Can of worms. LED, T5, MH??? (1 Viewer)

[Shanereef]

Alright guys looking to ligt up my 210 and having trouble deciding on what type of lighting. I have LED lights on my other tank, love the shimmer but dont know if they are powerful enough to grow coarl. Plus they are not cheap as we all know. MH seem to cost too much in electric bill and the heat. T5 never really used them but have heard good things about them. What seems to be the best of the 3 lighting options. Maybe a hyprid light like LED and T5 combo. Any input will be good to help me decide on which way to go.

 

[rparker2112]

LEDs are expensive, and cant grow coral?? I love my leds but on a 210 i would do MH with LED antics

 

[Tangs]

I am going through the same dilema. There is a kit for 99 dallas 24 inch led along with my present ho t5's and just let those bulbs run till they burn out. My corals are concentrated on the left side of my 125. The rest is for my fish and propagations. Jim

 

[Tangs]

led's can't grow coral are you sure? ok this is the kind of info I am looking for and appreciate. bu bye led's...marshas

 

[steveb]

Led's can grow corals just fine. So will MH and so will T5. So will any combination.

How deep is your 210?

 

[Reggie]

Technology is a wonderful thing but if you try to keep up on the cutting edge it will cost you for sure. IMO the following is my stance on the subject of lighting.

LEDs are the latest rage in reefing and from all the experienced reefers it is the way to go. From what I have read unless your tank depth exceeds 30" deep the current technology will provide light levels equal to or better than MHs not to mention coral growth is just as good as MHs. Initial cost of LEDs is the biggest con but is offset by the lack of heat transmitted into the water and reduced electricity costs.

MHs are essentially the opposite of LEDs, more or less.

T5s though less expensive bulb replacement costs and frequency must be maintained on a regular basis. They will not be as bright as either LEDs or MHs unless you have ton of them over your tank.

Starting out and if you can afford them LEDs are the way to go for reefers.

For fish only tanks then T5s will work just fine.

 

[Ostentum]

To with what you like. They will all grow coral even sps. Best color combo in corals is from mh vho. My 2x250 and 2x110 costs me about 13 dollars a month to run no extras needed for cooling since its in an open room with plenty of ventilation.

 

[Shanereef]

Tank is 24in deep. Where is the best place and of course the cheapest place to get some. Also I see alot of these knock off brands of led. Are they as good as name brands? I know that when I ordered Marineland led fixture on box tells you made in China.

 

[tektite]

I love my T5's. If you get a quality fixture with individual reflectors they can put out a lot of light. My fixture has 7 bulbs, it allows for a lot of customization for whatever color you want over the tank. My tank is 30" deep and I still get 160 par at the sandbed, 8" under the water where my SPS are I get 560-570 par.

 

[Elixibren]

Tank is 24in deep. Where is the best place and of course the cheapest place to get some. Also I see alot of these knock off brands of led. Are they as good as name brands? I know that when I ordered Marineland led fixture on box tells you made in China.

The Marineland LED set is just... bad. Don't bother with it.

The initial cost of LED's more than makes up for the over time cost of the LED. While you may pay upwards of $1.5k for good LED fixture, you'd end up paying $500-700 for an amazing MH combo fixture, but pay $100-$400 a year on new bulbs to keep the light going. LED's can last upwards of 5 years on correct timers, so the 5 year cost of running them is substantially less than running a MH for 5 years, not to mention the increased electric bill monthly for running MH.

The main thing when looking into LED's is research. Find what types of LED's they used in the system, and look up reviews. Get tested proven information from them, and research exactly what spectrum you're looking for that would be best for the corals you have. Best bet to get good prices is to check online, Petco and Petsmart don't carry any good Reef LED's, and a lot of your local fish stores don't carry huge sets for such large tanks. Last I saw, City Pets had a few stunner accent strips, but I don't know very many details on them.

There's a lot of new companies starting up who are making their own LED system to try and jump the market quick before the big name branders get going. Don't overlook the unknown brands because there are a few decent ones out there .

 

[Shanereef]

There's a lot of new companies starting up who are making their own LED system to try and jump the market quick before the big name branders get going. Don't overlook the unknown brands because there are a few decent ones out there .[/QUOTE]

What are some of the small companies out there for LED. Also I hear alot on CREE LED, Good or bad?

 

[steveb]

cree have been the defacto standard. Bridglelux makes some nice ones and there are others. You want to stay with the high power leds if you are going to go that route. Any of the options will work. You need to think about what you want to grow, how much capital you have upfront and how much capital you are going to have for electricity/bulb replacment/maybe cooling depending on your room. I like them all and think they all work. As an example my prop. room/tanks when completed will be all MH. My 400 is going to use comb. of AI brand led fixtures along with some Cree XP-G Neutral Whites and some Violet LED's.

 

[Jasonc]

I love them all for different reasons and all have their pros and cons

MH - Awesome color/growth and the shimmer we all love. The standard by which all others are judged. The only real downfall is how inefficient it is and therefor the heat they generate and power they consume. You also replace bulbs on an annual basis.
T5 - The best at being able to really choose how you want your tank to look color/spectrum wise. Great full tank lighting and with enough of them can grow anything. Replacing bulbs every year can get costly
LED - Getting better seemingly every day. Grows anything and will nuke everything if not careful. More efficient than the others and just as if not more powerful. The best control over output out of all the methods. The spectrum isn't all that great. Still ridiculously expensive. Transitioning to them from other lighting can be challenging.

With that said I use and love LEDs. I have a system which uses 4 LEDs (sol blues) and 4 T5s (b+ and p+) so that I get the best of both worlds. However, if I didn't have a heat issue in my house I would probably run MHs.

 

[dayton]

PM gabe_j. Me builds custom LED setups. I know hes doing a few of the MARSHians on here and will be doing mine shortly.

 

[ModAquatics]

Although I manufacture and sell LED Light engines I agree with everyone that there are pros and cons to each system. Leds are becoming more popular because they are less expensive (over the long run) and they are easily controlled (color, sunrise/sunset, etc.). One of the negatives about Leds is that they are heavy on the blue end of the spectrum for the most part. This is positive for corals because blues penetrate water better and therefore the corals are tuned to that end of the spectrum. But our eyes are tuned to a more yellow end of the spectrum so under most led systems yellows and reds are washed out. One of the most liked things about Leds is when you are running strong Royal Blue color, many corals emit colors brilliantly. For example, here is a rock under white and royal blue mixed;

And here it is under Royal Blue only;