8ft tank, lighting ideas?

[Myka]

If you're keeping both tanks, why don't you transfer the goodies from your current 4 ft tank into the 8 ft, keep the lighting reasonable for a mixed reef, and then use the smaller tank as dedicated SPS? SPS can be challenging and frustrating at times, so you might want to start smaller to see how you like it.

Even so, an ATI 8-bulb fixture is only 18" wide, and you're probably not going to get enough coverage/power if you're serious about SPS. For a mixed reef, the 8-bulb would be ok because you could raise it up a bit higher (sacrifice PAR to the corals), and you'd be able to get enough coverage out of it.

Fwiw, I change my T5s at 8-9 months, the actinic at 6 months. I change out two at a time so that there isn't a huge PAR jump.