Thanks for the suggestions guys, I'm going to head to the store to talk to them about ballasts. I've tried wiggling things and cleaning the contact points and it's definitely not that, the stock bulb fires up instantly in both sockets and the new coralife bulbs won't turn on no matter how long they're in (I left them in for an hour last night while I got ready for bed).
The bulb package says 'M80 or equivalent ballasts'. Like I said I'm a total newb when it comes to electronics, but I'm gonna go out on a limb and guess that's not what I've got from the research I've done and what you guys are saying. This fixture is literally the only piece of equipment who's documentation I no longer have though, it got accidentally recycled in the spring.
Getting this thing apart to replace the bulbs is one mother of a pain in the ass, so at the moment my tank's pretending there is a protracted solar eclipse. I'm off to the store!
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