I run T5s on my big tank but given the option I would much rather run LEDs just because I can get the colour spectrum I want. Many will argue you can do that with T5s as well and I have no doubt you can but I just like the look of LEDs on the water column that you just can't get with T5s or MH

tyvm!!

:behindsofa:

:lol:


They have me looking at $1500 combos now...........:fear:

once you go combo, you'll never go back!

..until you go back, like everyone else.

I've got a few wild acropora colonies under my radions, it took them the better part of a year to a) decide what colour they were going to be and b) start growing. It might be true that the acclimation period under different lights would be shorter, but all my wild colonies are doing well and quite surprisingly beautiful now.

I would agree that one of the secrets of success is more fixtures per area than might be recommended, but when you're talking about a 900-1200 fixture that gets pricey fast.

I'll also say that under my radions, entire clades of LPS bleach to death and I don't even bother with things like chalices anymore. I'm sure I could adjust the program for them specifically, as under a kessil (which had no red, no green, and a different ratio of white to blue) they recover beautifully - so it's not LEDs per se, but it makes me sad when I see T5 or halide lit tanks that are growing baller SPS right next to beautiful, shimmering open brains and crazy rainbow chalices. I feel like with the radions I'm having to make a choice between one kind of coral over another.

My next set of lights will probably be the ATI hybrid fixture unless something awesome sauce happens in the LED world before then.

I keep wondering where Ecotech is going to go with the radion, obviously the radion pro won't be the last iteration, but while it was pretty obvious that they were going to come out with a fixture with UV, I'm not sure where they can go now.

A year is a long time

I get it though radions grow corals I think I mentioned that ;)


Its the trial and error I can't spare I'd prefer to just go with a more forgiveibg fixture

Did I mention I've owned all Gens of radions great.fixtures just not for what I do others will say it is;)

haha, yah, if it came off like I was saying it was a good thing that it took a year I didn't type it right. All my corals go through a tantrum under the radions for at least a few months. They ultimately end up growing, but part of me wonders what my tank would look like if there hadn't been months to a year of suspended animation on so many of my colonies.

Also, I realized last weekend that on two of my fixtures, the white channel had burnt out completely on half of the fixture. Trying to get in touch with Ecotech to figure out how to fix it because they're well out of warranty. I'm not thrilled about that. 50,000 hours my rear end.

I think it's impossible to come to a conclusion on this topic. No 2 tanks are exactly the same.

Some will have success with something, while others won't.

Which is why it's so much fun to fake-debate. We all have the answer, except that there is no right answer.

I know Tony. I have almost 2g into my Lifereef sump.skimmer.refuge .reactor and have almost the full Apex coming. I look at my account and hide.

But I remember on my 225, I had around $1500 in for 3 400w Radiums, 3 Sunlight Supply pulse start ballasts and vho actinics.

The answer is if you took a piece of translucent material and put it between LEDs and the tank, you'd basically get the effect of t5s. Even lighting with no shimmer.

There is no magic radiation that comes out of a t5 light that makes things grow/ color better.

Maybe it was just me but when I had T5s it was never the cost of regular maintenance bulb changes but the cost of bulb changes is general not to mention the hassle that came with it.

Pretty sure I bought like 15 bulbs to begin with before I found the color combo I liked then a few months down the road I notice one new frag doesn't look as good as it did from the source so a few emails transition to the thought of configuring my bulb combo again. Then when it's all sorted a bulb burns out prematurely which can be an interesting adventure on it's own as any other bulbs on the same ballast won't light up either so which bulb is it? But ok no big deal except nobody has that same bulb right now but here's one that's really similar but different enough to through everything off again but with some work eventually it get's sorted out. Then you read several threads about other bulb combos and it's get you thinking again but not before one of your end caps melts due to humidity because manufactures feel an acrylic shield prevents the need for waterproof endcaps... Then you have a bulb with burnt ends that probably shouldn't be used but you figure best keep it anyway so you put it with you now growing collection of bulbs that now needs it's own separate storage room, in the mix is new unused and old bulbs because you never know if you'll need them plus kinda hard to dispose of as well. Eventually you loose track of what's new and what's kinda used or really used...

This continues for as long as you keep T5s, not to mention how difficult bulb changes can sometimes be or when you need access to the tank the monstrosity above it can a bit of an obstetrical. Now with LEDs its totally different but I digress...

Yeah I agree there's alot of trial and error for bulb plus changing them is
A pita twisting 5ft 1/2" bulb lol

Also their stuck to one size tank most times

If you end up stuck bring it to me at concept and ill see if I can help you out:)

I always liked the look of tanks with t5's.

Like sphelps hinted at though (at least I think he was going there) for me the push away from t5's is really the changeout schedule. I seem to recall that you can push their lifespan up a little with active cooling but I don't think a lot of units offer that (plus the downside of white noise from the fans) which means they start needing replacements at around 8 months. I use t5's for supplementing and I notice a falloff in intensity visible to human eyes by around 2 months. Then of course by 8 months you should be staggering the changeout so as not to shock the system by changing them all out at once. When I look at these new ATI units, I like the sleekness of them and the promise they offer but a part of me is thinking "wow that is a lot of t5's". Not that each lamp is expensive on its own but when you look at 8+ of them every 8 months it's going to be noticeable. Plus I seem to recall SOMEBODY continually promising to order the t5's I needed and then week after week after week it would be all the same story "sorry buddy, didn't order them yet, but for sure next week."

I still use t'5s but for supplementing, for my 30" deep tank though I think I'd go back to halides before I'd go all t5's instead of the LED's on there now. But I hope to get a frag tank online and planning on using all t5's for that..

