T5 lighting vs. Led Lighting

[Tron_954]

Well this thread will go on forever!

At a fixture that size, be prepared to fork out hundreds of dollars in bulbs yearly!

In my opinion, after years of having LEDs and T5s, LEDs are efficient and work great, but won't do the same for SPS as......T5.

T5s will do wonders for the SPS growth and color, but at cost of bulbs...

PS: Blue LEDs + Zoas = winning

 

[ReefCowboy]

Ive ran all three, and here is my opinion based on my experiences:

T5's were great, produced great colors and growth. After 1 year i was pleased with how the corals looked, but was bored with the tank overall flat look. I would see LED lit tanks and couldnt believe how corals could have such amazing pop. Yes they produce great light, but appeal of the tank lacks big time.

MH- Great light, growth and colors were amazing, shimmer was nice and overall tank lighting was pleasing to the eye. Some like myself added blue LED's for dusk/dawn and to add blue pop. The heat issues will beat you long term(yes they will). The hobby becomes a fight with temperature in the summer months, and eventually you will give up.

LED- Finding a good fixture and dialing correct settings is the big problem here. Once you find the proper amount of fixtures and correct spectrum, corals will adapt and with a few tweaks things slowly find their way to great success. After a few months from transitioning from MH to Led, my corals are now colored and growing on the same pace as with the previous MH bulbs. Some sps will actually do better under leds, unveiling better coloration. Once you have the above steps in place and notice a cooler tank, and less expenses with bulbs and less chiller usage, you wont look at any other method.

 

[mpierce]

How are you mounting these lights? In a canopy?

If you are putting them in a canopy I would just start with 2 (one on each side of the brace) LED fixtures - radions, kessil, AI, rapid LED, chinese (evergrow), reef breeders, ocean revive, etc, etc, etc. Let them run for a year, see how you are liking it and if you are even still running a tank at that point. If you feel something is missing, add in a single 48" t5 (retro) on each side of the fixtures.

If you aren't putting them in a canopy then I would go check out some different tanks that are running the different lights you are looking at getting and decide what you like better. You don't want to try and hang 3 or 4 different fixtures over your tank.

Either choice you make will work just fine, there are plenty of people using LED and/or T5 with plenty of success. It really comes down to more how you care for your tank, water parameters, etc.

 

[aquaman67]

I started with Power Compacts. Then went to Metal Halide. Next I tried T-5s.

All of those worked well at the time. Of those I liked MH the best.

Right now I'm running TrueLumen Pro LEDs. But I'm thinking about replacing them. I'm really enthralled with the new class of LEDs and being able to adjust the color to anything I want. Not really a good reason to spend hundreds of dollars, but so much of this hobby isn't about fiscally sound decisions...

 

[gone fishin]

but so much of this hobby isn't about fiscally sound decisions...

:lmao: Man, that is the truth if I ever heard it.

 

[gus6464]

I have LEDs and I still need a chiller in the summer. LEDs aren't ACs unlike some will have you believe.

 

[SAO]

but so much of this hobby isn't about fiscally sound decisions...

obviously my wife thinks shopping is a hobby.....

 

[dz6t]

There are MH and T5HO that are making same ammount of lumens per watt as the

Can you provide any evidence to backup your claim? I guess there is none.

instance a 35W MH (HID xenon car bulb)can make as much light as a led at the same spectrum intensity.

This is totally false,

Here is the spectrum of Xenon lamp, now show me a tank that is lit under it.

 

[2smokes]

Can you provide any evidence to backup your claim? I guess there is none.


This is totally false,

Here is the spectrum of Xenon lamp, now show me a tank that is lit under it.

The graphic with the spectrum you posted is for a certain light spectrum.There are xenon bulbs in manny different spectrums from hot temperatures up to 20 000K.Manny people use xenon lamps including myself.This is my xenon lamp.Evidence is in the light output of these xenon bulbs compared to leds at same ammount of wattage.Xenon are as economical in drawing current as the T5HO and leds.

 

[LedZep fan2]

delete - my bad!