Coralife MH bulb quality

[b_james]

Now Im really p*ssed... I am noticing some dark drown hair algae developing on my oolite substrate - you know the stuff where the sand starts to turn to a greyish hue then little dark hairs start to appear. I have NEVER had an algae problem like this except for when I was using 100% tap water with cheap salt and VERY POOR lighting in a smaller system many years ago. Also there looks like the beginnings of a small patch of red slime - kind of looks like red wine stain the size of a loonie. If I turn off my actinics, the light looks realy yellow - looking at the AWFULL spectrum irratates me - I actually looks like 2 halogens.

I dont get it.. My nitrates are inmeasurable, no amonia 100% RO/DI with 7-20PPM TDS reading on output water. As far as live stock, all I have are some leather Toadstools that have been closed for about a week, clean up crew, sea hair and a large Arrow crab - NO FISH.

I dont know what to do. Part of me wants to get new bulbs, but if its the ballasts then I might as well replace the entire fixture -which I dont want to do - too much $$$