T5 help
- Thread starter tangtime
- Start date
- Tagged users None
Daylight will give the best growth and actual color. You might not care for how they illuminate the coral, but if you do, then you are good.
Perfectly fine to use all coral plus. And, yes, it is good for corals assuming proper light durations, intensities, water flow, and favorable water parameters are maintained.
FWIW, the coral plus is not what I'd call a white daylight bulb, although it is more white looking than the ATI blue plus bulbs. Regardless, yes, corals can be grown under just daylight bulbs...last I checked the sun is one gigantic daylight bulb for all the coral reefs in the world.
One reason most people don't use natural daylight for their aquariums is because natural sunlight tends to cause unwanted algae growth. But you could certainly utilize natural sunlight in part or full depending on where you live and how you set things up.
Depends on what you are growing at the top and bottom. If you have a clam sitting 24" down, you might want the fixture lower. I would think 9" would be a good mounting height. T5s don't really have hot spot issues like led pucks can have, so I think you could go lower if needed. I never like my fixtures hanging less than 6" as I liked to keep the tank more accessible and wanted to avoid any splashing.
There is enough spectrum in any ATI bulb to grow algae if you have enough to feed it. This has nothing to do with using a daylight bulb or sunlight based on a few reaching assumptions... just an old wives tale. This is also true with old bulbs - they do not grow any more algae than new bulbs...but older tanks often have more nutrients that can grow more algae.
Most of the AQ corals are grown under the sun in the ocean or in greenhouses.
You can use just 6500k if you want. People have done this for decades. Great growth and true color, but not all that good at illumination. I use 6500k over one of my frag tanks and the corals look amazing when you move them under 14k Phoenix or 20k Radium - there is no algae in this tank, either.
Most of the AQ corals are grown under the sun in the ocean or in greenhouses.
You can use just 6500k if you want. People have done this for decades. Great growth and true color, but not all that good at illumination. I use 6500k over one of my frag tanks and the corals look amazing when you move them under 14k Phoenix or 20k Radium - there is no algae in this tank, either.
This is an instant illumination difference. The new bulbs can also render more/different colors, but this can take 4-8 weeks. ...be ready for some slower, more subtle changes.
