Lighting question

[LisaDG]

I recently had a 40 gallon reef tank that had a MH light fixture over it. The light fixture has a 250 watt MH and 2 24 watt T5 blue.
The reef has been moved to a 55 gallon tank and the fixture only covers half of the tank. I was thinking about LED's for the other half but don't know how many LED lights I would need to be able to support both LPS and SPS corals. Would LED's be ok for the other end of the tank, or should I go with another MH fixture. I would prefer the LED's because I read that although the initial outlay is larger than MH the cost in energy savings would offset.
Any suggestions would be appreciated.

 

[ghellin]

24 Cree LEDs would equal a 250 watt halide easily.

 

[sirreal63]

24 Cree LEDs would equal a 250 watt halide easily.

Which 250 watt halide? A low par 15k bulb with batwing reflectors or a 10K in LumenBrites? The difference in PAR is staggering.

 

[nanojg]

What area of coverage is needed?

 

[ghellin]

Not sure I don't use halides I know without optics with 24 LEDs I have over 1100 par at 4 inches and 350 on my sandbed. Optics would only increase this. But to further show what LEDs can do I am running 24 RB @700mA and 6 NW @350 mA on my 58 using 60 degree optics and I am growing SPS on my sandbed with rapid growth. So thats 39.6 watts of RB and 6.3 watts of NW for a total of 45.9 watts on a 58.

Here is a pic for reference.

 

[sirreal63]

Lisa, one thing to consider is how much you pay for electric? If you are in a high electrical charge state like California, it may be the wisest thing to go to all LED, but if you are not in a high charge area then the difference in money for electric may be negligible. It might be that the payoff in the difference in electric could be a couple of years or ten years.