led vs t5

your going to get a lot of different answers on this. One thing I have noticed is that a lot of AI and radion fixtures have shown up for sale on lots of the large forums. There has to be a reason for that.

I think LEDs will keep getting cheaper and eventually be the better choice. I just ordered an ATI fixture for my new tank.
 
Ive done both, I would recommend a mixture. But, right now, I have zero LED's and just 6 T5's over a 40B, with the spectrums geared for growth and not pop.
 
@Matt wrote:
Metal Halides! LOL said:
I am not joking if you are gonna go sps i would go mh or t5's. I just went from a led setup to a mh/t5 setup and my sps are finally getting back to where they were before I switched to leds


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I have both over the same system and my sps does better under the leds than the t5. My zoas and pallies look the same under both. Over the long run i have run mh, pc, t5 and led. It seems that there are certain corals that do better under each.
 
My SPS have been doing great under AI Sol LEDs after I switched from T5. I have some torts that finally started coloring up with the LEDs. On the other hand, I know Pampee went the other way and sold his AI Sols to go back to T5. The only decline I've noticed is with some of my LPS that may be getting blasted with too much light.
 
On another note my Al sol LEDs I'm getting 600 Par on high end and then 250 par for my darkest spot! Those are great numbers and everything grows under and great color that u can't get with T5!!!
 
@silveradobobby wrote:
On another note my Al sol LEDs I'm getting 600 Par on high end and then 250 par for my darkest spot! Those are great numbers and everything grows under and great color that u can't get with T5!!! said:
Im not saying LEDS are bad. I probably would have got a AI Sol system but I needed two of them and I wasnt willing to shell out $900 so I got an ATI fixture. But I wanted to comment on your statement about color. T5's can create more colors due to the fact that there is an almost unlimited amount of bulb combos. LED's are limited in the color spectrums.
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@DaveG99 wrote:
[I]@silveradobobby wrote:[/I][quote="On another note my Al sol LEDs I'm getting 600 Par on high end and then 250 par for my darkest spot! Those are great numbers and everything grows under and great color that u can't get with T5!!! said:
Im not saying LEDS are bad. I probably would have got a AI Sol system but I needed two of them and I wasnt willing to shell out $900 so I got an ATI fixture. But I wanted to comment on your statement about color. T5's can create more colors due to the fact that there is an almost unlimited amount of bulb combos. LED's are limited in the color spectrums."]

I think you are wrong with color spectrums on LEDs lighting so fixtures out are poor in the area but some are not. On my system I am not missing any spectrums that are needed for great coral growth and coloration! The problem is there are too many people out there giving led lighting a bad rep and making people turn down led lighting when they shouldn't and 900 on led lighting is not bad at all and cheap compared to when you buy t5 lighting and for bulb replacement every year and power consumption the led lights pay for them selfs in about a year.
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I would go a mix of LEDs and T5 or LEDs and MH. I have MH on my 650 and was thinking of going with all LEDs. After lot of research and talking to number of successful reefers I have decided to keep my MHs and add LEDs.

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@DaveG99 wrote:
your going to get a lot of different answers on this. One thing I have noticed is that a lot of AI and radion fixtures have shown up for sale on lots of the large forums. There has to be a reason for that. I think LEDs will keep getting cheaper and eventually be the better choice. I just ordered an ATI fixture for my new tank. said:
alot of radions are on sale on rc and r2r. From my led experience the spectrum band is to narrow. Give it a couple years and then I think the LEDs will cover the whole spectrum needed for all corals


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@dfwminis wrote:
T5 or MH!! said:
depends on the tank size. For big tanks or a deep tank (front to back) I would go mh. Anything else t5 would would be what I would go with


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LED's have there place and will grow coral. I just sold my AI Sol fixtures and went back to T5 as well. I wasn't completely unhappy with my LED's, everything grew and looked good. My blues, purples, greens and yellows really popped. Most of my zoas looked good. I was however disappointed in my red / pink SPS and LPS. After going back to the T5 fixture all of my zoas look GREAT and my red plant, red cap, red milli and pink birdsnest look much much better.All in all the tank looks better as a whole. As far as the whole LED's pay for themselves in a year, I would disagree as I did pay very close attention to the electric bill and to be honest I noticed nothing and T5 bulbs really are not all that expensive to replace in comparison to other things in this hobby. I would rather pay slightly more anyway and be completely happy with the way my entire tank looks. I will also add that i threw a couple "actinic" LED strips on my tank along with the T5 fixture and now.... nirvana! So as stated above I think the best look is a combo of both and purchase a good well designed T5 fixture.
 
power consumption the led lights pay for them selfs in about a year. said:
I'd really like to see the math on that.

My opinion is the same as Matt's. I think the technology is a bit young. The longevity, spectral stability, and output stability of LED's is still unproven and there hasn't been enough (any?) real PAR/watt/efficiency comparisons to really know. Product and silicon manufactures are still figuring out what works and what doesn't and there's still a fairly high degree of variance in quality.

People who took the LED plunge are the pioneers. Are you?
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Has anyone had experience supplementing leds with t5s. If so which bulbs are you using? Im guessing you wouldnt need any actinic probably just some warm whites and pinks
 
I am running all ATI bulbs 4 x blue plus, 2 x purple plus, 1 x coral plus, and 1 x GE 6500k along with 24 Cree 3w royal blue LED's my tank is a nice 14k look.
 
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