ATI Aquablue Special?

10gal tank. So, right now in my fixture (4x24w AquaticLife T5HO) are two 10K bulbs with an AquaticLife actinic and an ATI Blue Plus. (Is the blue plus just an actinic basically or is there more to that bulb?) anyway.. I hear ATI AquaBlue special everywhere in this forum when it comes to chosing bulbs for T5 fixtures. I got 8 bulbs with my fixture and one is an Aquablue Special. Can I replace one 10K with this Aquablue Special but still have good growth with my acros? If I did, these are the bulbs I would have in teh fixture and the order.
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ATI Blue Plus
AquaticLife 10,000K
Purple LED strip
Blue LED strip
ATI Aquablue Special
AquaticLife Actinic
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The fixture right now has a 10K where I want to place the Aquablue Special. Curently the corals and tank look great, but still not quite the color I was looking for. Will replacing the 10K with the aquablue special effect the Acros at all?

 

I do believe that corals get better growth with the blue color around 420 nm. I could be wrong on this. I know there are people on here having great success with the coral plus bulbs right now.

 

Are you looking for more blue color? The aquablue special is a more white light than a blue one. So if you want more blue in the tank there are prolly better choices out there. If your wanting growth your 10k is good for color growth. ATI has a new bulb out there that is suppose to have more crisp look than there aquablue special bulb. I'm not a t5 expert by no means however. ATI is the best bulb IMO that you can get. I run aquablue special, blue+, blue+, purple+. I have good growth id say and nice color too. Hope someone can help you more.

 

A good fast growth will be in the 10 to 12K range. (Total tank light) For best color you want more towards the 20k range. Most people tend to try to hit the 15k range, for this is the best growth and color combination.

 

ATI's Coral Plus is the newest.

 

Thanks nana. Yeah that's the one and from what I've seen it's a winner. Ill get getting one soon too.

 

The Blue Plus is a blue bulb with some actinic added in. The Aquablue Special is a white bulb with actinic added in. The bulb switch will not change things much but may add a little more color to the corals.

 

Ok... Well i put the aquablue special in and it looks better! I'm even thinking of putting another aquablue special or 14k-15k to replace my other 10k in there right now. I'm not very savy of what kinds of bulbs are out there tho. I am going to be looking up that coral plus bulb too any other suggestions maybe? Or even maybe replacing the 10K with a purple plus? Then I can just change the purple led strip to blue (with remote). So the bulbs would be:
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Blue plus
Purple plus
Blue led strip
Blue led strip
Aquablue special
Actinic

I'm thinking of maybe changing the actinic to something too... I just dunno what. Should i maybe just leave it as actinic? Would I have the light lighting for my acros with this mix though?

 

You have more than enough on a 10 gallon tank with what you have. 2 Bulbs would be plenty for acros on a 10.

 

I use to have 2 bulbs and the acros browned completely out!! I had a 12K and actinic and my blue led strip and a purple led strip and they were NOT happy with that amount of light. So, that's why I got this 4 bulb fixture and one of my acros are already starting to get its color back just in the 2 days of having it. I actually ended up swaping the aquablue special for a purple plus. I put up a new thread with pics!