My not so popular input:
I will take water stability and clarity over lighting, all day long. That requirement being met, you could probably keep most corals alive using old school power compacts. In 2006 I had a booming 75 gallon sps tank, lit by a tek 6 bulb fixture. At that time, I had many reefers telling me that t5's wont work, it was so much fun posting pics of my tank, beautiful, colorful acros Back then, many claimed sps could only thrive under MH, and use of vho's to supplement. 15 years later, now t5 is pretty well accepted for growing sps. I have never used a par meter, old school observation, and proper coral placement. Thinking ANY lighting will guarantee success is misleading and not true. For example, I have not seen a speciazed refugium light do anything that a pc, t5, or cheap 6500 k led bulb do, as far as growing chaeto. I use the latter, and am growing healthy chaeto like crazy, 25watt led 6500k led bulb from HD. Sure the red spectrum looks cool, but based on years of keeping chaeto, I wouldn't personally wsste my money on chaeto.
As far as the reef goes, SPS corsls aside, I feel trendy led lights are just that, and often used in a scenario where its unnecessary for certain coral keeping. Use them, don't use them, it doesn't matter to me, spend your money as you choose. I just find it odd when I see a 50 gallon tank with 2k in lighting, using a cheaply made chinese skimmer and pumps. Do they work, absolutely, so do their lights Corals dont care what your lighting choice is, they just need what they need to be happy and grow
I will take water stability and clarity over lighting, all day long. That requirement being met, you could probably keep most corals alive using old school power compacts. In 2006 I had a booming 75 gallon sps tank, lit by a tek 6 bulb fixture. At that time, I had many reefers telling me that t5's wont work, it was so much fun posting pics of my tank, beautiful, colorful acros Back then, many claimed sps could only thrive under MH, and use of vho's to supplement. 15 years later, now t5 is pretty well accepted for growing sps. I have never used a par meter, old school observation, and proper coral placement. Thinking ANY lighting will guarantee success is misleading and not true. For example, I have not seen a speciazed refugium light do anything that a pc, t5, or cheap 6500 k led bulb do, as far as growing chaeto. I use the latter, and am growing healthy chaeto like crazy, 25watt led 6500k led bulb from HD. Sure the red spectrum looks cool, but based on years of keeping chaeto, I wouldn't personally wsste my money on chaeto.
As far as the reef goes, SPS corsls aside, I feel trendy led lights are just that, and often used in a scenario where its unnecessary for certain coral keeping. Use them, don't use them, it doesn't matter to me, spend your money as you choose. I just find it odd when I see a 50 gallon tank with 2k in lighting, using a cheaply made chinese skimmer and pumps. Do they work, absolutely, so do their lights Corals dont care what your lighting choice is, they just need what they need to be happy and grow