T5 lighting advice/reccomendations?

[WhatCouldGoWrong71]

While I'm a big fan of T5s, I wouldn't get one new. The only reason I am gonna use my old Tek 8x54W fixture is that I got a great deal on a round of bulbs on clearance. But after the bulbs are done, I'm going LED. T5s bulbs are becoming harder to get as they are being phased out. And I no longer like the idea of spending a couple hundred dollars per round of bulbs. Feels like throwing money away.

I just started using T5s in the last 8 months. I've gone the hybrid approach using Aquatic Life fixtures. Very happy so far. I have noticed a big difference when I switched to full spectrum (heavy whites) compared to only using ATI Blue Plus. It's like I launched a rocket ship, I eased into this as I did the same with my LED programing. I am shooting for 6 hours of nuclear radiation and 5-6 hours of "chill-mon, have a cold one mon". 2 Questions: 1) I've seen videos where people mention that LEDs start to lose their "punch" after a while. Is this accurate? If so, would it be a push in the end (honestly no clue). 2) Are their any videos that are NOT by a distributor or someone with a hidden agenda doing the video? For example, I have a hard time watching BRS depending on the topic.

 

[PharmrJohn]

Yeah, I really know nothing about LEDs. I've just started relearning all that I used to know from 15 years back (the last 6 months). I want to be well versed in a myriad of topics before u start up again. I do watch a lot of BRS videos, but take their hardware recommendations with a grain of salt. I do like the info provided and will trust it to a point. I'll will look to other vids for confirmation or bounce ideas off others here on R2R if I'm in doubt. But if it seems solid, especially on issues that are hardware independent, I won't bother.