Lighting bulb choice...help!!

Well I have a 180 gallon tank with a 72" Current Nova Extreme t5 light. Link attached:

Aquarium Lighting for Reef Systems: Current Nova Extreme Pro T-5 Fixtures

It is 468 watts with 12 36" 39 watt bulbs. Currently, I have 8 of the 10,000K and 4 of the actnic. I am sad to say it has been way to long since I have changed bulbs.....I had no idea they loose so much effectiveness over time. I didn't actually realize it till I looked at pics from my tank from over a year ago.......needless to say I want to start replacing them every 6-8 months now from what I see recommended.

So here we go.....It is time to get new bulbs and the Current Slimpaq bulbs it came with, I can only find in the actinic and not in the 10,000K. So my question s to fold. 1. What do you all recommend for t5 bulbs.....which brands are best?? 2. I am really wanting to start adding more coral to my tank and particulary would love to maybe add an sps or maybe a clam if my lighting could support it. Is there a combination of bulbs/colors that would work the best? So many 10,000K to so many actinic or some other combination as every t5 bulb brand I have looked at seem to have numerous bulb color options.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

 

Hello! Check out ATI for our bulbs! they are top notch hands down.. as far as the white light to actinic your 8/4 ratio will hold on good, if you have had those stock lights in there for quite some time you will notice a good bit of lighting improvement definately if you go with some premium ATI bulbs. Good luck!

 

ananemone gave you a great suggestion. I would go with 6 ATI Blue Plus, 4 Coral Plus and 2 Aquablue Special if you want a whiter looking tank. If you want it a little bluer go with 2 Coral Plus in the place of the Aquablue Specials. For something in between go with 4 Blue Plus and 8 Coral Plus.

 

Is one combination better for corals than another or is it just more personnel choice as to which a person perfers?

 

Also which of the ATI bulbs is more white.....from the descriptions they all seem more blue than white?

 

The aquablue special is the whitest-then the coral plus which has more blue-then the blue plus-then the purple plus. You should have at least 1 aquablue special for photosynthetic purposes.

I personally run 1 special, 1 coral plus and 2x blue plus. Here's what it looks like. Pic taken with my iPhone 4s

 

Wow that looks great! I definetly think I will go with the ATI brand!

 

I am thinking abou running the folowing combination from front to back:

Blue Plus
Aquablue special
coral plus
blue plus
aquablue special
blue plus

What do you think?

 

I am wanting a slightly bluw tint but not to much blue. Would my above combination do the trick???