i currently have a metal halide hqi (150w) and 2 t5 ho bulbs. i think the mh is at 10k (bought it used so im gonna change the bulb soon) and the two t5 are actinic. i need advice on what bulbs to change to because when the mh is on it gives crap color to the tank. i was thinking making the mh a 14k bulb and change one t5 to 10k and the other to 460nm actinic. the area that i need advice is if anyone with experience think that that will put a nice color spectrum in my tank. the color is so bad when the mh is on that green coral looks brown in the mh. i was also thinking about changing the current light i have to either led or all t5. any advice is appreciated.
advice on lighting
- Thread starter nyk
- Start date
If you want good growth from your coral, then 14k would be the best way to go. Then you can use all actinic on your T5 to supplement for your color since I think the actinic gives out a lot of blue color? (please correct me if I'm wrong, I'm not a T5 guy). Pretty much just do a bulb that gives out a butt load of blue/purple on your T5's to give you the color since the 14k doesn't have much blue in it either. I ran 14k 250w once and it was still too yellow for me. So I did all blue for my T5 and I got great color.
Make sure that when you change your lights, you acclimate your coral to the new lighting. I think reducing your photo period by about 1.5 to 2 hours for the first week and then up it 30 min to an hour after that to let your coral adjust. It's a big change in lighting and it may put them in shock. I had that happen to me a long time ago on my old tank when I changed out my old radium bulbs with new oddessy bulbs, It sent all my SPS half way to he$$
from everything ive read(im about to start using 150w MH on my newly cycled tank) the phoenix 150w 14k bulb has the best color and gives greats growth...just ordered oned from mediabaskets this week...also heard radium 20k looks nice but might be overkill with your T5s as far as the blue color...also not quite as good growth
If you want to run a 20k bulb then I wouldn't run anything else with it since the different color from the other bulbs will throw off your color. I agree with the above statement. I tried to run more blue color from my T5 with my 20k MH and I was too blue. I went with a more white color and it over powered what little blue my 20k MH bulbs were pushing. So I end up just running the MH on it's own. That's what I'm doing now on my cube. 400w 20k radium by itself during the day and then my ecoxotic led take over after my MH go out. Doing so has given me great color in my coral. You can check it out on my thread in the members tank forum.
