T5 Lights for a 40B?

[Rilo]

Overall it's going to be a mixed reef. Moderate Sps, high lps, high softies.

I have an Orbit Marine LED (Not pro) And I want to keep it in order to supplement growth even a little bit.

What fixture do you guys recommend? Budget friendly please

I plan on using 2 bulbs but if 4 bulbs are necessary I'll make it happen.

Here are the bulbs I'm looking at

https://www.atinorthamerica.com/bulbs.php

I've heard the true actinic are great for growth so would having 2 of them + the orbit marine LED be enough to have great growth? I've also been recommended getting dual blue plus instead.

My goal is to have

1. Great growth first.

2. Looks second.

I'm positive that the lighting is the issue. Flow is imo great. The Calc/Alk/Mag match the Red Sea Coral Pro Salt levels. Having this low quality light is my downfall.

 

[skiergd011013]

You cant go wrong with the blue plus bulbs. They are blue and bring out colors, and have high par as well. Ive never tried the true actinic, but i ordered one tonight from foster and smith. If you could, id probably order two blues, and the actinic. That way you can try two blues, or 1 blue 1 actinic.

 

[justinm]

You could build a floating canopy and buy a 2 bulb retrofit kit from BRS for a little over $100. With the floating canopy you could add your orbit led to it as well.

 

[Rilo]

You could build a floating canopy and buy a 2 bulb retrofit kit from BRS for a little over $100. With the floating canopy you could add your orbit led to it as well.

I'm thinking of going with this fixture.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B074F45982/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?smid=A1Q5VQ8AK548GN&psc=1

What do you think?

Probably just going to build a Canopy. One is long overdue. If you happen to know a Canopy/stand build for a 40B that'd be great. I'll being scouring the depths of R2R in the meantime for one

 

[Rilo]

You cant go wrong with the blue plus bulbs. They are blue and bring out colors, and have high par as well. Ive never tried the true actinic, but i ordered one tonight from foster and smith. If you could, id probably order two blues, and the actinic. That way you can try two blues, or 1 blue 1 actinic.

How long have you had your tank running the Blue Plus bulbs? Hows growth? Your fastest growing coral?

 

[Daniel Waters]

With just two bulbs, you're going to be very limited on your combinations. You have 3 options in my opinion.

(1) one blue plus and one actnic bulb. This will give you a deeper blue color to the tank and will make some of your corals "pop"

(2) two blue plus bulbs- just a solid core bulb here and you can use your led lights to get a deeper blue overall tank color or turn up your whites on your led to get a whiter color to the tank.

(3) one blue plus and one coral plus- going to give you a whiter looking tank, but will give you the best overall spectrum. Your corals won't pop like they will under an actinic but I think whiter lights are better sometimes to show the true colors in some sps tanks. Plus, you can kick the t5s on a little after led and turn off a little early and use just the led to get a dusk / dawn type period where you can run a deep blue tank color.

 

[justinm]

I'm thinking of going with this fixture.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B074F45982/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?smid=A1Q5VQ8AK548GN&psc=1

What do you think?

Probably just going to build a Canopy. One is long overdue. If you happen to know a Canopy/stand build for a 40B that'd be great. I'll being scouring the depths of R2R in the meantime for one

I would probably go with something else. Reading a few of the reviews of that fixture, people were complaining of the end caps coming loose. Check this one out.

https://www.bulkreefsupply.com/t5-ho-miro-4-retrofit-kit-let-lighting.html

 

[Bpb]

To improve growth in your case I’d run a blue+ and a coral+

 

[skiergd011013]

How long have you had your tank running the Blue Plus bulbs? Hows growth? Your fastest growing coral?

This tank I have now, only a few months. But my old 55 gallon i used to have, I used blue plus as well, and everything did outstanding! The ati blue plus is probably the most popular t5 bulb for reefers. Its a great product.

 

[Servillius]

BRS has a low cost fixture I use and like. It’s not fancy, but it works well and reliably. I use a four bulb on my 25 gallon and currently run one each of Aquablue Special, Blue Plus, and Actinic. Blue Plus is a great bulb and you could absolutely go with two but I like a bit more white.

 

[PopaSmurph]

Your looking at an 18" fixture. Try a 24" 4 bulb fixture with 2 blue+, 1 purple+, and 1 actinic. Get rid of the bulbs that come with this fixture as they junk and can start fires, mine had stuff rattling inside of the bulb. Get good quality from the get go. This is a great fixture for the price with duel timer and moonlight. I've had mine for a year now with no problems with great growth. And the timer is very inexpensive to replace if/when it goes out with simple wiring inside the fixture and you can move bulbs around so it's every other instead of 2 front 2 back on the channels.

Look at this on eBay
https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https://www.ebay.com/ulk/itm/302057506100

 

[Rakie]

To improve growth in your case I’d run a blue+ and a coral+

Nothing I ran brought out colors like 3 Blue+, 2 Coral+, and 1 Actinic. If I had 8 bulbs I'd have run 4B+, 2C+, 2 Actinic

 

[Bpb]

Nothing I ran brought out colors like 3 Blue+, 2 Coral+, and 1 Actinic. If I had 8 bulbs I'd have run 4B+, 2C+, 2 Actinic

I actually ran that exact combo on my 8 bulb for the last year. In November I changed out the coral+ bulbs for 6500k bulbs. The overall look is a hair whiter but not as much as you’d expect. Looks fairly similar to before actually.

 

[Rakie]

It looks similar, but from a spectrum standpoint it's very different. The Coral+ is a mixture of every bulb from ATI, including the warmer 6500 spectrum from their ABS bulb phosphors. I really like the ABS bulbs, and the 6500 bulbs too, but after giving them about 6 months my corals responded to the Coral+ better.