I'm running 4 T5's with ice cap reflectors and 2 660's on my 75g. I'm going to throw new bulbs in it to freshen them up (ones I bought were used and they're probably due) and was looking around at the various threads here but most are geared towards folks with 6 or 8 bulb fixtures.
The bulbs that came with the kit are Giesemann... 2 Actinic (front and rear), 1 midday (mid front), 1 Actinic+ (mid back). I'm more after what will keep the corals happy than look at this point. Mostly zoos, couple of kinds of mushrooms, xenia, kenya tree, frogspawn, I may venture into an SPS if this kit can support it mid-high in the tank...
Should I stick with the same bulb config or swap things around for the best coral colors and growth? I was thinking of keeping the actincs and midday and replacing the actinic+ with an aquablue, mainly because I don't like how the + bulb creates a very visible blue band across the tank under it, not having seen one I can only assume the additional spectrum in the aquablue will mute the blue band a bit.
Also, what photo period would you recommend with this new setup? With my old aqualight PC fixture I was running actinics 1p-11p and 10k's 2p-10p, we want the actinics to be on through 11p, so when should things come on to not melt everything? I've dialed the times 1 hour shorter with the T5s so far just to be safe.
Thanks!
The bulbs that came with the kit are Giesemann... 2 Actinic (front and rear), 1 midday (mid front), 1 Actinic+ (mid back). I'm more after what will keep the corals happy than look at this point. Mostly zoos, couple of kinds of mushrooms, xenia, kenya tree, frogspawn, I may venture into an SPS if this kit can support it mid-high in the tank...
Should I stick with the same bulb config or swap things around for the best coral colors and growth? I was thinking of keeping the actincs and midday and replacing the actinic+ with an aquablue, mainly because I don't like how the + bulb creates a very visible blue band across the tank under it, not having seen one I can only assume the additional spectrum in the aquablue will mute the blue band a bit.
Also, what photo period would you recommend with this new setup? With my old aqualight PC fixture I was running actinics 1p-11p and 10k's 2p-10p, we want the actinics to be on through 11p, so when should things come on to not melt everything? I've dialed the times 1 hour shorter with the T5s so far just to be safe.
Thanks!
