Another T5 lightning pop question

[Blindrage]

I have been looking at a few tanks using LED lightning lately, and I am loving the colors that ~455nm light is bringing out. I am looking for a way to replicate this in my setup.

Current setup is MH as main lightning, blue tinted T5s for early/late day lightning. I say blue tinted because these bulbs are getting close to replacement time, and I am not sure of exactly what brand/color they are currently. I am not sure on the exact temp of the MHs either, but my current plan is to run 14k bulbs in them when I replace those for good coral growth.

Is there is normal T5 bulb with a center punch up around 450nm? The closest I can find all seem to spike close to 420nm based on the spectral charts, and when I look at tanks running LEDs at 420nm they do not have the same impact on bright colors.

Would it be a better option to add a strip light of LEDs at 450nm instead of trying to get the T5 to handle the job, or would these just get washed out due to the greater PAR values of the MH and T5s?

Looking for opinions based on what others have seen, and if you have direct experience with trying different combinations then even better. Since my bulbs are coming up on replacement time I am open to options that include pretty much any combination of T5 (2 bulbs in the fixture), MH, and LEDs.

Help me get that amazingly bright pop of color that I have seen in other tanks.

 

[Off The Deep End]

Reefbright strips will give you what you want.

 

[sethsolomon]

Reefbright strips will give you what you want.

+1


Or if you can't afford reef brights get ecoxotic stunner strips or panoramas. but reefbrites are wayyy worth the money.

 

[Blindrage]

The reefbrights are not completely lost in the T5 and MH light?

If so then I will start saving up for them.

 

[sethsolomon]

The reefbrite pros will sure show up.

 

[jda123]

Don't pay attention to the nm range. Differnet types of light with the same nm look different. 420nm LEDs, for example, look nothing like Super Actinic florescent bulbs.

I have both reefbrites and panoramas if you want to borrow them. I cannot even tell that either are on with my Halides on. PM if you want to try and I can dig them out.

What halide bulbs are you using? If you get something like a Radium 20K (single ended) or a Phoenix 14K (double ended), then they make the coral pop pretty well without any supplements. I might suggest that you figure out your MH bulbs first before you spend new money on something that you might not need.

If you are purchasing new stuff, VHO Super Actinics pop better than anything else out there.

 

[Blindrage]

Thanks. I wll give that route a try then and replace the MHs first in a month or two.