More lighting Q'ss

[Stimpy]

Its about time to replace my lamps.
Too many options, so little knowledge....
NEED MORE BRAINPOWER.......

I have the Nova below, lots of replacement lamp options and @#$(*&^@# me
Please help... No SPS yet but want to start with some small frags.

------ 4 lamps to choose in any combination. ----------
My dumb idea is cover it all with 10k+18k+12k-white-combo+460nm Actinic.

2 yr old Nova Extreme T-5 Fixture came W/ 2Ea-460nm Actinic and 2EA 10000°K T-5 HO lamps

Dont know if links will work but all from Dr Foster-Smith

Lamp Options...Daylight SlimPaq10,000°K (21130)54W 2yrAquaSun10,000°K (29807)85W boost2yrReef White10,000°K (30458)54W2yrActinic White12,000°K (29806)85W comboPower-GLO18,000°K (35613)54w8-12mo lifeActinic SlimPaq420nm (22919)542yrSuper Actinic420nm (29805)54Reef Blue450nm (21060)54Actinic SlimPaq460nm (21131)54Life-GLO6,700°K (35616)54w8-12mo lifeMarine-GLOActinic (35619)54w


Thanks in advance
Stimpy

 

[JayM]

buy UVL lights (they are a sponsor)

their actinic lights will run very blue.

other than that, uvl makes a kick a** 10k t-5 bulb too.

You are very limited with that fixture becuase of it's single reflector...I know, it was a light that I bought too...when I was a noob. It caught on fire in front of me when I was showing my tank to another member

 

[Stimpy]

Pretty hot item you had Jay.... lol

I will check out UVL but am most interested in types of my 4 bulbs..
what combo of spetrum would be a good combo for the reef tank.
6700 10k 12k 18k etc combo actinic... or one dedicated 460nm?????????

Everything but SPS now but want to add down the road.

Thanks

 

[JayM]

either 2 or 3 daylight (10k) and one or 2 Actinic+

So Actinic-Day-Actinic-Day or Day-Day-Actinic-Day.

Or throw that crappy fixture away

 

[lawrant]

IME the 3:1 ratio is the way to go... though I can't currently do it with my crappy fixture ..... one of these days I'll have money again ... I just know it.

 

[afboundguy]

ATI blue plus are awesome actinic bulbs IMO... I also run a UVL 10K aquasun and a 14K geismann (spelling???) but would like to swap out the 10K for something in the 12-14k range for a more white/blue look.

I'd rather buy from reefgeek.com than dr foster and smith. I've had nightmarish shipping problems with dry goods (no bulbs though) from them and didn't have a problem with the packaging from reefgeek.com. IIRC reefgeek has more options as well.

It also wouldn't hurt to check over at RC to look at the PAR of the bulbs. The Grim guy has a thread that list the PAR of most of the bulbs. That was one of the reason I went with the ATI blue plus because they put out a lot of PAR for an actinic bulb...