Wow! Your very first RC post! IMO whether or not you should do that DIY depends on whether you want concrete, community consensus on LED emitter/color combinations. If you are waiting on that, then IMO you should get those power sucking metal crockpots. There is no consensus yet, and it may be quite a while before such occurs. Even then, individual taste will keep the picture muddled. I offer the question "Which T5's should I get to make my corals look their best?" Good luck with finding an answer to that. And we are nowhere near as advanced with LED color mixing as the T5 community.
But that does not mean that you can't get good color rendition with LEDs. I wish you could see my tank. But you've got to read the guidance here, and determine who's advice to trust. But it IS possible. Easily.
The one thing I hope has been cleared up since this thread was started... that the "standard" set of 1 or 2 Royal Blues to every 1 Cool White was just wrong. IMO it looks like crap. But there is guidance here that can help you come up with an all LED setup that looks pretty d*mn good IMO. And mine replaced a MH Radium on a nice ballast.
Still, it appears that it's going to be a little while before our knowledge can be distilled to a hand full of rules of thumb, with easy adjustments to make based on color preference. But if people keep sharing their honest findings, we'll get there. :thumbsup:
PS - one problem that really complicates this process is that while getting accurate color rendition in photographs of reef tanks has always been challenging, it's a BEAR with LEDs. And when you can't trust the pics, how can you know who to trust? And I suspect whatever it is that makes LEDs so hard to photograph under accurately is the nature of the beast, and won't be changing anytime soon. But if you live anywhere near Fairfield county Connecticut, you're welcome to come see mine.
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