lighting
 

im running a 55 gallon reef with a wide range of corals and need advice on lighting. till now ive been running 4 corallife t-5s but they only last a few months at a time, and dont give me the results i want. im trying not to get into halides but is there any other option? my tank is 12" x 48". any ideas would be appreciated.

What type of T5 (HO,wattage, length), and what do you mean only last a few months (T5HO should last a year, then you change because of output not because burnt out)? Not the results, what type of corals?

I'm running MHs but lots of reef tanks with corals and T5s.

48" t5, 2 x 6700k and 2 x actinic. they burn out the whole unit in like 6 months and then i have to replace everything again

Again, they should not burn out after 6 months, got to get that figured out. Are they getting ventilation?

There is a difference of 48" fixture/bulb. If normal output (NO) it's 39watts a bulb, if they're high output (HO) then its 54W so quite the difference. The HO is what you should be running.

If you're not getting the growth and have the HO could consider dropping the actinic and going all 10K if want the whiter light. RC has a huge thread on bulb combos.

im running HOs