 18 months or so.
vho limited colors, some heat, only last 6-8 months, but the best actinics made.
pc's well, the lower cost alternative kind of. Not as intense as others, limited colors, and actinic not as good as vho.

I can't speak for other corals, but YES sps will develop better colors with a high amount of actinic, 420nm, 460nm, 15-20kk bulbs etc., but this is only part of the equation.

I think ideal is the old halide/vho actinic combo, or, possibly a lower KK t-5 with vho actinics which I may try on my next system.

All the above can be argued, but so can salt, feeding, skimming, etc.

Todd

[Europhyllia]

Texas Todd. That's very informative! Thanks for sharing your insights.
I only do LPS and Softs and my tank isn't very deep but I would love a clam.

Interesting about the actinics. My 11Ks are Giesemann's. I might get some Giesemann's Actinics to replace the ones that came with my fixture to at least get the 'better' T5 actinics...

[hobogato]

try replacing one of your 11K bulbs with an ATI blue plus. fairly high par for a blue bulb but lots 420nm and 460nm

[Paul28]

Im all softies and very few Lps and lot of people say MH is to mutch for softies me i dont think so IMO brings out great color in them and thay grow large and healthy i run MH xm10ks and t5s 2 ATIblueplus and 2 UVLsuper actinic and love it but thats just me

[Europhyllia]

try replacing one of your 11K bulbs with an ATI blue plus. fairly high par for a blue bulb but lots 420nm and 460nm

Interesting.
Right now I actually have a 1:1 ratio of 11k to actinics but the bulb I have is called a Gieseman AquaBlue and recommended ratio is 2:1 or 3:1 (1 being the actinic). Should I try the ATI Blue Plus in place of one of the Actinics? Like 2 Giese AquaBlue: 1 ATI Blue Plus : 1 Giese True Actinic?

[Gseclipse02]

i had MH's but to keep my tank at 78-79 degrees it was costing us nearly 400 dollars a month (chiller and magnetic ballast/SE bulbs) i went to t5's and the next months bill went to 200$. now my chiller doesn't come on with the t5's

"I have a couple of actinics but they only show before and after the white lights turn off."

i would run them the whole time just my .02

[allan]

"I have a couple of actinics but they only show before and after the white lights turn off."

i would run them the whole time just my .02

I think he meant that it was only visible when his halides were off.

I run t5s myself, but I have a little bit of everything. I don't really like the deep blue look from running more of the blue tubes. As it is now I have a pink tube (man card on probation) and two other purple looking tubes called Coral Excellerator and Coral Stimulator... or they may be called Red Wave and Red somethng. Either way it seems to really bring out the orange and pinks in the tank. But the combination that I have seems to have a very light appearance from around 11am to 5pm and the early morning and late evening colors are popping.

I got another pink coral excellerator tube the other day to replace the damaged one from the other week's storm. Gonna let you in on a little secret... Those tubes are not stronger than the ceiling fan contrary to popular belief.

At any rate, BLUF, I like the ability to tweak the colors with a bank of t5s, but have been thinking about getting a set up of the VHO tubes to experiment with the colors after talking to Todd about it the other day.

[Europhyllia]

i had MH's but to keep my tank at 78-79 degrees it was costing us nearly 400 dollars a month (chiller and magnetic ballast/SE bulbs) i went to t5's and the next months bill went to 200$. now my chiller doesn't come on with the t5's

"I have a couple of actinics but they only show before and after the white lights turn off."

i would run them the whole time just my .02

Oh yes. What Allan says. What I meant is that the actinic bulbs are on a 9:30 AM to 10:30 PM schedule while the white bulbs are on a 10:00 AM to 10:00 PM schedule.
So only in that half an hour before and after the whites come on is the tank visibly blue (even though the actinics are still on when the whites are on too)
I actually just decided to up the ratio of whites to actnics after learning how little PAR the actinics contribute to the tank so it's even less blue now. ;)
I wish I had purchased a T5 fixture with more bulbs to play a little more with colors. I might upgrade in a few months to an ATI Sunpower with more bulbs.
Right now I only have 4 80W bulbs so I want to get as much usable light for my corals out of them as I can.

Wow Gseclipse that's impressive about your electricity!
That was actually a big factor in my decision to skip the MHs and go for all T5s as well. Paying 40% extra in energy to make heat when I don't need/want it and then paying extra again to get rid of that excess heat just didn't make sense.

Somebody mentioned the other day to augment their T5 set up with LEDs to get that halide shimmer. That sounded interesting too.
Anybody done that?

Karin