lighting

[milmokes]

I have a dual bulb strip. One bulb is a Coralife 50/50 6000K/Actinic 03. The readings on it says F20 T12 360 BP. The other is a blue bulb with a metal casing on the one side. The bulbs have not been changed in quite a while.

1. How often do you change bulbs?
2. Can anyone tell me how many watts the 50/50 bulb is?
3. What type of bulb is the blue bulb I described? I cannot find any description on the bulb?
4. Will this cause poor water quality?

One piece of live rock has hair algae (not much) and nitrates are 20-40ppm, which I plan on adding a skimmer after the holidays. Any help is appreciated.

 

[Edmonton Eskimo]

The wattage of your lights depends on the length. 24" are 15watts,36" are 25 watts and 48" are 40 watts. Your blue bulb is probably a magtinic. It has a built in reflector. You should probably change them every 8-12 months(depending how many hours you use them). If you've had them for more than 8 months I would change them. I would go with a 10000k and an actinic. BTW why so much blue?