# T-5's for planted tanks.



## TropTrea (Jan 10, 2014)

I have several old T-5 fixtures from salt water tanks. Rather than replace all my old fixtures fixtures I'm trying to come up with some combinations for my planted fresh water tanks. I have loads of Blue bulbs namely ATI Blue Plus, and ATI Aqua Blue specials. However I'm wondering if anyone tried using the ATI Purple PLUS on Fresh water planted tanks. This bulb has a nice red and blue spike. Will this work in a combination with the ATI Aqua Blue Specials?

Or is there a better bulb to use in these fixtures?


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## Tanan (Mar 11, 2009)

I would say lay off the blue one and get a 6500K or 8000K one. ATI purple plus has a peak somewhere in 615-630 range so I guess it can be quite good. But when mixed blue special its just way too much blue and not enough red.


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## TropTrea (Jan 10, 2014)

Tanan said:


> I would say lay off the blue one and get a 6500K or 8000K one. ATI purple plus has a peak somewhere in 615-630 range so I guess it can be quite good. But when mixed blue special its just way too much blue and not enough red.


I'd be using the Aqua Blue Special which is a wide spectrum bulb which peals around 540 nm and is said to be roughly a 12,000K bulb. Personally I think they look too green rather blue as a stand alone bulb.

I would not be using the Blue Plus like I use as the main bulb for salt water tanks. The Blue plus has no light over 530nm with a peak at 470 nm.

Yes the Purple Plus bulb had two peaks one at around 470nm and a group of smaller peaks between 615 and 680 nm.

Thing is I have several of these Aqua blues specials laying around that I would normally use with the Blue Plus on reef tanks. I really hate to throw out a bunch of unused bulb that cost almost $30 each since I'm shutting down my Reef tank.


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## Tanan (Mar 11, 2009)

All of these bulbs can be good as long as you manage out the spectrum with a bit more red/orange. How about URI's red sun? It should complement your mix of blues nicely and should give you a nice grow out spectrum. Warm white bulbs should mix well with your lights too. You can try to trade, exchange or sell some of the bulbs that cant be used. No?


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## foster (Mar 7, 2013)

I use a 6700-10,000 combination. I get excellent plant growth, and color from this combo.


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## TropTrea (Jan 10, 2014)

Well I did a little searching as to what is available locally. I found that Coral Life has a colr max bulb which is full spectrum but heavy on the red end of the spectrum. So right now I'm running 1 Color MAX and one ATI Aqua Blue Special on the 30 breeder tank. This is a 4 bulb fixture but right now I'm only running two of the 39 Watt HO t-5's. The Aqua Blue Special is noticeably brighter than the Color MAX but you can see the difference in the spectrum when looking at it with a more reddish glow. 

Time will only tell how this will work out. Eventualy I'll be building LED's for this tank and several other that I intend to plant.


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## TropTrea (Jan 10, 2014)

CWY0608 said:


> Clear t5 lights works best


What do you mean by clear T-5's? I'm converting some HO T-5 fixtures from reef tanks to use on fresh water planted tanks.


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