T5 bulbs and SPS growth

EricTheRed

EricTheRed

No, I'm not a communist..
Okay, I've been growing monti's like weeds for the last year and recently decided I'm ready to step up my SPS game. (The tank is about 1.75 years old and is a very stable ULNS.) So about 2 weeks ago I picked a blue-tip acro colony (multiple branches and about 4") and a nice green slimer mini-colony from MCF. Then this week I scored some saaaweeet mini colonies from a local reefer who is breaking down his tank.
Here's what I got:

2 Tyree pink lemonade frags about 1.5" each
2 Salmon (pink) mili's, branching aboout 3" each
1 Red Planet about 2" tall
1 teal Stag about 3"
1 Blue mili, branching and about 3.5"
1 pink Birdsnest mini colony
(In case you're curious, I snagged 'em all for only 120 bucks!)

They've been in my tank since Tuesday night and haven't grown yet, LOL!
It's like staring at a pot of water waiting to boil, only you know it's going to take years before the pot boils :)

So anyway, the reason for this post is to see if any of you experienced SPS farmers have a preference in T5 lighting. I don't mean bulbs, I use ATI and that's not going to change. I'm referring to full spectrum vs. actinic and how they relate to growth. I'm running a Nova Extreme 8 bulb fixture over a 90G DT. However, I've had a ballast out for over a year and I've only been running 6 bulbs. Well, with my new additions, I'm finally going to replace the ballast and start running all 8 bulbs.

Here's what I'm running now:
2 - ATI Blue+ (mostly 460nm)
2 - ATI AquaBlue Specials (15k, full spec w/ a blue peak)
1 - ATI Purple+ (like a KZ Fiji Purple, but really a red/orange sprectrum, not purple)
1 - ATI True Actinic (a true 420nm)

Okay, finally the question...If you were going to add 2 more ATI bulbs to the above mix, what you you add? I would like to add another True Actinic and another Blue+ but I'm wondering if I should skip the True Actinic since the 420nm wavelength does little (if anything) for growth.
 
First, don't expect growth from acros after 1 week. Once they get established in the née tank they will start to grow, could take 1 week could take several months.

As far as the lighting go, I would add the blue+ and a blue special over more actinic if your looking for growth.
 
poidog said:
First, don't expect growth from acros after 1 week. Once they get established in the née tank they will start to grow, could take 1 week could take several months.

As far as the lighting go, I would add the blue+ and a blue special over more actinic if your looking for growth.
Click to expand...

Haha, I was only joking about the growth. I know they take a long time. Thanks, I was leaning towards skipping the true actinic.
 
I had 2 aquablue, 1 purple+, and 1 blue+ and absolutely LOVED the color. No actual actinics in my fixture but also had 9x royal blue LEDs for additional color supplement. If anything I would have liked to swap one aquablue out for a GE 6700k to bring daylight back a little whiter, just too much blue when the entire fixture was on. I switched to LEDs and now want to retrofit a single t5 and run the purple+ over my tank, the LEDs are nice but lacking that extra wow factor now that the purple bulb provided.

So anyways, id add a blue+ and a GE 6700k daylight to add a ton of useable light and balance out the color spectrum a little.
 
FishBeard said:
I had 2 aquablue, 1 purple+, and 1 blue+ and absolutely LOVED the color. No actual actinics in my fixture but also had 9x royal blue LEDs for additional color supplement. If anything I would have liked to swap one aquablue out for a GE 6700k to bring daylight back a little whiter, just too much blue when the entire fixture was on. I switched to LEDs and now want to retrofit a single t5 and run the purple+ over my tank, the LEDs are nice but lacking that extra wow factor now that the purple bulb provided.

So anyways, id add a blue+ and a GE 6700k daylight to add a ton of useable light and balance out the color spectrum a little.
Click to expand...

I used to run a GE 6500 in lieu of one of the AquaBlue's. It did well for growth, but I prefer a bit on the blue side, not a lot of blue, just a bit more blue than a balanced daylight.
 
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