Hey Tex, when I had all my equipment purchases laid out and I was prioritizing most important down to least... the lighting was something that I put toward the bottom of the list. Others on here might argue me on that statement but I felt if I was going to spend the money, it was going to be on the equipment that would guarantee me a thriving mixed reef with good husbandry.
A bad a** protein skimmer and sump was first and foremost, then came the actual tank itself, then power heads, then Apex controller (which i'm still setting up...), then the lighting...
My thinking was not to fall victim of purchasing an average lighting solution just to turn around a year or two later and have to re-purchase something better. So I went the cheapest route I could and mounted three ebay chinese 165w full spectrum LED's. I already had two of them from my previous 75 gallon so spending $130 bucks on a light was an easy decision. I do plan to implement some sort of enhanced LED lighting solution but probably not for at least another year... there is so much information still pouring in around the LED vs. T5 topic vs. hybrid topic.
