halide blue or purple?

NJHC · Jan 14, 2013

I just purchased a 2x 150 halide with 2 t5s but the color is very white with a hint of blue at the least I'm running a 20kcoralife and a 15k blue . Anyone have a idea how to get MORE BLUE?? And color pop?

If iI add a stunner strip would that do anything ?

bairdimusprime · Jan 14, 2013

ATI blue plus and an ATI purple plus will get you the pop you're looking for

NJHC · Jan 15, 2013

Halides wash them out

Ron Reefman · Jan 15, 2013

An led stunner can help, but it doesn't take much MH white to overpower a lot of blue (t5 or led). And stunners are pricey. I know what you are going thru. I had MH with t5's and stunner leds and wasn't happy.

A friend got me looking into leds and I tried a Radion. It works great, good PAR and any color you want. But at $750 a pop they were just too expensive for my needs. Then I found new leds from EverGrow in China (only been out for a couple of months) with built in controller/timer and make the tank as white or blue as you want. I just bought 5 of them (3 different models) for my 4 tanks. Great PAR numbers and as much blue or white as I want. And they cost 30-50% of what Radion or AI sell for. I have an IT2040 over my 70g nem tank and it was only $245. The Radion I had didn't cover enough and I would have needed a second one ($1500... yikes). And the EverGrow has slightly better PAR numbers. Reef Breeders is selling them in the States now.

NJHC · Jan 15, 2013

Ron thanks I thinkvim gonna sell my mh and go with ever grow or two kessils. Let me know if you know anyone that wants a great deal on a coralife aqua light pro with leds and t5s. Thanks again for the info

SAWDUSTINTANK · Jan 15, 2013

I had the same issue as you some time ago. I have a Maristar unit with two MH 150W DE bulbs and two 39w T5 bulbs. I use Phoenix 14k 150w MH bulbs and two ATI bulbs- Blue Plus and Purple Plus at the moment and I am very happy with this bulb combo. My corals have more pop to them and my tank looks better overall. Finding the right combination will help. I used to buy UVL and Wavelength bulbs but none of them accented the Phoenix bulbs like I wanted. After two years of buying T5 bulbs that didn't fit my needs, I am now hooked on ATI bulbs. I plan on experimenting with the other ATI bulbs that are available. Good luck with what every your choice is.

Also, Is there anyone in your neighborhood that can let you borrow some bulbs for you to test out different combinations?

Reef Pets · Jan 15, 2013

It might be worth putting in radium 20k metal halides. They add a lot of quality blue color.

Ron Reefman · Jan 16, 2013

NJHC said:
Ron thanks I thinkvim gonna sell my mh and go with ever grow or two kessils. Let me know if you know anyone that wants a great deal on a coralife aqua light pro with leds and t5s. Thanks again for the info

You'll get a lot more color control. You see here in this thread there are people talking about wanting to 'try' other color bulbs. With a good led fixture you can change the color of your tank in 2 seconds with the turn of a knob or the push of a button on a remote control. I used to be really skeptical about leds and loved the growth I got from my MH. But the prices of these new EverGrow lights, especially in a group buy, are better than what you can do in a DIY project! The color spectrum is now filled out (you can layout your own led color pattern) and they make as much or more PAR than MH and they are dimmable!