I am switching back to T5 from LED. My experience is with a reef breeders value fixture. Not the best but certainly not the worst (at least it is "full spectrum"). I had decent growth with LPS. Color was just ok with the whites/blues on. The pop with the blue was amazing. I loved the shimmer. Despite all of that I still never felt like the tank was totally onboard with the light. Its hard to explain or even put a finger on what it was, but the feeling was there.
I recently ripped the tank apart and started over with SPS. I purchased several frags from the LFS and several more from a frag swap. 100% of these frags were lit under halides or T5's. From that point forward the light became a challenge. I am getting (i think) good growth. I have frags that have reached the edge of the frag plugs, many curving over and encrusting the rocks in less than 4 weeks. The flow and parameter part is covered with a vortech and jaebo (or whatever it is called) pumps on random mode and BRS dosing pumps so really the only thing I am unsure on is the light.
I tried several different settings on the light. 90 optics and 120 optics. Higher intensity on the blue channel low on the white channel. Inevitably all corals lost there color...kinda. Let me explain.
Pink cap: This coral started as a brilliant pink immediately after being introduced to my tank. It was lit under a 250w MH. Since then it is still pink but the color is very runny. In other words, the pink is not consistent throughout the entire coral. Some parts are noticeable less vibrant than others. With the blues and whites on, it just looks washed out.
Green Slimmer: Similar situation. It started under a 250w MH. It started a brilliant green. Under my lighting it just isn't as brilliant. With the blues and whites on, the flesh between polyps looks noticeable yellow green as apposed to just green. The polyps have not changed there color. (FYI, this seems to be a trend, I never lose color in the polyps, just the flesh on the skeleton)
Bonzi: This came from a 250w MH with a light brown body and purple tips. The brown area has become very, very light brown, the tips are still purple but not nearly as brilliant. The polyps again are still a very vibrant green.
Red Milli: Again, 250w MH with a brilliant red. Now it is brownish red/ very washed out.
Green Planet (i think): Although it is almost a turquoise color. This guys is the only one that has not changed in any way. It has not lost color, not grown or receded. It has just not done anything.
Green Acrapora: Not sure what this guy is called but it almost looks like it has scales. It was one of the cooler corals but has since lost most of its green on the shaded side. What is startling is there is literally a "tan line" between the spots it is exposed to light and the parts that are shaded (color on the light side is noticeable better). This is likely a spread issue but I already have no optics on my lights so there is not much I can do.
The only other thing that could cause my less then stellar color is a food shortage, however I regularly feed my tank.
I just got a ATI sun power and will be installing very soon. Since I can actually take pictures again i will post some shots when the ATI first goes up and several weeks after.
I thought I would post a follow up to this as it has been a little under a year since I posted this. In the end, I got the impression from this thread and others that lighting was the smoking gun and making a switch from LED would solve my problems. The reality is it is much, MUCH, more complicated then that.
At this point I have now tried a whole slew of lighting combinations,
LED, T5, LED+T5, MH, MH+LED each over several months.
The best combination for color so far? ....it is hard to say although I feel that my radium MH/ reefbrite LED combo has performed the best, it is just not substantial and it could easily be attributed to the tank maturing over time.
From my experience over the last year this is what I can conclude about coral (namely SPS) color:
1. Pests like AEFW, redbugs, and monti eating nudis have a SUBSTANTIAL effect on coral color. I say this because when I was busy in the above post ranting on the quality of LED, I had ALL three of these pest in my tank without the slightest clew. I have successfully eradicated all but AEFW and will be taking the necessary steps in a tank upgrade coming soon to eradicate those as well. My point is, the color of the monti's dramatically improved once these were eradicated and my acros continue to experience highs and lows because of AEFW.
2. I have come to realize just how important water chemistry is and how difficult it is to sustain desired paramaters in a small tank full of coral. ALK swings for example seem to have a much more detrimental effect on coral color then any of my lighting! Likewise, AEFW will sometimes surge in population, causing a lower demand before I can even test for it, causing ALK to swing up etc.
3. Nutrients, oh my does this have a CRAZY effect on color. Unfortunately, do to my poor practices that have introduced those nasty critters above, I have also introduced just about every type of pest algae there is. Feeding heavily colors up the corals but also full algae to a level that I dislike.
4. Finally, I feel that spread has a huge impact on a lights performance. I realize now that even with a 250w pendant on a small tank that I have very shaded acros with very white bases on the other side. I feel that rock work plays an important role in this! I also wonder if a lot of LED issues can be attributed to undersizing the number of lights. In short, I feel that a lot of people will buy less LED's because of the price and end up with less LEDs at higher power. I feel that potentially, a higher number and a lower power will perform better (I will be experimenting with this on my next tank build.)
In conclusion, I feel I can safely say that MH has edged out on top. But it is not leaps and bounds. For this reason, my new setup will be LED lit for the main display with a independent quarantine/frag tank lit with MH. AEFW WILL BE DESTROYED!!!!!