t5 and colors

[spscrackhead]

well i got a tek t5 6 bulb unit for my 75 and i have these bulbs on it in this order
Blue Plus
Super Actinic
GE 3000K
GE 6500K
Blue Plus
Aquablue
now this unit is 2 weeks old. all of the greens are poping like grazy, but any of the blues, purples,pinks, ect are just brown. why? is it the bulbs?

[jski711]

i only have two "white" bulbs in my 6 bulb tek. a 6500k and an 11k. sounds like not enough actinic to me. hth.

jake

[spscrackhead]

so you are saying i should switch out the 3k for an 11?

[spscrackhead]

does anyone else have some input?

[ReefRockerLive]

I'd swap out the 3,000K bulb because it must be really yellow and change it for something like an ATI ProCorlor, ATI Blue Plus, or Fauna Marin AquaScience Blue.

Since you have a 3k and a 6.5k I'm not suprised that your not seeing much improvement in your blues, purples, and pink. If you add more blue to your tank, you should begin to see your coral stand out more.

I'd do something like this:
BACK
-BluePlus
-ProColor
-GE 6.5k
-SuperActinic
-ProColor
-FM AS Blue or BluePlus
FRONT

The more blue you add to the tank the more your corals will stand out, but at the cost of slower growth. What you have now should give you very fast growth, but not many florescent colors. What kind of overall color would you like to have?

[hdyoung]

I have read other peoples posts about this. They say that the GE 3000 puts out extremely high amounts of intensity, and is extremely yellow. It is so bright that it overpowers the rest of the bulbs. Maybe this is washing out some color?

You might swap it out for a GE 6500, or something else that is more white/blue, if you have another bulb laying around.

[yeldarbj]

I'd swap out the GE 3000 too. I tried one and just didn't like the yellowy hue that it gave the tank. You might try a UV Aquasun or another Aquablue instead. I'm running 3 Blue Plus, one Gman Midday, and one UV Aquasun.

[oct2274]

get rid of the ge 3000k gives things a brownish colors in my experience. I would add another blue plus or if you want more white then get the UV aquasun.

[silverwolf72]

You could try rearranging the lights too, It makes a big difference on the order your lights are in, may try the whites more towards the outside.

[spscrackhead]

i like a white with a very slight hue of blue look to my tank. what i have now i would describe as white

[yeldarbj]

Any chance you could just take out the 3000 for a few minutes and see what it looks like without that one bulb? I think you will see much closer to bright white with a hint of blue. Then you can decide if you want to add another super actinic, blue plus, aquablue, or Aquasun.

[spscrackhead]

so what should i swap the 3k out for?

[oct2274]

depends on if you want more blue or more white. if you want more blue you could maybe add another ATI blue plus or UV SuperActinic. If you want more white, maybe a UV AquaSun

[ReefRockerLive]

My vote would go towards the Blue Plus.

[jdkackley]

Maybe check this thread, it's long but alot of good info.
http://archive.reefcentral.com/forum...hreadid=918935

[yeldarbj]

Just take out that 3000 to see what it looks like without it, then you can decide what additional color you might want. It's hard to know what it will look like with that 3000 in there, it skews colors so much. You might also consider buying a couple new bulbs just to see what looks best to you - maybe the AquaSun or BluePlus.

[spscrackhead]

actually the 3k doesnt make that much of a diff. when i take it out i can barely notice any differance

[Big Boy69]

If you could try:

Blue Plus
Geisman 6500K
Aqua Blue Special
Blue Plus
GE 6000K
Blue Plus

[jamesdawson]

To have a blue look, you need about 2 blue bulbs for every 1 non-blue bulb.

James