Did I buy the right light fixture?

So I am starting my first reef tank and I'm looking for advice. I have a 20 gallon long tank. I just bought a 30" Solarmax HO T5 lighting system (24W x 2). This fixture includes one T5 10,000K daylight bulb and one T5 actinic-03 bulb. The lights can be controlled individually and the "moonlights" remain on all the time. I know a lot about freshwater lighting but not too much about salt water. I just want to know how good these lights are for the coral and fish. Do I have a lot of light for corals, or just enough for simple ones. Anything you can tell me will help very much. Thank you all so much, I love this site! ;D

 

I'm sure if you put in some good bulbs you would be fine for softies and some LPS.

Before my 4 bulb fixture, I had a 2 bulb fixture over my 26 gallon high tank and my softies seemed to be doing great. My torch did great in the middle of my tank and my zoas were growing like crazy on the sand bed.

For bulb combos, I tried all three of these ATI combos: Blue+ x2, Blue+ and Aquablue special, and Blue+ and Purple+.

The two Blue+ is definitely a dimmer blue tank. The Aquablue mix was a little to white for my taste, felt it washed out a lot of the colors of my corals. My favorite was the Blue+ and Purple+ mix. Perfect mix of color and pop.

 

You have more than enough light for your tank with that fixtures. You should be able to grow whatever you like.

 

One thing I will add to this is you should change your bulbs as T5 bulbs do have a relatively short life span. If I start a new tank I would at least start with changing the bulbs because I know the life of the bulbs. I write the date on the bulb so I know to replace them 8 months after the installation date. If this is possible for you go with ati. I have been impressed with them as far as cost and output. Depends on how blue you want the tank but I would go with a Blue plus and an aqua blue special. Or I would go with the blue plus and a purple plus.