ATI bulb question

[Aabjones888]

ok so there are like 5 or 6 different bulbs made by ATI. I know their the referred bulb out there. If you had 3 in your system with a 14k halide with 3 would u all use? by lookin at there site i was thinking the 12k aquablue special, blue plus and the purle plus, but again i dont realy have a clue some advice please

 

[poidog]

I would do 2 blue+ and one actinic or all 3 blue+

I have 3 blue+ and one actinic with my 14k halide and I still want more blue!

 

[FishBeard]

What wattage halide and tank height?

 

[mlreef]

I would do 2 blue plus and a purple plus, That's just my 2 cents.

 

[SkullV]

No need for Purple/Green/Red anything with a Halide Bulb of any normal aquarium spectrum 10k-20k. Wattage and depth of tank have no bearing on bulb selection for halide color supplementation.

Either 1x Blue+ and 2x 03 Actinic (Slightly Dimmer blue with less POP/Florescence) OR 2x Blue+ and 1x 03 Actinic (Slightly brigher blue with more POP/Florescence)

 

[Aabjones888]

Fishbeard,It is one 14k 250 watt halide on a 65 gallon tank

 

[SkullV]

Fishbeard,It is one 14k 250 watt halide on a 65 gallon tank

The color recommendations I gave above are the same no matter what the tank/halide size is. What fixture are you using that has 1 halide and three t5? I sent you a PM.

 

[Aabjones888]

Thanks 4 the help

 

[SkullV]

Thanks 4 the help

No problem.

 

[FishBeard]

No need for Purple/Green/Red anything with a Halide Bulb of any normal aquarium spectrum 10k-20k. Wattage and depth of tank have no bearing on bulb selection for halide color supplementation.

Either 1x Blue+ and 2x 03 Actinic (Slightly Dimmer blue with less POP/Florescence) OR 2x Blue+ and 1x 03 Actinic (Slightly brigher blue with more POP/Florescence)

The color recommendations I gave above are the same no matter what the tank/halide size is. What fixture are you using that has 1 halide and three t5? I sent you a PM.

I'm curious what leads you to believe that tank height and halide wattage have no bearing on choosing what T5 bulbs to use?

You are saying a tall tank with a lower wattage halide would not benefit from having more blue+ bulbs over having actinic 03 bulbs? How much "pop" a bulb combination would provide should not be the only consideration when choosing bulbs. One blue+ will provide double the useable PAR of an actinic 03.

And the same goes for a shallow tank with a higher wattage halide, more blue+ bulbs could end up providing too much light for comfort for many corals depending what is being grown in the tank. In this case, the lower output of the actinic 03 bulbs would be an advantage over the blue+ since you will get great supplement from the bulbs without the additional unnecessary PAR.

Here is a great website that has a lot of good information about T5:
http://home.comcast.net/~stevelarsen00/site/?/home/

 

[poidog]

Hi OP, what Fishbeard has said is not entirely true, so I hope this is some better usable information....

First, what are you trying to accomplish? Are you trying to push more PAR into your tank, or use the T5s for color supplement?

The Aquablue special will be a white bulb and there is no reason to use this along with a 14k MH bulb unless your sole purpose was to push more PAR into your tank. (as you can see it has a full spectrum below)

The Blue+ is a favorite of most because it gives you a very good blue supplement with still a decent amount of PAR. This bulb is in the 460nm range. These bulbs really my my colors "pop." Spectrum shows it is much of the blue color with a hint of green.

True actinics are good to also to help fluorescence corals and get that "pop" but since they are further down on the spectrum, about 420, they have a more purple or violet color to them. actinics will still give out a usable amount of PAR, but are the lowest out of all the bulbs.

ATI has come out with a new bulb which is the Coral+. It looks like it is a blend of the Blue+ and the Aquablue special bulb.

Lastly, the Purple+.... I just to have the KZ Fiji Purple which is about the same bulb as the ATI (but the KZ puts out more PAR). This bulb is very red with a bit on the purple side. I did not like the way it looked at all... it flushed most of all my blue light. If you want some purple, use a true actinic bulb instead. As you can see color spikes at about 610nm around red.

I personally had more true actinics on my tank at first, and it made my tank look too purple and washed out. I found the right combo for my we 3 blue+ and 1 true actinic.

 

[FishBeard]

Hi OP, what Fishbeard has said is not entirely true, so I hope this is some better usable information....

I personally had more true actinics on my tank at first, and it made my tank look too purple and washed out. I found the right combo for my we 3 blue+ and 1 true actinic.

So twice now the information I provided has been disregarded, with no evidence that any part of it is not a valid observation. I made no mention of the color spectrum of either bulb, but focused on the practical application of which bulb would be better utilized in different situations. If you will note, all the significant spikes in color spectrum between the actinic and blue+ bulbs are the same, with exception to the general spectrum curve of each bulb (actinic lower in the 420 range, blue+ up in the 460+ range) If you spend any time on the site that I linked, which happens to have been put together by one of the most respected "experts" (if you want to use that term) regarding T5 lighting and selection, he makes comment that combined with daylight spectrum, the blue+ is actually not as good a choice as a true actinic because of the added blue-green spectrum it produces and can lead to washing out colors under whiter light under the 14k color range, and having a bulb with additional purple spectrum is beneficial for supplementing color. I would urge you to browse the site that I linked, as it provides much more information that a handful of color spectrum charts and one persons personal preference will provide.

 

[poidog]

:eyeroll:
I read your site and it contradicts what you've been saying. Spectrum curves are excellent to see what kind of light the bulb will produce prior to purchacing, if you have the know how to read/understand them.

