To be fair, Zoas are the most easy to growth under almost any lighting whether MH, T5 or Led.
Light is light provide you have the GOOD spectrum not CORRECTING one because with current Led technology does not have very close sun spectrum as MH or combo T5 tubes.
Despite advance in led technology the spectrum is getting better but the problem is lied with hobbyist not the led itself.
Led users tend to mess with the led spectrum by tweaking too many setting to their visual liking that cause unsettling results.
My questions to all led users, why most led users tend to run too heavy blue setting instead of full spectrum LED manufacturer design intended?
From the Radion full spectrum spectral graph, it's quite appealing spectrum although the intensity is not quite comparable to sun spectrum but nevertheless is quite useful.
Compare to MH and T5, you can't tweak the MH or T5 except changing the bulbs with certain characteristic spectrum that you want best for coral growing and color rendition.
Metal halides are perhaps the best source of high CRI white light on the
market.
CRI is a measurement of a light’s ability to reveal the actual color of objects as compared to an ideal light source (natural light). High CRI is generally a desirable characteristic (although of course, it depends on the required application). If your goal is to illuminate a scene such that the colors all reveal as they would naturally.
IMHO you get fastest growth from SPS, even LPS from MH and T5 combo instead of led alone.
With intelligently schedule to optimize energy usage for coral growth and color rendition, why not combine all three technologies with different timer setting so that you can max the growth and be happy.
Example lighting schedule hybrid of MH, T5 and Led.
10-12 hours for led, 6-8 Hrs for T5 and 4-6 hrs for MH
let assume you want your lighting schedule at 10am.
10 am -10 pm led striplight like Reefbrite XHO High Power LED either 50/50 or Actinic Blue to kick start the day, you can use your existing led of choice to modify your color spectrum accordingly.
12 noon T5 kick in until 6-8pm
2 pm MH kick in for 4 to 6 hours depend on how you like for your corals.
When you have simple of set and forget schedule like this with minimum fuss about tweaking your own spectrum the far more success you will have.
Of Course you can increase or decrease your choice of lighting technology schedule to your best advantage without fuzzing with too much tweaking light spectrum.
The misconception about MH energy usage is somewhat unfounded when you can combine with current lighting technology.
For example if you have 4 ft tank:
150 Watts of MH bulb for 4 hours, 4 T5 bulbs of 54W for 6 hrs, 48" Reef Brite 50⁄50 XHO LED STRIP LIGHT of 72W for 10-12 hrs.
Daily Wattages of all three lights usage is 600W+1296W+720W=2616W
To get good light spread and run full spectrum from led I will take example of popular EcoTech Marine RADION XR30W G4 PRO LED LIGHT FIXTURE.
You will need 2-3 of this fixtures, in order to get full spread of 4x2x2 tank optimum will required 3 units.
So let say you run full spectrum for 10 hrs at 190W each of three fixtures will use 190Wx3x10=5700W at maximum intensity but in reality you probably use 50-70% for ramp up and down according your need.
Even at 50% with all the intelligent schedule accordingly to simulate sunrise and sunset, 5700W/2 at minimum usage still yield 2850W.
Both setup yield nearly the same wattages. So it's even in term of power usage.
In term of cost analysis Led vs MH/T5/Led combo
Pure Led technology setup:
EcoTech Marine RADION XR30W G4 PRO LED LIGHT FIXTURE at $839.99 each so 3 units will net $2519.97 for total initial cost.
Hybrid technology setup:
MH 48" Metal Halide T5 Aquarium Light 716W Coral Reef Marine LED 2x 250W Bulbs $295
48" 50/50 XHO LED STRIP LIGHT $296.35
Total initial cost will be $295+296.35=$591.35
So you can see the initial cost is quite high with led tech.
I chose EcoTech Marine RADION technology as it's one of the most popular led setup beside the AI, the different cost between is marginal.
I chose not to pick the cheaper led from chinese alternative made for the sake of proven record of growing not to said that you can not growth well with the alternative chinese led made.
For long term spread between these two setup.
Led suppose to last for 3-5 years but in reality the most is three years due to upgrade cost because it's the trend most hobbyist want the latest tech that why mostly chose led for this reason.
Led setup for three years cost stay the same as your initial investment cost. Total cost after three years is $2519.97
Hybrid setup (MH/T5/Led):
when you run 4-6 hrs, the bulb will last you long time without color intensity degradation so let just assume you want to replace the bulbs once a year. (2 DE bulbs cost average of $12 to $ $90 depend on what brand name you use so let say average $55 each so total is $110 per year).
3 years term will cost $330
T5 bulbs x 4 at $24 each so 4x$24=$96. Three years replacement cost will be $288.
Led strip light stay same after three years.
So total cost for this hybrid setup after three years will be $591.35+$330+$288=$1209.35
Well it's up to individual to pick what best for them, either Led or Hybrid setup or pure MH as long as they can satisfy with the results.
If you want sleek looking hitech for your tank then Led is quite attractive.
If you want proven record of growth and colorization naturally looking with much cheaper cost then go with hybrid setup.
