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I'm cycling my dwarf seahorse tank now. It's a 5 gallon marineland hex (trust me, I've done my homework. 5 gallons IS the correct size for this particular seahorse). Eventually, I want to have SHs, limpets, microstars, and macro (still debating what kind). I currently have a 10 watt compact fluorescent bulb (came with the tank)
2 questions:

1) What is a 50/50 bulb? I realize this means that it's 50% actinic blue, but what exactly does having an actinic bulb accomplish?

2) If I decided to upgrade to a 20 watt bulb, would this be too much for this tank or could it be helpful in some way??

Actinic lights do a couple of things. First, they are very high spectrum blue lights, basically meaning they are high intensity to be able to reach the bottom. Second, its display matches closely to the same spectrum in nature that causes photosynthesis, therefore helping corals,plants,algae growth. I would recommened actinic lights for any aquarium.

The amount of light you would need is about 4 watts per gallon. Try and upgrade to a 2 strip light system and have 1 day light and 1 actinic light. The more light the better.

If you're keeping more of a macro tank, you're gonna want to stay in the 6500k - 10000k range. In other words, actinic won't really matter.