Why do people run 6500K bulbs?

[Bpb]

Understood. You just need to pick your favorite color and settle!

Do you have a cool LFS that at makes picking bulbs easy? (ie. returns, etc)

You’re absolutely right on that. I need to practice what I preach and not change things. I am finally happy with how it looks though. If nothing else I’ll keep this bulb combo till the tank comes down in a couple years. Unfortunately no LFS for me within a few hours. I have a massive cache of used bulbs now at this point though. I just gotta leave well enough alone!

 

[rosshamsandwich]

can I run a tank with daylight only t5 bulbs and what will I expect to see in my corals as a result?

 

[rosshamsandwich]

I'm currently running 5 blue+, 2 actinic, 1 coral+ and using kessils to adjust visual color temp.

what are those leds on the front and back?

 

[reefpizza]

I used to run a Tropic 6500K in my two bulb T5 setup to complement my hydra. Its more of a daylight spectrum and my corals including SPS were doing great in terms of growth and colours. I recently changed that with a ATI coral plus 2 weeks back just for experimenting. Nothing drastic yet but will know in few months.

How did you find? I'm in the same situation, have 2 coral plus and wanna switch to 6500K

 

[Anirban]

How did you find? I'm in the same situation, have 2 coral plus and wanna switch to 6500K

Its good for growth but if you are looking for blue light heavy look for your aquarium then you will be disappointed.

 

[reefpizza]

Its good for growth but if you are looking for blue light heavy look for your aquarium then you will be disappointed.

I don't care about the look when the t5 are on (i'm at work or busy) and at the late night i can watch all the colors under blue and uv led (Coral plus are already a low white, but i think 6500 are more yellow Maybe i start switch just one bulb and see par numers)

 

[Anirban]

I don't care about the look when the t5 are on (i'm at work or busy) and at the late night i can watch all the colors under blue and uv led (Coral plus are already a low white, but i think 6500 are more yellow Maybe i start switch just one bulb and see par numers)

Yes, its really yellow but you will see higher PAR number for sure.

 

[reefpizza]

Yes, its really yellow but you will see higher PAR number for sure.

Now i have 450 over the top and 200/250 at the bottom, 120x60x55cm tank 4 noopsyche, 2 x54 T5 and 120cm (orptek syle) uv/blue bar

 

[Camaro Show Corals]

@Battlecorals
Adam runs a lot of 6500k tropics, I’m a firm believer in white light for growth but I’m sure he can explain it more!

 

[jda]

White light for growth and actual color rendering, and then blue it up to your liking to look at the corals. The reason that people use GE 6500k is that they are like $5 a bulb instead of Giesemann prices and they work well.

 

[piranhaman00]

White light for growth and actual color rendering, and then blue it up to your liking to look at the corals. The reason that people use GE 6500k is that they are like $5 a bulb instead of Giesemann prices and they work well.

Getting some horticulture t5s 6400k. How does the spectrum look?

has a small infrared peek which I am interested in.

 

[jda]

Having not used that actual bulb, I have no idea, but guess is a daylight type of overall where blues, pinks and reds might really look nice. It could take a month to see all of the changes from the bulb.
If you believe in Emerson effect, then the IR could help your corals use more energy.

 

[Mike konesky]

Getting some horticulture t5s 6400k. How does the spectrum look?

has a small infrared peek which I am interested in.

Not a fan of the 6400s. GE 6500s are way crisper imo. CRI is off or something. They just don't look right imo.

 

[HudsonReefer2.0]

I used to run Iwasakis and VHOs years ago, like '90s years ago. I thought the 10K bulbs that were coming out at the time were too blue LOL. People still use them?

My fav bulb in my current sunpod was the hqi aqualine buske 10k. Ran it for 8hours a day. No ramps just full blast high noon reef. Had a good sps color and growth. Phoenix 14k was
My 2nd choice which was bluer

 

[Dirk Griffin]

I did not read the past 10 pages.....Sorry if I am repeating anything
From my fairly long history of using halides, starting in the early 90's
-I recall many saying back in the day, was only bulb with the closest spectrum as the sun
-most were using vho UVL actinics, then the 454 bulbs for sunrise/sunset and for some color during the day. The Iwasaki's drowned out the actinics, 454's were much better
-the Iwasaki 250w 65 was a great bulb for high par rates and growth, some decent coloring depending on the corals.
- the 400w version of course had even more intensity
-most ballasts would ran them fine, the EYE ballast from Pfo was a almost perfect match
-when the 10k's came out, they were way to blue for many.
-this was back when there were not any 15/20k's or radiums available yet
-also have 250/400w Iwasaki bulbs available if anyone is interested
-MANY are still using vho 454 bulbs. Sold more in the past year than ever before.....
Dirk

 

[Claybird1985]

I have noticed that when I get stuff from battlecorals, who runs a lot of 6500K, that stuff looks ridiculously amazing under my 20k for the first week and then fades to less ridiculously amazing and more just regular amazing. When I first get stuff from him is has a crazy glow that I didn't think SPS could even achieve. Maybe I need to just rock some 6500K bulbs in place of a coral plus and blue plus bulb for several hours a day and see what happens!

Same here!! Weird. A friend bought some frags from BC and passed me some pieces.. I saw a glowing blue that I didn't think was possible!! They went under my Radion G6 Blues and blue+/pink t5's.. .. glowing crazy nuts for about a week then faded away to normal.

Weird !!

Thanks for sharing ! (6 years ago ! )

 

[Velcro]

Same here!! Weird. A friend bought some frags from BC and passed me some pieces.. I saw a glowing blue that I didn't think was possible!! They went under my Radion G6 Blues and blue+/pink t5's.. .. glowing crazy nuts for about a week then faded away to normal.

Weird !!

Thanks for sharing ! (6 years ago ! )

I must just be doing something too different from his systems. I’ll always have thriving corals and do a box from him then I get a slow roll out of STN over a couple weeks. Meanwhile my thriving stuff keeps thriving

 

[Doctorgori]

I hate to resurface this thread BUT I unknowingly started another with a LOT of crossover bandwidth ..

on the off chance a weary and curious travels is searching 6500k , white light , coral growth or color
I’ll cross reference this thread with this one:

Looking for High CRI (95) Natural/Full spectrum 5000-6500K LED strip