Looking for bulb suggestions for T5 supplementation

[Daniel Waters]

I like the color in your pic. Is that under only purple plus? I prefer around a 15k-18k look overall. I hate that tanks are so blue now. I was down in Orlando a couple weeks ago checking out the reef shops and not one had corals under lighting that wasn’t overly blue.

I just thought it was odd the the blue plus actually made my tank whiter initially even though I already keep my tank whiter than most. Even now I have the whites turned down as low as they will go without turning off and it’s still a bit whiter looking than it was prior to the t5 addition. It’s my first time using t5s so maybe I’ll just get used to it. I went from VHOs way back in the day to PCs, then to MH , and then LEDs. I’m sort of wishing I had just bought 3 250w MHs for this tank and been done with it.

I believe that picture was a blue plus bulb combined with a purple plus bulb.

A blue plus bulb is probably an 18,000 Kelvin rating, so I think what you are picking up on is the green spectrum peaks in that bulb (it's not making your tank whiter, but the green peaks certainly may make the tank look brighter since the human eye is very sensitive to green). It sounds like you would really prefer a bulb that has some of the yellow, orange, and red spectrum mixed in. The coral plus bulb is around a 15K. The purple plus bulb is similar to the coral plus but has a higher red peak, which helps make the purples and reds come alive more. Like I said, I don't care for the purple plus bulb unless I'm running it in a 6 or 8 bulb set up, but some people love it.

 

[jsvand5]

I believe that picture was a blue plus bulb combined with a purple plus bulb.

A blue plus bulb is probably an 18,000 Kelvin rating, so I think what you are picking up on is the green spectrum peaks in that bulb (it's not making your tank whiter, but the green peaks certainly may make the tank look brighter since the human eye is very sensitive to green). It sounds like you would really prefer a bulb that has some of the yellow, orange, and red spectrum mixed in. The coral plus bulb is around a 15K. The purple plus bulb is similar to the coral plus but has a higher red peak, which helps make the purples and reds come alive more. Like I said, I don't care for the purple plus bulb unless I'm running it in a 6 or 8 bulb set up, but some people love it.

Thanks. I may just buy one of each just to see what I like the best. The windex look on the blue plus is bugging me a bit. Unfortunately no fish stores in my area run t5s so I can’t check what the bulb colors look like without having to buy them

 

[Daniel Waters]

Thanks. I may just buy one of each just to see what I like the best. The windex look on the blue plus is bugging me a bit. Unfortunately no fish stores in my area run t5s so I can’t check what the bulb colors look like without having to buy them

Yeah, I understand about that. It's good to have an extra bulb or two laying around anyway. Most fixtures run 2 bulbs on a ballast and if a bulb goes bad, it won't run either light. Thus, it's good to have an extra bulb laying around so you can swap bulbs in and out to troubleshoot. I'd recommend getting a coral plus and purple plus bulb to try out (I would not bother with a true actinic). The coral plus is my preferred "white" bulb (which isn't overly white compared to the aquablue special or 10k type bulbs).