Lighting and coral question

[dlcrawle]

My tank is 125 gallons so I have a 72" PC fixture on it with 4x96watt bulbs. My question is  I want good light for growth but also light to make the tank look not so white. I have 50/50 bulbs with blue and 10k, I also have straight 10k, 460 (straight blue) and 420 (straight purple) I know the actinics are more for preference but would like to know how many 10ks I should have in it. Is 4 50/50 watt bulbs the best for growth? Any help is appreciated.

just for clarification I have all of these bulbs so can do any mixture

5x 50/50 bulbs
2x 420 bulbs
2x 460 bulbs

[Steve]

Not sure what type of corals you are trying to grow, but 4x96W on a 125 is the low end of wattage for most corals. Are you using a glass top or is your tank open? Are your 50/50 bulbs 10k + 420 or 460. If it were me I would run 2 of the 50/50 bulbs, plus 2 bulbs that were opposite of what the actinic output of the 50/50 is. It is really going to come down to your preference. 

[dlcrawle]

I have favia, candy cane, frogdpawn, mushrooms, lobo, zoos. I was told about 3 watts per gallon. I am about 20 watts over that.. So the amount of white light does not matter for growth? I was told blue and purple were just for looks but the white is what made them grow.

[volcano]

Seems like you have mostly low light coral.  However, I have converted to 2 - Marine Solutions 120s.  They are 120 watts each, but they are each comparable to 250 watt MH lights.  I also have Boost LEDs on another tank and like them quite well.  They grow all types of coral.  Here are the marine solution lights:

http://www.marinesolutionsinc.com/catalog?page=shop.product_details&flypage=flypage.tpl&product_id=71&category_id=10