Confused about lighting...

[nw2salt08]

Ok...I'm no lighting guru. I know that I have a fixture that holds T12 VHO light bulbs 40w-48 inch. There are three fixtures. Right now it has URI light bulbs in it. 1-Super Actinic White/VHO-1 and 2-Actinic White/VHO-1. I'm really not satisified with the light output from these bulbs. Are there other options that I can put in there? What's the best bulb setup for my softies and LPS corals? What's the difference between these lights and the high intensity 20,000K bulbs? What about the Actinic blue bulbs? Sorry...I'm just really confused with all the different bulbs and lighting systems out there. Someone please clarify all this. Thanks!

 

[scsinet]

First of all, how old are the lamps? VHO lamps start to degrade quickly after about 12 months of use. They might not look dim, but if you put new lamps in, you'd be surprised how bright the new ones are.
Actinic light does not produce much visible light. If you've got Actinic White lamps, those are a 50/50 mix of actinic phosphors and regular daylight phosphors. Ergo, you are only getting about 50% of the light output you could expect from some VHO lamps. Given that you are already running a dedicated Actinic lamp, I'd run regular daylight VHOs for the other 2 lamps.
Or, remove the actinic lamp and run Actinic White in all 3.

 

[nw2salt08]

So what's the difference between the Actinic whites and the 20,000k high intensity? Is it the fact that they put put a pure white light and have a higher temp? And the blues put out lighting that resemble more of the morning and evening settings?
This crap is so confusing to me. All I know is to change out my light bulbs frequently. But I want to understand everything about my lighting.

 

[ironeagle2006]

Nw2 Salt do what I did I went to a T-5 HO set up for my lighting. I tried VHO's CF's hell I almost bought a Metal Halide setup. Then I saw a SPS tank triving under a T-5 HO set and was like why spend 800 bucks for a 48 inch light set. A 4 lamp set would give you 2 Actinc Blues for the dawn and 2 14K super Daylights that should cause your corals to trive. Heck I have so much Coarline in my 150 now on my LR it is hard for my fish to graze on it at times.