LED light vs T5 & LED ( your opinion matters )

[Reefcatch]

I have a question for SPS reefer experts.
What route would you go for a RedSea XXL900 240 Gallons SPS dominant.

6 EcoTech XR30 G6 Pro ?

Or

4 EcoTech XR30 G6 Pro + T5 light ?

 

[Pickle_soup]

Or, save some money and get 3 Orphek Atlantiks and a couple of bars...

 

[rtparty]

The 6 Radions. Why fight with changing bulbs, their price increases, and lack of availability going forward?

There are plenty of amazing tanks out there running all LED. The T5s don’t provide anything other than the placebo effect IMO

 

[thatmanMIKEson]

I have a question for SPS reefer experts.
What route would you go for a RedSea XXL900 240 Gallons SPS dominant.

6 EcoTech XR30 G6 Pro ?

Or

4 EcoTech XR30 G6 Pro + T5 light ?

I vote to mix lighting, variety is your friend! I believe whatever led is lacking the t5 will pick up, plus I like the look of the mix. in the morning and evening I burn leds only and at peek I run both.

I also like mixing led brands for the same reason:) on my 120 I have 3 ai primes and 3 360x's and 4×48" t5' blue+ and true actinic;) and 2× 48" reef brites blues

 

[Waters]

Option 2......best of both worlds.

 

[spsick]

Variety is the spice of life.

 

[exnisstech]

I like the look of the mix. in the morning and evening I burn leds only and at peek I run both.

^This^ sps are doing well under led /t5 hybrid

 

[Spare time]

I would go with a panel style LED. You get the benefits of t5 and led in one.


Since you are looking at high end lights, what about the ATI straton? You could even add a few kessils for shimmer given that budget. You would save about $2,000 by using three stratons.

 

[Spare time]

You could also look at the neptune sky.

 

[jda]

I have seen more tanks that I personally like with T5s than with LED. To each their own. Maybe I am just away from things too much, but I don't see as many long term super impressive Acropora tanks just running Radions as I do running other lights. Therman might be the best, but he runs Photons.

Most of the acropora tanks that went all Radion in the G4 era have T5s or other kinds of lights now. I am sure that I am missing some.

 

[Big E]

If the tank is 48" or under I would go with T5/led combo. T5 for heavy lifting

For larger tanks you're better off with LED only with some bars but I would only go with brands with large footprints. I wouldn't even consider Radions or the like.............they're too small and will cost a fortune.

It was a tough decision for me on my 150g but I eventually went with Orpheks because of the huge footprints of each fixture along with the tight configuration of the diodes.

I've had mine going for 3 months now and am very happy.

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3 Icons set perpendicular will work good......once you have larger colonies you can add a bar or two.

You don't need controllers for the bars.........just timers, so any solid brand can work. They're basically for fill in and some extra bling if you run a whiter setting like I do.