Adding t5 to hydra 26, bulb combo suggestions?

[Oregonic]

Just ordered 2 t5 single bulb fixtures to add a more even coverage of light.  Currently running a hydra 26 hd on a slightly modified ab+ schedule. Recently moved and have sold off all my BTA’s and some other coral and looking to replace with some more sps now that I can keep an acro alive and coloring up even despite a the move along with a few other sps. Curious if anyone has any opinions on what bulb combo to add. I like the look of the blue plus with purple plus. Was thinking possibly blue plus with coral plus but it may be to white. Also curious if I should just run them for half of photo period or more or less (after a few weeks of slowly adding longer light periods every few days of course). 

Edited November 6, 2019 by Oregonic

[NateDawg]

I personally use one ati blue plus and one coral plus with my LEDs and run them for 5 hours in the middle of my photo period. As far as color for viewing your corals, that will be based on what you like but for coral growth and color, I find that the coral plus with the blue plus gives the best growth for me at least.

[pdxmonkeyboy]

coral plus is pretty white.  I like blue plus but I ran halides so.. I needed the blue.

 

[spectra]

Blue plus and thats it.......................I tried the coral and was not to happy with it................with LEDS you can get all the white you want out of them........

 

Running 4 blues on my set up now with a 15K setting on my LEDs and thinking of changing them to a 20K..........

[Blue Z Reef]

I think it all depends on the look you’re going for. I prefer more blue spectrum so I’d always go all blue plus or B+ and an actinic.

 

i tried a coral plus once and it was waaay too white for my taste. Now if you had an 8 bulb fixture or something maybe a single coral plus might do something for the look but not with only 2 bulbs to play with.

[Oregonic]

Great thank you everyone. I was afraid a 1 to 1 of coral plus/blue plus may be to white and sound like your experiences agree 😂. Anyone try the blue plus/purple plus combo?  

[Bicyclebill]

I just added the aquatic life T5 hybrid, and added two coral plus and two blue plus to my Radions on AB+. It is much whiter than without. I want to like it, but I may change out the coral plus and go all blue plus. I think that’s what I did awhile back with Kessils and T5


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[Blue Z Reef]

I’d look around online but this is a good reference picture (not mine):

actinic - coral+ - blue+ - purple+ - B+ - B+

it may seem like the purple plus would have more purple but it definitely has a whiter/pinky purple hue to it. Actinic is a dimmer bulb that helps things get that little extra pop (similar to UV leds).

[Oregonic]

10 minutes ago, Blue Z Reef said:

I’d look around online but this is a good reference picture (not mine):

actinic - coral+ - blue+ - purple+ - B+ - B+

it may seem like the purple plus would have more purple but it definitely has a whiter/pinky purple hue to it. Actinic is a dimmer bulb that helps things get that little extra pop (similar to UV leds).

Yea I saw an old video from Tidal Gardens and thought the blue plus with purple plus looked good. Blue plus and actinic looked good too. I think I will use the led to adjust the white as @spectra suggested. 

 

 

[jtarmitage]

I prefer just blue + with my hydra 52s. Tried a couple of other combos and hated the colors, so switched to just B+

[Paratore]

I run a few different T5 combos over my tanks.
My 75 gallon is two Kessil 360s and two blue plus. Personally I’m not a fan of T5 because I love the shimmer/color of LEDs. So I run my T5 while I’m at work and when I get home they turn off and I get to view my tank how I like it. But the corals benefit from the spectrum the Blue + bulbs put off.

Now jump to my dads tank. He has a 180 and runs 3 kessils 360s with two coral plus bulbs. The kessils are cranked all the way up with blue and the tank is still super white. But that’s how he likes it and he gets great coral growth.

On my frag tank I run just 4 T5 bulbs and will be changing it to LED soon. But I run 3 blue + and one Purple + on that. Other than not liking T5 to start, I would say the color of the tank is good.


So long story short, I would recommend getting two blue + bulbs. And if it’s to blue for you, just have them turn off when you get home I believe that blue + bulbs give off the best spectrum.

I’ll try to grab some pics of the tanks today.


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[Oregonic]

Well I built my fixture this weekend, pretty happy how it turned out. Ended up going with a blue plus and a coral plus, store only had one blue plus in stock so I guess its fate 🤣. Im starting acclimation with T5’s on for a hour and fifteen minutes for the first few days, and will add fifteen minutes every 3-4 days. Im thinking of maxing out at four or five hours of T5, and leaving the hydra on the same schedule 🤷🏻‍♂️