Halide vs. LED vs. T5! Which do you prefer and why?

[ReeferRookie]

U leave my white leds alone lol

 

[Fishbone]

T5 for me. In a quality fixture they extremely energy efficient provide a nice full spectrum and are pretty much plug and play at this point. I won't argue that LEDs have their pros, but for me color is king and it's easier to get outstanding colors with T5s.

 

[FX CharityCorals]

I run t5 ATI Bulbs and LED Reefbrites over my tanks. The colors Im able to pull from the corals makes the extra few bucks worth it.

 

[Fishbone]

I run t5 ATI Bulbs and LED Reefbrites over my tanks. The colors Im able to pull from the corals makes the extra few bucks worth it.

Agreed, I run the ATI T5s & Reefbrites RB as well and seems like the perfect combo.

 

[jschultzbass]

I'm currently running the Pacific Sun Pandora LED/T5 combo and love it. My tank is new and starting out with all acro frags so I hope they adapt better to LEDs then people who have had full colonies and tried to make the switch. LEDs for me are more practical and if my coral color is "different" then someone with a MH tank that is fine with me, the controlablility and much lower electric bill and less noise (no chiller or big fans) makes it well worth the sacrifice of a not having the MH deeper color and a little better growth.

 

[SchnitzelReef]

On my old tank I had 3-250w Radiums. The growth was awesome, but color on Lps wasnt always great. I added 2-t5s and that seemed to help a lot. Then I switched to all LEDs and absolutely hated it. This was about 2 years ago, and the LEDs were DIY, so that could have been why. I ended up modifying the LEDs and added 4-80w t5s. I was able to get great colors out of all corals. Softies, Lps, and even my acros looked great.

On my new 250g 8' tank, I'm running a DIY t5/led light, and love it! My tank is SPS dominant with a few select Lps, and growth is really good and colors are amazing.

Here's the light I built, Quite a bit cheaper then 2-4' ATI hybrids. Lol

 

[ReeferRookie]

Now that is sexy

 

[Chetrod]

On a 125G 72" long I couldn't afford the high end LED's so I settled for some inexpensive Blue/White LED's and purple T5's to add that missing color. Will upgrade LED's in the future. This was done well before I knew there were full spectrum LED's available at a lower cost. Oh well.

 

[Siasl]

Ahh - the age old debate. I think that MH/T5 combo is still the answer I will go with, but I would say that you all should google the MH versus LED test that vividaquariums did on their 800 gallon show tank.

Basically (before the tank crashed for other reasons), the same frags on both sides (MH versus LED) grew variably depending on the SPS Frags. IE - some were better on MH, some where better on LED. So that tells me (IMHO) that LED has, or almost has caught up with MH, but I KNOW that MH/T5 works wonders.

So - sooner or later LED will be there (or already are there). However - I will wait until a new build to try them out.

 

[glazar]

Hi all, I a have a reef about 8 months old and i started with MH and the last week i added few leds for supporting the MH 150Watt.

The aquarium is 200 lit. ( about 25g) .

 

[reefnewb1982]

Heres my current orbit led with 4 power compact 50/50 lights over my 55 holding tank while my 120 is getting resealed

 

[Airborne65]

I will say I have done all lighting, and 2 years ago when I was moving to my house to setup a new tank I decided to pull the trigger with LEDs, I was always against them even had new halide equipment.. so day one on the 75 gallon I had Ecotech Radion G2 Pros and had the tank going for over a year before I moved to my current tank. I will gladly say I love the lights once you know what your doing and program them right and let them stay on your tank for more then a month... On the tank I saw a improvement in color and gro*** on all corals! I will always run Leds now below I will share a link with my Youtube so you can watch the gro*** from day one with all my tanks also below is my old 75 and current 100gallon starphire tank enjoy!
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCG_mWyJZufE9KjZ-gkn7wuw

 

[Airborne65]

my 100Gallon
https://www.reef2reef.com/forums/member-tanks/164934-100-gallon-starphire-sps-dominated-reef-3.html

 

[Noob]

i have had LED's on both my tanks for a while now. i use an AI Sol on one and a Maxspect Razor on another. i like LED's for their efficiency, but i noticed that my Acro's under led's do not get color on their underside. i'm going to be switching to T5's. softies and lps seem to be just fine under LED's though.

 

[ThaBeast]

I run t5 ATI Bulbs and LED Reefbrites over my tanks. The colors Im able to pull from the corals makes the extra few bucks worth it.

Curious as to what ati bulb combo you are running with this set up

 

[stlcard]

I am a big fan of t5s i tried LEDs but went back to t5

Which LEDs did you have? I have had radion g2s for awhile now and debating going back to t5s. Led just doesn't have the pop or brightness that ati bulbs can get in t5. I may try adding retro t5s before a full switch back.

 

[Shep]

Just straight LEDs, I have had some really good coral growth under them. Plus they use very little energy and put off almost no heat.

 

[kdino1]

I prefer all led's here is my tank under a 136 watt full spectrum unit. Cost to run is low, no added heat and I can dial in the specific color I want. Plus my corals seem to love them so I cant complain.

 

[Quinn123]

i have used t5 and led, but with metal halide my corals seem to do so much better.

 

[Euphyllia57]

BIG fan of LEDs. They stay cool and are the most energy efficient lighting AND no bulb changes.