Aquatic life T5/LED fixture addition

[ReefHomieJon]

My 120ga is 6’ long. I only have 3 kessil A360xs over the whole tank set to the BRS recommended spectrum setting currently set at like 94 intensity. I ramp up for 4 hrs. Full intensity for 4 hrs then ramp down for 3 or 4 lol not sure really. Growth on all corals, even acros is tremendous. HOWEVER, I just bought the aquatic life t5/led fixture to eliminate shading(wasn’t an issue until the corals started off an their amazing growth spurts) which would also probably encourage more growth since all sides of every coral will receive much more light.
so my question is, how do I add a fixture with 4 t5 bulbs to the tank that do not have a ramp up/ramp down feature to an established reef without stunting growth or over lighting the tank? Is this a slow process or do I just plug em in and see what happens. Also, what bulbs do I use? Is it more about what color I want? Or does each bulb spectrum play a different role? Who has these fixtures and what do y’all run?? Thanks

 

[Saltyreef]

Brs does a good rundown of bulb selection on youtube.
Its up to what you personally are after in a color. Everyones different.

I would install the hybrid and add 1 bulb per week until all bulbs installed to acclamate the tank to the new light.

 

[ReefHomieJon]

O ok. I have no experience with t5 lighting so I didn’t know if the different color/spectrum t5 options were just aesthetics or if they provided different functions for overall coral health. And 1 bulb per week sounds like a good idea, thanks!

 

[Saltyreef]

O ok. I have no experience with t5 lighting so I didn’t know if the different color/spectrum t5 options were just aesthetics or if they provided different functions for overall coral health. And 1 bulb per week sounds like a good idea, thanks!

Different spectrums bring out different colors in some corals.

Heres a good writeup from ATI.

Get the Look You Want - Bulb Layout Advice for T5 Aquarium Lighting - ATI North America

We frequently get questions about bulb color choices and where to put each color bulb in the fixture. The good news is there is a ton of flexibility in the answer. Let’s go over a few of these things and hopefully make some sense of it all. Bulb color combinations: The best way to pick... View...

www.atinorthamerica.com

 

[Biokabe]

Common practice with the hybrid fixtures is to have two ATI BluePlus (or equivalent) bulbs, plus two others of your choosing for your preferred color spectrum.

My experience with them has been that the fixture adds about 100 PAR, on average. So take that for whatever it's worth when approaching your light acclimation.