Bulb recommendations?

[raisemyrent]

tagging along; I'm looking to upgrade the bulbs in my 24" nova extreme and am wondering about bulb combinations... any replies, anyone?

[Crytone]

For regular T5 bulbs I can't help you..

As for T5HO bulbs, I've heard a good 2 bulb combo is an ATI Aquablue Special and an ATI Blue+ will give great par of any combo and a good color combo (cool whitish/blue). Others will likely suggest Geismann bulbs and other brands too which are great bulbs in themselves.

I'm currently trying to source the ATI bulbs myself but am having a hard time sourcing any. Lots of place have them in 36" and 48" but not 24". If anyone knows of any locally or where I can order them in Canada please let me know!

Here's a good site comparing the par produced by various bulbs from different manufacturers.

http://sites.google.com/site/tfivetesting/par

[kimax]

I ended up buying 2 Aquatic Life bulbs - one is 10000 K and the other is Actinic 420/460 nm bulb.

I like the combination as it brings out coral colours but also is not too blue (which is what I was afraid of). I likely would have selected the Geismann bulbs had I heard of them first but so far these are working out well.