Check out ReefGeek for info on all the differences between all the ATI bulbs including a spectrum chart. Blue + has more par

Oooooo. Thanks :D

Coral + is much better than the older aqua blue special and the purple + is a nice bulb as well.

Yah thats what I heard. That's why I am sticking to coral+,purple+,blue+,blue+.

I'm using 4 blue + 1 purple plus and 1 coral + in my 6 bulb ATI Sunpower. When I change the bulbs I might change one of the blue+ with another coral+.

I'm using the same bulb combo too but I find that it is still too white for my liking. Not sure what to do... Would swapping the purple for another blue do anything or do I really need the white? I have mostly softies/lps but I do have some sps.

check out the goreef site under ati bulbs. it gives 4 bulb combos with kelvin ratings

btw this is just what i've read in my research when i was choosing bulbs for my old t5 fixture. i've never used an actinic t5 bulb.

- the actinic bulbs apparently lose all their punch much faster than the other bulbs and add very little par.

- in fixtures with a ton of bulbs their effect might not even be easily seen but perhaps not the case for you.

Lighting is a very personal choice and if you love actinic bulbs then you love actinic bulbs :-) However, if you want a bit more PAR out of your bulbs but still retain the biofluorescent pop that actinics provide you then I would suggest KZ's 20K SuperBlue (or equivalent 20K T5 from ATI). It isn't an actinic bulb so it has more PAR yet it fluoresces corals quite nicely, similar to an actinic. I use them (KZ superblues) as accents on my Halide+T5 fixture. Just something for your consideration :-)

Also, I didn't know that T5 bulbs varied that much in price?

Depending on what you keep in your tank you'll need the white (Coral Light 10,000K). Take out one of your blues and go with a New Generation 15,000K. You'll get more blue out of that. In my 8 bulb Tek I run 2 New Gens, 2 Coral Lites, 3 Super Blues & 1 Fiji Purple.