According to your "expert" website the blue+ is a better bulb for color over the actinic when using a MH (which the OP is using) which will wash out any actinic bulb.

Good try though!

From your site:
Actinic Lamps
Actinic lamps peak around 420nm and provide violet light and some UV range light that is good at causing fluorescence, mainly noticeable in the green range many LPS and soft corals have. The good actinics IMO are UVL Super Actinic, ATI Actinic, Sfigioli Super Blue Actinic, all which have a slightly bluer look and the Giesemann Pure Actinic which is more of a violet look. I think having an actinic running with a blue lamp for dusk/dawn looks nice but once all the lamps come on they really don’t make much of a difference if you are using good blue lamps so I no longer use them.
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Blue lamps
Blue Lamps peak around 460nm and provide a high level of blue light and a good amount of PAR. They actually have more PAR than daylights in some cases. They cause good fluorescence in most colors other than certain greens and are excellent at blending out the greenish yellow tint of 10K halide lamps. The good blue lamps are the ATI Blue Plus, Giesemann Actinic Plus, AquaScience 22000K Blue, Narva and Sylvania blues and the UVL 454 and Ice Cap Twilight. The Helios Super Blue is a nice lamp if you can find it.
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Daylight lamps
Daylight lamps provide a white, yellow, green or even pinkish white light. You should try to include at least one of these lamps in your mix to provide the Yellow and red spectrums needed to provide accurate color representation in your tank (the ATI Purple Plus or KZ Fiji Purple are acceptable substitutions). Of course that is up to your personal taste. The good lamps are the UVL Aquasun also labeled Ice Cap Reefcrest(which has a slightly pinkish orange tint), GE 6500K Daylight, AquaScience 15000K “Special”, Giesemann Midday and the Current 10K is OK. The AquaScience special is probably the only one that would look acceptable as a stand alone lamp but as far as being art of a mix I can take or leave it. My preference is the GE if you have a Fiji Purple or some other lamp to boost red, if not the Aquasun/Reefcrest does well.

 

[FishBeard]

:eyeroll:
I read your site and it contradicts what you've been saying. Spectrum curves are excellent to see what kind of light the bulb will produce prior to purchacing, if you have the know how to read/understand them.

According to your "expert" website the blue+ is a better bulb for color over the actinic when using a MH (which the OP is using) which will wash out any actinic bulb.

Good try though!

From your site:
Actinic Lamps
Actinic lamps peak around 420nm and provide violet light and some UV range light that is good at causing fluorescence, mainly noticeable in the green range many LPS and soft corals have. The good actinics IMO are UVL Super Actinic, ATI Actinic, Sfigioli Super Blue Actinic, all which have a slightly bluer look and the Giesemann Pure Actinic which is more of a violet look. I think having an actinic running with a blue lamp for dusk/dawn looks nice but once all the lamps come on they really don’t make much of a difference if you are using good blue lamps so I no longer use them.
*
*
Blue lamps
Blue Lamps peak around 460nm and provide a high level of blue light and a good amount of PAR. They actually have more PAR than daylights in some cases. They cause good fluorescence in most colors other than certain greens and are excellent at blending out the greenish yellow tint of 10K halide lamps. The good blue lamps are the ATI Blue Plus, Giesemann Actinic Plus, AquaScience 22000K Blue, Narva and Sylvania blues and the UVL 454 and Ice Cap Twilight. The Helios Super Blue is a nice lamp if you can find it.
*
*
Daylight lamps
Daylight lamps provide a white, yellow, green or even pinkish white light. You should try to include at least one of these lamps in your mix to provide the Yellow and red spectrums needed to provide accurate color representation in your tank (the ATI Purple Plus or KZ Fiji Purple are acceptable substitutions). Of course that is up to your personal taste. The good lamps are the UVL Aquasun also labeled Ice Cap Reefcrest(which has a slightly pinkish orange tint), GE 6500K Daylight, AquaScience 15000K “Special”, Giesemann Midday and the Current 10K is OK. The AquaScience special is probably the only one that would look acceptable as a stand alone lamp but as far as being art of a mix I can take or leave it. My preference is the GE if you have a Fiji Purple or some other lamp to boost red, if not the Aquasun/Reefcrest does well.

Since you want to pick and choose information from the site to argue about "color", this excerpt is from the same page off The Grim Reefer's site (not my site):
[FONT=arial black,avant garde]Lamp placement and combinations [/FONT]
Using a lot of blue lamps will make the coral pop but also tends to hide some colors, especially half tones like pink and some purples. It also makes yellow critters look dull and dirty.

[FONT=arial,helvetica,sans-serif] [/FONT]​

You have yet to say anything that invalidates any point I brought up over the usefulness of bulb selection without using the color as your only argument point (you have twice now avoided actually disproving my statement that had nothing to do with color).

The Blue+ has a much higher PAR value over an Actinic 03 bulb (fact proven from numerous sources) A taller tank with a lower wattage MH light will benefit more from the additional PAR of more Blue+ bulbs over Actinic 03 bulbs (regardless of color), would you disagree?

A shallower tank with a higher wattage MH will NOT benefit from the additional PAR of more Blue+ bulbs over Actinic 03 (regardless of color), there is a point where you are just putting more light in your tank than your corals need, would you disagree?

 

[400gallonnano]

+1 poidog

 

[EricTheRed]

Let's consider this to be the last time certain participants in this thread correspond with one another. Do not post in each others' threads. Do not reply to each others' postings. Do not send pm's to each other. Do not instigate arguements.

Since no one shows any restraint in airing grievances publicly, consider this a mass warning.