Age old myth that keeps people from trying Halides, imo.
Running 2 250 watt mh 8hrs a day does not cost much at all.
After all the money people spend on reefing the cost is minimal at best.
All my friends run leds and have awesome tanks.
All my corals have been grown from frags.
I enjoy the growing journey and my tank is comming up on 21 months now.
Peace brother run what works for you I do.
I’ve never bought or used Halides so idk how accurate this info is or to what level of related to this hobby is but, there’s a reason people don’t do halides and I’ve been told it’s cost. If that’s not the case someone run some numbers ima switch lighting systems but there’s a reason new tech>old techYou saving nothing with LED. You only recoup the upfront price difference after 7-8 years, at which point you buy the latest LED again.
Might not be reef related but the concept is the same, higher wattage= higher cost, lower wattage=lower cost. It may cause them to grow faster and I agree it does look better but $4,000 to $12,000 is a big difference. The growth rate different between the two has to be very significant for that to be worth it. That’s just the electrical cost difference