T5 Questions
- Thread starter Rjukan
- Start date
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OP
OP
Rjukan
Broken
Got the bulbs yesterday, 2 coral plus, 3 blue plus and 1 actinic. I put them in this order front to back:
Coral +
Blue + (Dawn/Dusk Channel)
Blue +
Actinic (Dawn/Dusk Channel)
Coral +
Blue +
I think I'm going to swap out the 1st coral plus for a blue aquatic life bulb that came with the fixture, it's just a touch too white. Maybe move the coral + up to the 3rd spot too. Any suggestions? I also have a aquatic life purple bulb I could try.
First impression is wow that's a lot of light! lol. Even with just the 2 bulb channel on it seems brighter than the kessil, but I guess it's just because of the greater coverage that makes it seem brighter.
Coral +
Blue + (Dawn/Dusk Channel)
Blue +
Actinic (Dawn/Dusk Channel)
Coral +
Blue +
I think I'm going to swap out the 1st coral plus for a blue aquatic life bulb that came with the fixture, it's just a touch too white. Maybe move the coral + up to the 3rd spot too. Any suggestions? I also have a aquatic life purple bulb I could try.
First impression is wow that's a lot of light! lol. Even with just the 2 bulb channel on it seems brighter than the kessil, but I guess it's just because of the greater coverage that makes it seem brighter.
If you go with just the one coral plus bulb, then, yes, place it in the 3rd or 4th spot.
Some people love the purple type bulbs. I always felt they were too much visually for me in a 4 bulb setup and tolerable to me in a 6 or 8 bulb setup. But you should certainly try it out. I'm not familiar with that particular bulb with that brand though. Most likely, if you felt 2 coral plus bulbs were too white with your six bulb setup, you will think a coral plus and purple plus to be too white also. Thus, if you run the purple bulb, you probably should try it as your only "daylight" bulb and run blue / actinic bulbs in the other slots. If you just made the switch, you need to give yourself a few days or weeks to adjust. You may think the tank looks too white now, but given a little time you will start to appreciate the whiter light. And, in all honesty, your bulb combination isn't that white and probably blends to a 16K type look.
As you've noticed, the T5s look like they put out a lot more light. The diffuse light and the subsequent reduction of shadowing is really pronounced when you switch from a puck style LED to T5s. The reality is that LEDs can provide similar diffuse looking light, but it usually requires more LED units than people realize. Diffusers have helped in this regard, and some LED units that are strips or panel styles are better at providing more diffuse light than puck style LEDs (but those things create their own separate issues).
OP
OP
Rjukan
Broken
Yeah, I'm sure Daniel Waters is right and I would end up getting used to the look of the current combination. I'm still going to try swapping out one coral plus with the blue bulb and see how I like it.
Bpb
2500 Club Member
Right right. Not saying anything bad about it. Different tastes and literally any t5 bulb combo will work. They all grow coral and produce color. I tend to like how a lot of corals look and how the overall ambience is with a 10k spectrum
