Help me pick my T5 bulbs pls

Toomnymods · Oct 22, 2018

I have this Giesemann Infiniti 3 x 250W HQI / 4 x 80W T5 72" light fixture. It imo is a very well built piece of equipment and have been very happy with its performance. I'd like to experiment more with t-5 bulbs to find that explosive pop that blue LED's provide.. Right now my light schedule is as follows:
T5's come on at 11 AM to Noon then come back on from 4 PM till 8 PM
HQI Phoenix 14k on at Noon and off at 4PM
When I ran both at once I was having serious bleaching problems from everything in the tank. Since the light fixture is not dimmable I have to run the T5's and HQI MH separately.

Currently I'm looking for suggestions for a more "explosive pop" like people see with the blue LED's.
Which 4 bulb T5 combo will give this? Right now I'm using 2 ATI 80w Coral + and 2 ATI Super Actinic. The color is a pale pale light blue with no fluorescence from any of the corals at all.

This is my favorite part of owning the reef tank is watching the explosive colors when the actinics are on. Please Help...

Toomnymods · Oct 22, 2018

Just wondering has anyone had any luck with these replacing maybe 2 of the 4 t5 bulbs in my fixture??
(link no longer available)

Graffiti Spot · Oct 22, 2018

Use only actinic bulbs or replace the coral plus for a super blue. The coral plus is what's overpowering your blue pop look. None will work better for what you want than a led.
And I never found the led t5 hybrid tubes to put out much light, but could give you the led pop you want if that's all you use. But sounds like you should just get a led strip. The reef bar pro led light strips have the best blue pop ime. Far better than any reefbrites. But not as quality of a prouduct.