Its time to change the bulbs

[ninjamini]

Growth has slowed and I am going to blame my old 1 year plus bulbs. Well I need to eliminate that as the option. I have this light:
Aqualight Pro HQI/Compact Fluorescent/Lunar Light Fixture
Which has 2x96 atinic and 2x 150 DE MH The MHs were changed to 20k back when.

Now its time to get all new. What to get? I was thinking of Atinics vs 50/50. I know that the 50/50 will not be as blue but would more whiter light benefit me?

I am thinking of doing the atinics first and then the MH a month later. I would do them 2 weeks apart. So 1 atinic this week. Then the other in 2 weeks. A MH 2 weeks after that and then the last mh 2 weeks later.

Each time I replace the MH I would cut back the light to 6 hours a day and then every three days increase it an hour untill I get to 10 hours. Should I do the same for Aticins or just through them in?

What about brands? Anything I should lean towards?

Is there a good place to get them? Cheap I mean.

[ReefWreak]

What is the depth of the tank? Most of the time getting a stronger halide bulb will make leaps and bounds of difference versus changing out the actinic for 50/50. I would go with XM 20k if you're married to the 20k look, or you could go with Phoenix 14k which puts out a decent ammount of PAR while keeping a bluer color. Maybe even go to the reeflux 10ks if you want a lot of growth, the color to come from the corals, not from everything else, and don't mind the look of 10k.

I wouldn't even bother replacing PC actinic since you're not getting any growth out of them anyway.

[ninjamini]

Good Q. Its a 90 gal. 24" deep.

[JR719]

I agree with wreak. Swap the MH, the pc's don't do much for the tank other than color. I've used Ushio and XM bulbs, both 10k for growth, with blue's from VHO's. The MH's are going to be your most important bulbs for corals. Swap them first.

[ninjamini]

Well unfortunatly I cant swap the bulbs. There part of a Coralife Light fixture

I don't think I can change it.

[carlosngloria]

didnt you say you changed it to the 20k's? Im sure the lenses come out so you can change the bulbs. if not check with the manufacture.

[ReefWreak]

You can definitely change the bulbs out. It's just a matter of getting the glass off. Bulbs need to be changed now and then.