LED, MH, T5 battle ground.

[Troylee]

I prefer mh as main source and use led, t5 supplements.... I run the triple threat..:xd:

 

[Reefing8EZ]

Currently running all T5 on my 40 and all LED on my 30.
The LEDs are awesome, no heat, great color and shimmer, fully dimmable/controllable,
lower power consumption.
T5 is awesome as well, can control color by easily swapping bulbs, low heat, best for coral colors. IMO.
And the thing I see as the biggest benefit of MH over all the cons like heat is the
Simplicity. One bulb to pick, not all the crazy LED and T5 combinations that can make your head spin!

 

[Adam.Jackson]

I hate to always be that guy that says it "depends" but it really does, for many set ups, especially larger ones there really aren't equivalents of 1,000 watt halides that are available to the general public. LED's are still in their early adopter phase but they are making quick strides and I believe in commercial set ups plasma lighting will eventually catch on to. Yes there are a few marketed toward the aquarium industry already but in my experience most are lacking, typically in color spectrum.

 

[Ace25]

I disagree Adam. My 48 LED light I made puts out 1800-2200 PAR at the surface, 14" under the light, on a 30"x24" footprint. At full power it takes 144w. This is better output than a 1000w MH as far as intensity, but not quite the spread. Top end if you DIY you're looking at around $500 per 48 LED panel to replace a 1000w MH with an LED light, on the cheap end it would be under $300. So even on large tanks I still think LEDs are by far the most cost effective lighting method, but not the easiest to implement for most people. Even if you need 2 panels to cover the same spread ($600-$1000), the cost savings in electricity, 300w vs 1000w, is going to pay for the LEDs rather quickly.

I would put $ on a person being able to recover all cost of switching to LEDs, no matter the size tank, in under 18 months for any home aquarium. If you time it with your normal bulb replacement schedule and factor in 2x bulb replacement costs at 12 months. As an example, say a large tank uses 4 1000w MHs and replaces them on the cheap side of $100 per bulb, that is $800 is savings just from not having to replace the bulbs. At most your looking at a difference in power of 1200w vs 4000w but I am sure with the proper design you can easily get the LED side to under 1000w total to cover the same as 4000w of MH. 3000w less watts used 8 hours a day over an 18month period is easily going to cover the cost of the LEDs. My power bill went from $400/mo down to $80/mo by switching to LEDs and I paid $1000 total for all my LEDs for 2 displays and 2 sumps plus a lot of extra pieces 2 years ago. It took me less than 4 months just from the savings on the power bill to recover all the cost of my LEDs, then I also saved $350 by not having to replace all my T5 and MH bulbs because they were being replaced with the LEDs. In 24 months I have now saved over $7000 between electricity savings and not having to replace bulbs.

 

[Adam.Jackson]

Ace with the 1,000+ watt halides fixtures I am referring to commercial set ups and public aquaria (I do that often I apologize, I deal with those set ups as much as I deal with home aquaria...actually probably more), very few of those are 6-20+ feet deep :xd: There are LED pendants which can reach that deep, but like you said very few can match the coverage of a MH bulb with the proper reflector set up.

 

[Ace25]

Gotcha, and I agree, on public aquariums Metal Halide is still the only option right now and after that will be plasma.

 

[Steelerfan747]

For me its t5s, I love the fact you could pretty much create whatever color combo you like. They are great growers pretty compact, don't consume too much power and are pretty inexpensive. That being said I love the shimmer of leds and halides and is the reason I accentuate with leds. I wish some t5 manufacturers would take note and come out with a combo fixture and not hyatt something with moon lights. Will eventually try leds.

 

[Mike Cruz]

LED. That's all.

 

[dsmhero]

Considering my only real experience is with PC, PC with Led supplementation, Full led. I would have to say LED.

 

[Young Frankenstein]

oWAWzers :) the "LED people" are winning :crossedlips:

 

[cjilge]

I picked t5 due to running them but I also have a handfull of leds to supliment and to use as moon lights on the tank at night. I have considered building an led rack but have not at this point. I have a friend who is building one that would be equivelant to my set up now and I am waiting to see his in person.

 

[Mstansbery]

I prefer mh as main source and use led, t5 supplements.... I run the triple threat..:xd:

DITTOOO!!

-btw I really appreciate how this topic was framed..I think the use of the word "battleground" was very tactful!!

 

[Dasani]

I switched over from halides to LED's on my nano and was not impressed. I see better results in my dads tank under halides.
I would take a good halide bulb or t5 fixture over LED's any day.

 

[Reef Pets]

People always ask me how I get such nice color in SPS, Metal Halides. As for LPS, zoas and so on I would use LEDs without hesitation.

 

[Reef Breeders Verified Sponsor]

I switched over from halides to LED's on my nano and was not impressed. I see better results in my dads tank under halides.
I would take a good halide bulb or t5 fixture over LED's any day.

What fixture did you use? The wrong LEDs will not have good results.

 

[Stpatrick]

LEDs & T5s. Great combo.

 

[redemer123]

If you look at some of the nicest tanks in the world most of them are predominantly MH supplemented with LED and T5, i've done well with T5's but they are rather blah by themselves because they lack shimmer, great color, no shimmer. MH is simply not an option due to heat and electricity so for me its LED's my AI sol's have done me no wrong thus far.

 

[Dasani]

What fixture did you use? The wrong LEDs will not have good results.

I have a DIY fixture. It has 8 Cree xp-e royal blues and 4 cree xp-g neutral whites

 

[Reef Breeders Verified Sponsor]

The nuetral whites are not ideal, cool whites would have achieved better results

 

[Dasani]

The nuetral whites are not ideal, cool whites would have achieved better results

Back when I built the fixture, everyone was going with the basic 2:1 RB:NW ratio.
That's another reason why I'm not a big fan of LED's; they change too much.