[cokipoint]

I have a 150 gallon reef tank currently have actinic+ and aquablue+ light alternating. Total of twelve 3ft bulbs 2 groups of 6. I am thinking of this combination.

actinic+
aqua blue+
actinic+
Midday
aqua blue+
pure actinic


I would like opinions on this combination of bulbs.

[mobilebyrd]

For the amount of money you are about to spend on bulbs I would recommend just biting the bullet and going with Halide unless you have a confined space making heat saturation a concern. Another possibility is to get a new fixture without the 3-foot bulbs. I have a 5' 110 cichlid tank in addition to my reef tank and I would avoid what you are doing due to cost. You can buy a 4-bulb T5HO to pair with a couple of Halides and have one hell of a lighting setup.

Pure Actinic is not really blue but makes nearly UV colors really pop (purples, greens some blues and some blues especially).
Actinic is a no brainer...blue
Aquablue + is a really great bulb and is just a hair on the blue side of pure white. If I were to run one bulb only, it would be these.
Mid-Day is a really yellowish bulb when compared to most saltwater bulbs. It did not make the reds in my tank pop like I thought it would.

In my 25 gallon reef tank I ended up running 1 actinic, one actinic+, 1 pure actinic and 1 mid-day that I already had on hand.

I doubt you will need the mid-day bulb. Their aquablue plus is more of a mid-day bulb than one would think. I am running the (bulbs too hot to look for accurate names) Geissman Pure Actinic, Actinic + and Aquablue in addition to one Mid-Day. The tank is mostly white with a hint of blue and yellow spectrum. The blue is obvious but the yellow comes from the mid-day. I have removed another mid-day from my 4-bulb setup as it was too yellow when compared to the aquablue+.

My reef tank has SPS, leathers and softies. I have excellent coloration and growth and will be replacing the last mid-day with another actinic or aquablue + in the near future.

[cokipoint]

Thank for the comment. I really like the T5's so I am not interested in the Halides. Halides are to hot and I would have to change my light fixture. I welcome other opinions. Especially about the midday bulb.

[Henry Bowman]

I run a midday on a 6 lamp 4' aquactinics unit, in fact, my lamp combo is very similar but I use and like ATI lamps.

[map95003]

I also like ATI bulbs, I'm currently running the following....
2xBlue Plus
1xAquablue Special
1xPro Color (this gives a pinkish look, I will be replacing this with a fiji purple on order)
2xActinics

I found that running all 6 bulbs was too much light for my tank. The ATI bulbs are pretty strong and some of my corals started bleaching (on the sandbed) so I cut down to 4 bulbs, I may slowly add back 1 bulb at a time and try to get back to 6.

[cokipoint]

Has anyone use both the ATI's and the Giesemann in the past and why do you like one over the other?