What's the best T5 two bulb combo for a reef?

[Scotticus]

I just bought a brand new aquaticlife dual bulb T5 set up for my twenty long reef tank. It didn't come with any bulbs so just wondering what would be the best combo for my reef. I am buying the bulbs on thurs. so any info will be great, thanks.

 

[Poseidon]

Not sure 2 bulbs for a reef is ideal, but if that is what you have, I would go with ATI 1 Blue + and One Aquablue Special.

 

[ritter6788]

Not sure 2 bulbs for a reef is ideal, but if that is what you have, I would go with ATI 1 Blue + and One Aquablue Special.

+1 I would use the exact same bulbs.

 

[Steven R]

I would go with 1 ATI Coral plus witch is a stand alone bulb or can be used in a combo and 1 ATI blue+ the coral plus combines the blue+ purple+ and aquablue special. Or 1 coral plus and one Actinic if your into heavy actinic, but two things can happen here the coral plus might over power the Actinic, and on the other hand you will get some good pop with the blue+ with out loosing par like the actinic.

 

[Steven R]

Also what type of reflector and housing plays a big part in this decision.

 

[Scotticus]

Thanks guys, I will probably go with the coral plus and the blue. Right now I have two T8 from my old ten gallon on the twenty long. When it was in the ten the lights worked great but bigger tank so bigger lights. I have had pretty good luck with just the T8s so this will be a big step up.

 

[Steelerfan747]

First of all Scotticus, Welcome to R2R. Second, I would really recommend going with a 6-8 bulb fixture but at least a 4 bulb fixture as I dont feel 2 bulbs will be very beneficial for a reef unless it's being used as supplementation

 

[Steven R]

First of all Scotticus, Welcome to R2R. Second, I would really recommend going with a 6-8 bulb fixture but at least a 4 bulb fixture as I dont feel 2 bulbs will be very beneficial for a reef unless it's being used as supplementation

I agree.

 

[Gabe]

Scotticus - 2 bulbs will work for you as long as you manage your expectations for what you can keep. I'm not saying SPS is impossible, but you will want to take it slow and see how the rest of the corals will hold up first and then start with something like a Monti-Cap or other lower light SPS.

 

[Isoprene]

@ scotticus....right now im using the same exact set up (2 bulb T5 HO) with a ATI blue and ATI blue special in a 55 gallon bowfront with a LED strip from ecoxotic. It seems to be enough light to do everything but the more light intensive sps. My softies and acans, yuma seem to like it fine. Hope this helps

 

[helldiver]

Coral plus does over power blue but growth is good. I like more pop blue plus and purple is 20k. Blue plus and coral is 14k.

 

[jd371]

I would go with 1 ATI Coral plus witch is a stand alone bulb or can be used in a combo and 1 ATI blue+ the coral plus combines the blue+ purple+ and aquablue special. Or 1 coral plus and one Actinic if your into heavy actinic, but two things can happen here the coral plus might over power the Actinic, and on the other hand you will get some good pop with the blue+ with out loosing par like the actinic.

This is the combo I'm supplementing my Kessil's with.

 

[jason2459]

I agree with using the coral+ but what I like may not be at all what someone else likes.

I'm also using 2 coral+ to supplement some LEDs.

 

[ps2cho]

I use a Blue+ and Coral+ along with my LED.

 

[dexterhut2000]

I have a 2 bulb T5 fixture with ATI blue plus and coral plus and they look phenomenal I also added USA orbit marine led strip instead of dumping into a 4 or even 6 bulb T5 unit got the best of both works for about $300 and my coral loves it

 

[sharky79]

Bump:

All these posts are old however it's funny bc I have an IC Pro and was still having a par issue as well keeping sps as and lps happy. so I broke out my old T5s. I'm using ATI plus and coral plus and mixing it with my PRo. The results I've had are by far better than I expected. Everything is growing like crazy as well popping. I'm more in favor of purple's. I dont have a meter, always just played around with lighting, but since this combo, I would have to say it's the best, plus my coraline is out of control with this combo. You will need to play around with LED mixing, but once you find that balance, you should be pretty happy visually as well coral growth.

46g bow
1 36in IC pro
1 36in 2 ballest T5

Corals:
Acans
Ricordias
Gargonians orange and red
Torches green
Leather polyps
Duncans
Flower pots
Hammers
Frogspons
And various branching corals