Leds vs mh vs t5 ?!

[artursm15]

Hello Guys .. so the deal is i been running my tank with my own diy leds for a year and the corals looked great for me but then i got lazy and didnt do mutch water changes and stuff so they lost color and didnt look so stuning any more but now i back again with my wc and stuff and have bought some led light fixture for my tank and i can see the colors comeing back but the thing is i have seen many posts about leds .
That they are not goog long run so i been planing maybe to add diy t5 next to my Leds .. is it a good combo leds with T5 and is it even good idea ? Or maybe i should just keep going with my leds ?!

 

[FishD@ddy]

Hey artyrsm15. May be you already did, But check this link.
It's good info.

https://youtu.be/GTuj5MJCgpc


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Grassroots]

All 3 work it is personal preference. I will say long term T5s and Metal Halides are more expensive.

I prefer LEDs simply because they are cheaper to run, more customization, and you don't have to replace the bulbs.

 

[mcgyvr]

LED fixtures are just fine in the long run..
That information you got is simply wrong..

 

[ReefsandGeeks]

+1, any setup will do fine. I've been running the same LEDs for several years ad they are no worse off than the day I set them up. Cheap to run and easy to adjust. The "bad" thing about them is how easy it is to adjust them. It's easy to want to keep tinkering with the spectrum which will mess with the coral. Just gotta set them and forget.

 

[Wazzel]

I am 3 1/2 years of LED only and have not had any issues with my lights or being able to grow anything I want. Finding a setting you like that works and keeping you hands off helps a lot. I have not tinkered with my settings in so long I can not remember when it was.

 

[Ron Reefman]

Like Mark, I've had 4 tanks running all led only for over 5 years now. I love them.

However, leds aren't without issue, but then neither are t5 or MH. And I like the total control I get with a good led fixture and yes, in less than 3 or 4 years leds totally pay for themselves in most cases. Mine didn't even take 2 but I was replacing a lot of MH with expensive bulbs and 2 chillers.

 

[dartier]

All the points here are valid. However, it is pretty hard to beat LED / T5 combo's. The main knock against LEDs (other than you can tweek your corals to death with them), is that they can have shading issues because they are point source lights. Adding a T5 on each side of a LED fixture greatly helps with any possible shading issue and minimizes the negatives of T5's (cost of bulb replacement, etc.).

I say go for adding the T5 Retro that it sounds like you were planning.

Dennis

 

[artursm15]

Ok thanks for great info guys .. i will add 2x t5 right next to my leds just to see if there will be improvement