ATI blue plus + daylight led bars

rtague · Feb 1, 2021

So I have an ATI 6 bulb t 5 fixture and was thinking of doing 6 blue plus and 2 white daylight led bars.I know people usually do the other way around with 2 actinic bars but I love those blue plus bulbs but don't want to totally wash things out,I'm thinking the white led bars will help with the flat t5 look and maybe add a little shimmer,any thought?.

Lasse · Feb 2, 2021

This is a little problematic. The T5 bulbs are very seldom just one wavelength even if the says Blue or something like that. LED bars on the other hand often are very narrow in the wavelengths

Here is the spectra of ATI Aqua Blue special

They have often three tops in the RGB area and therefore give you a rather good colours on your fish and other organisms with reflecting colours and let the fluorescence be visible too .

Blue LED bars is often only concentrated around the blue wavelengths - given a wash out look as you mentioned (but promote the fluorescence). To combine with some white bars can give the effects that you want according reflection colours but it will also hide the fluorescence)

The only LED bars I know that try to mimic the most T5 bulbs is GHL Mitras Bar 2

I use Deep Actinic, Actinic and Ocean Blue

Spectra Deep Actinic 100 % - When you look at the aquarium it is not any washed out colours - red is red and green is green. Even if it looks like white light for your eyes you even see the fluorescence from the blue wavelenghts.

Actinic 100 %

Ocean Blue 100 %

My combination (2 Deep Actinic, 1 Actinic and 1 Ocean Blue) 100 %, If I would buy new today - I would probably run with 3 deep actinic and 1 Actinic.

3 deep actinic and 1 actinic 100 %

This bars can be runned without a computer - if so all are on 100% - However if you have a Profilux computer you can adjust every group of LEDs with the same wavelengths Independent from each other. My setup give me 9 channels to manage separately if I want. The secret with these bars is that they among other led even use RGB leds

These bars are the ones that IMO mimic T5 bulbs and also give a little skimmer to the water

Sincerely Lasse

Mywifeisgunnakillme · Feb 2, 2021

I think it will look good. Blue plus looks cool on its own, and adjustable white leds will let you adjust for more daylight.

EricGRIT09 · Feb 2, 2021

If you like a more natural/daylight looking tank I think you will be happy. As mentioned above the Blue Plus bulbs are very "Windex-like", so very blue but also illuminating and not just about the blue/actinic pop. I do something similar with a mix of Blue Plus and Actinic T5's and then I run my LED's at a whiter/warmer level like you have proposed. This is, in my opinion, a great setup because when you have fewer separate LED colors you get better and more cohesive shimmer (less disco ball). The contrast between the blue fill light and the very warm white LEDs makes for some decent shimmer.

The absolutely perfect setup in my mind is blue/actinic T5's (or maybe blue/actinic LED strips for wide coverage) and then some Kessils at a whiter setting for the shimmer effect and additional PAR/coverage.

I note the Kessil setup because your white LED bar approach is likely to add a more "TV static" type shimmer than a single point LED (or something in between). That meaning your shimmer will have a relatively high amount of intersecting lines from many angles and possibly appear less shimmery than you might hope. Will definitely shimmer a bit though.