t5 light bulb selection-Reef Lighting-3reef Forums

oceanlife_2007 · 04-06-2008, 07:48 PM

i was wondering if any body had the nova ex stream t5 8 bulb 48 in 54watt system and what kind of bulbs selection you chose to get that perfect spectrum out of it. i had mine for about a year getting ready to buy new bulbs and just wondering what bulbs to buy. or should i stay with the 10,000k and 460nm actinic. any help thanks.

ziggy222 · 04-06-2008, 08:07 PM

i just changed from uvl 10,000 and true actinic over to geisman 11,000 and actinic and have'nt noticed any changes accept its maybe a little brighter.

Frizza · 04-08-2008, 12:56 AM

I was running D&D (Geisman) but now I'm running ATI bulbs and I must say I love the colour. It is slightly more blue so if you like that it will be a good choice, if not then the D&D bulbs give off some great light.

With so many bulbs you should be able to play with some combinations. On the ATI side you could go for:
4 Blue Special (This is the standard bulb)
1 Blue Plus
1 Pro Colour
1 Actinic
1 Daylight

There may be better choices for the Daylight bulb, I'm currently not running a daylight myself so I cannot recommend one at the moment.

At the moment I'm running 3 Blue Special and 1 Actinic. I plan to add the Blue Plus as well as a Daylight.

Wish I had 8 bulbs to play with, I've only got 4, but soon to be 6!