Fine Tuning Light Spectrum

How can you boost plant colours further?
If you use T5s, this involves fine-tuning the bulb array to have a mix of colours. For LEDs, it is looking out for stronger red/ blue diodes.

LED

When using LEDs, choose a diode mix of more reds ( 50%+). An example of the effect of red heavy LEDs on an ADA 120p tank using custom built BML LEDs.

The diode configuration ratio is as of below. White LED diodes already contain significant amounts of blue, so we opted instead to add orange/yellow tones to round out the spectrum.

BML no longer makes planted aquarium specific fixtures. However, one can experiment with similar ratios in custom builds. For the Twinstar LED series, the E series come with heavier weighting in blue, while the S series is red heavy.

 T5

When using T5s, here are examples of different combinations and the resultant impact on the tank. This is Joe Harvey's combination using 6 tube array below; read his full journal here. 

Joe Harvey's T5 array

2Hr Aquarist T5 Array

This is the combination we use on our farm tank:

Tom Barr's T5 Array

Tom barr's 120 gallon aquarium tank and 8 bulb combination. Read the full journal here.

1 Giesemann Aquaflora
2 Zoomed Flora
3 Sunwave Wavepoint
4 Red Wave Wavepoint
5 URI Red Sun
6 Sunwave Wavepoint
7 Zoomed Flora
8 Giesemann Aquaflora

Daniel Constantin Deacu's T5 array