You will get a lot of opinions, so let me just add mine. The absolute best looking tanks I have ever seen in person, have all had halides on them. Im not talking about pictures or videos on the internet. Im talking standing there in person with mouth open saying "Wow"!!! A friend of mine swore by T5's. He had them on his tank and they were great! Well, a few years later he bought a complete used system that already had halides in the hood. Now, he says he will never go back to the T5's and even bought halides for his old tank. With that said, I will probably go with halides on my 125 but those AI SOL's are calling me!