T5 Actinic Blue

[pandagold]

What's the frequency of changing T5 Actinic blues ?

Other colours should be around 6-8 months ( depending on time usage )

[vt_snowman87]

hi bro, maybe i contribute my 2cents based on personal experiences and own researches..

1. highly dependent on your brand of tubes.. good brands like ATI and gies has longer lives

- thus based on these reputable tubes, indeed "whites" can last for roughly 1 year, while "blues" has shorter lives and PAR, strictly speaking they age faster than whites (recommended by most reefers on RC 6 months usage )

2. do also take into various factors such as "whites" are the PAR-giver in most tanks, and thus usually more priority is given to change whites, if budget restricts.. "blues" are mainly for coloration, and has much less PAR as compared to "whites", so depending on your depth of corals, and number of tubes.. den u schedule ur replacement according to needs and suitability..

personally, i change all of my ATI tubes when they reach 1.5 years, in intervals of 2 tubes each mth, prevent light shock.. (i'm using 8-tubes on SPS, with 2 whites, 5 blues, 1 actinic) (actinic is least important for my setup, mainly for visual aesthetic purposes)

above is strictly my own 2cents, and is in no way prescriptive of the "correct" usage.. its based on my individual needs and experience, and many other reefers might have their own methods, to each his own, whichever suits ur needs.. cheers..

[dnsfpl]

iirc white for growth, blue is to enhance color

purple & actinic are purely for viewing pleasure

cheers

[vt_snowman87]

iirc white for growth, blue is to enhance color

purple & actinic are purely for viewing pleasure

cheers

yupps correct.. actinic will also help to improve fluorescent and greens in corals as well, but only for a few recommended brands, like the Fiji Purple.. not the ati kinds.. ati however does have a new range called "Purple Plus", said to be comparable to "Fiji Purple", but i find it too 'reddish' for my liking..

[pandagold]

I'm currently running on 2x Actinic Blue and 4x 12k white .

I'll likly change to 2x Actinic blue, 3x 12k white and 1x ATI special blue

I like whitetish / blue ( 60/40) tank, while my wife is in favour of blue and colouring of coral .

[dnsfpl]

if 6 tubes i will opt for 2 white, 2 or 3 blue plus, 1 actinic and/or purple

blue plus

white

actinic/purple

blue plus/purple

white

blue plus

[peacemaker]

I'll be trying the following combo when its time to change my tubes.

ATI Blue +

ATI Purple +

ATI Blue +

UVL Actinic

ATI Aquablue Special

ATI Blue +

Front glass

[pandagold]

forgot to mention my tank has 3 side viewing.

By the way is is Blue plus similar colouration as Actnic blue Giesman (if I spelt it correctly ) ? Looks pretty much the same to me (Hope I'm not colour blind )