Back to T5's for this guy...

skinz78 · Mar 30, 2014

Has anyone else made the switch back from LED to another type of lighting? If so please post your experiences and photo's too!

Lately I've been really battling my LED's when it comes to taking good photo's of my reef and the other day an opportunity came up that I couldn't pass on. A local reefer posted a 6 bulb ATI T5 setup for sale for a price that I couldn't pass on. So this past Friday my wife and I made a road trip and went to get the new light and along the way I delivered my old LED's to their new owner too.

Some of you are probably thinking why would you do a foolish thing like this? Well here are my main reasons.

1. I didn't like the lavender color everything had.
2. I feel that some of my Z's N P's were not exhibiting their true color potential with the LED's, especially the Hawaiian varieties.
3. I couldn't take pic's worth beans with the LED's.
4. I'm a lover of the T5's, I remember scraping all my funds together back when they first came out just to buy a 6 bulb TEK light and the huge difference it made from my compact florescent light fixtures. Ever since then I've loved them.

Here are some before and after shots, I'm still thinking of adding some supplemental LED strips down each side of the T5 fixture but I'm not positive yet.

LED FTS

T5 FTS

Blue spot Squamosa clam, granted the before is top down and the after is from the front but you can see the difference.

Rainbow Wellso

Has anyone else made the switch back from LED to another type of lighting? If so please post your experiences and photo's too!

EW_Fish · Mar 30, 2014

I will be switching back as soon as I find the right fixture. I currently running leds looking for a t5 or hqi/t5 fixture. Just like the color they produce more then the leds

TruRacr314x · Mar 30, 2014

I'm currently upgrading from my 80 to a 180...once of my changes will be transitioning from LED to Metal Halide. I'm just not happy with the LEDs (AI SOLs) and I feel that I need to at least try something different. I believe that there are LEDs out there that can compete...but I just don't know enough about them to make it happen. I can just plug in MH's and it is what it is...no more worrying about %'s and colors.

You're tank looks almost instantly better!

CSJIII · Mar 30, 2014

Agreed. I had AI sol blues for close to a year and hated the morph of colors I had. I went to T5s and now I'm setting up a new 93 cube. I'm going back to halide. You're right about the fact that you don't need to change intensities, colors.... They are either on.. Or off. Simple and proven

Vmacisback · Mar 30, 2014

agreed, i made the switch back to halide from LED. I really like my radions and wanted them to work as far as growth and color but the fact is they just didnt. I went back to whats proven and I can sleep a lot better at night, I think i will still add some LED Supplements for color but the Radium is by far the best bulb I have tried when it comes to growing SPS.

ReefMadScientist · Mar 30, 2014

My LED's are showing great growth and coloration.

Too bad but good luck .

CKI · Mar 30, 2014

I just switched from LEDs to a 6 bulb ATI fixture .... so far so good!

Masgatigata · Mar 30, 2014

I just switched too. True color potential of corals with LEDs were lacking, IMO. Maybe in a few years, that will change. For now, Im running my 6bulb 54w ATI over my 55.

Reefing Madness · Mar 30, 2014

I'd have to say, honestly, your LED shots of FTS looks alot better than the T5 shots, coloration looks alot better to me. Also, what LEDs were you using that you got a lavender look to them??

jon68951 · Mar 30, 2014

ReefMadScientist said:
My LED's are showing great growth and coloration.

Too bad but good luck .

What leds are you working with?

jt17 · Mar 30, 2014

Switched a month ago from my vertex illumina to t5 and couldn't be happier. LPS are puffier, the rims on my chalices are thicker, better PE on SPS. I do still have a reefbrite strip for that pop. 2 LFS in my area just did the same thing, one of which is WWC. WWC only has one tank, zoas and shrooms, with radions now. They even went with T5 with reef brites on their display tanks too.

ohio reefer · Mar 30, 2014

I'm currently running a Apollo led 5000 and I'm okay with it. It's doing the job and my coral are growing but I like the look of t5 or halide better. I will be switching to a 6 bulb T5 unit when I can find one at a decent price.

skinz78 · Mar 30, 2014

Reefing Madness said:
I'd have to say, honestly, your LED shots of FTS looks alot better than the T5 shots, coloration looks alot better to me. Also, what LEDs were you using that you got a lavender look to them??

I was using Evergrow type LED's. I'll admit some of the corals looked better under the LED's and I was having good growth but it just wasn't working for me.

Neptunes Bane · Mar 30, 2014

I've heard incredible reviews on the ATI T5 LED combo light. ...but boy does it come with a HUGE price tag.

reepher · Mar 30, 2014

Glad I caught this thread. Was just thinking about getting LED's but hate the pricing. T5 with some LED strips it is.

Lonelyreef · Mar 30, 2014

I have an 8 bulb ati t5 fixture and I have a kessil over my nano. I like the t5 over my display it's very natural light and produces great colors and I get really good growth from all my corals. Having said that I previously had a gen 2 radion and traded it in within a month. People that aren't even in the hobby would come over and comment how my new tank looked better but they liked the old light better. That was a sign to me that I wasn't just thinking that myself and I needed to make a change so back to t5 I went.

Now I've always been interested in kessils I had the opportunity to get one used at a great price and decide it would be perfect for my nano. I have friends that have radio pros and hydra 52, reef breeders, ocean artics, and the only one out of all of those I like is the radion pros as far as color goes. The thing is my kessil looks just as good over most of those tanks. I have many friends who would say no way kessils aren't good blah blah blah. I have taken my light since its so easy to move around and brought it to there house and put it right next to there lights same height and everything and gotten better color out of my light on there tanks. Now with kessils you need to go with the narrow beam with deeper tanks but the color it produces is the closest thing you will get to a mh bulb out of any light choice available and it dances across the water producing the best shimmer period. For my money kessil is the best for your money as far as LEDs are concerned. I think at some point all lights will get better but they have the best color going.

Lonelyreef · Mar 30, 2014

Neptunes Bane said:
I've heard incredible reviews on the ATI T5 LED combo light. ...but boy does it come with a HUGE price tag.

I'd have to agree but not all of us have 1500$ or way more for a light fixture. Lol. My lfs has one on display and he keeps all his favorite corals in there.

Neptunes Bane · Mar 30, 2014

Boy does that speak volumes! Keeps his favorite corals under T5s.

I was at a local, high end, fish store yesterday. Told the owner i was starting a new system. He asked me about lighting and i told him T5. His response was, "Good you're not falling for the LED scam". He went into detail about LEDS and how their PAR value decreases dramatically over the course of a year. I wasn't buying any equipment from him so i don't see why he would lie.

I purchased my first ATI fixture a few months back. The growth, overall health, and color on my SPS corals is amazing. I NEVER had success with sps before with my LEDS.