Well sorry if this question has been beat to death before . I hadnt seen a thread on this (shoukd have used the search function). Of course there is no right or wrong answer. I just was curious how many people had switched back...

Sounds like this thread could have used a poll...

Going from LED to T5 point form...

Heaters don't turn on nearly as much anymore, so my power consumption actually dropped. Hydras (570w) vs T5 (640w). Power supplies for the Hydras still pull energy when the light is off and I ran them for a much longer photoperiod.

I'm unable to change the temperature of my tank though, it's set at 27C during the day and 26C at night.

Tank is much brighter now and less dead spots. I should have purchased more LED's for my tank in the first place.

Shimmer is gone, to me this is a bonus as it gave me a headache before.

Bulb replacements are paid for with the additional growth. I'm planning on extending the bulb replacement time to 12 months.

Corals seem to look different... Some look better, some look worse. Mainly anything that has multi-color seems more pronounced, but greens look bland now.

PH somehow is in normal range now, this could be due to tank maturity but only happened after the switch. From 7.9-8.0 to 8.2-8.5.

Crazy difference in evaporation... It literally doubled. Not very happy about this, but enclosing the upper portion and having the fan run 24/7 seems to keep the humidity at bay.

No more confusing programming light cycles.

Bulb choices are borderline infinite. Luckily I'm happy with my first bulb choice based on many peoples experience.

No more epic Blue time, where the corals pop and everything looks from outer space... lol

Burnt myself a few times reaching in to save a frag... Once on the forehead ouch.

I've been running a 36" 5-bulb T5HO fixture for about 3 years and have not been able to get the same success as I had before with my MH. It has been a disaster.

My T5-only trial is over. It'll be up for salel soon. I just received my 2 new Ecoxotic Panorama Marine fixtures and they look really nice and bright. I will add a 2-bulb T5HO fixture to complement the 2 new LED fixtures.

+1 for me

The biggest improvements getting away from LED for me were the lack of shadows in the tank from non point source lighting.

The disco ball effect is gone thankfully

Everything is easier to photograph in my tank without the LED oversaturation/underexposure effect on cameras

The look to the naked eye is so much more appealing now, crisp and even lighting.

I've noticed a few cons though as well.

Evaporation for sure, and tied to that temperature. Tank used to sit at 78 consistently, I'm up a whole degree with the T5's, but I also run an enclosed canopy.

But WHAT IF the grass really IS greener on the other side? Well, time to switch to solar tubes :twised: ... Ya, bet you didn't see that coming.

Haha, in Toronto? You'd need to put your solar tube on a track like they use in an observatory to keep it pointed directly at the sun all year!

Id still be coming in at under 100w. And dont even get me started on bulb changes... Do you know how hard it is to find quality replacement suns these days? sheesh, its hard out here for a pimp

Im starting to think "some" of the back to T5,s from led opinions are correct. Although I love my led fixture, as some have said, it seems my colours are lacking.

My blues are very nice and greens. Strawberry, purple and some mixed colour sps not so much and several are almost no colour. All my chalice, all kinds of colour are great at the tanks bottom. My blue crocea,s are not as deep anymore.

And in my case, I overfeed my tank. Using prodibio but still have some of that &@#$^**(( red carpet crap starting to grow.

So I found myself looking at 6 bulb Sunpowers today.....:lol:

Welcome back Doug! Maybe I should start a new thread about the MH ballasts I just bought -lol

I went from halide to led to halide t5 combo to led to led t5 combo

:mrgreen:

Im another LED user who switched back to t5 about a year ago. Im actually considering using my ati sunpower on a frag tank im going to setup and going back to metal halide on my display. I have an old pfo m80 ballast so if i can find a used pfo se pendant i will be using a radium bulb. So if anyone knows anyone with a pfo pendant lying around...m:biggrin:

I think I do. Let me check. Might not be PFO, but similar design that has wiring for PFO ballast.

I switched on my little 25 gallon cube. Had a sol super blue and it did okay, zoas grew, and stuff did stuff.

Changed over to a 4 bulb T5 setup and everything just exploded. Zoa colonies that were sprouting one polyp a month had 3 new buds in a week.

Now it could have been my ignorance about led's, not saying I had it tuned perfect or blah blah blah, but it's just easier. Lights come on, lights go off, constant light and spectrum all over the tank. No percentages or ramping. It almost took the fun out of it tinkering with the led's.
To add some pop and a little shimmer I still have some royal blues but glad I switched. Just easier.

oh geez, I just can't keep up with you guys!! Wait, I'm still on MH, so does that mean I'm caught up now ??

Not me.

I don't have an opinion but now I'm curious if I should have. Can ya go a little deeper on this one Denny? Interested to hear your take.

I run a Vertex Illumina SR260 48" over a 72" tank at the moment. I get great spread despite the size over the tank, very few dark spots, and the shimmer is perfect.

Though looking at my tank when it had T5's over it, to the eye - it definitely seems more pleasing. I've currently got them set to 25W/80B/80RB over 12 hours with a 2 hour ramp up/down.

The only down side to all of this, is I've had really painfully slow growth across the board. SPS? Forget about it.. and some corals completely hate it. I've had a wall hammer for 4 months that has yet to open. It's not dying, but it sure as hell isn't doing anything, despite it's placement. It still hasn't acclimated to the LED's it seems.

I think the way to go these days is an LED/T5 combo! Best of both worlds.

I had an evergrow led on my 40 gal but switched back to T5 and loved the depth of colors and brightness. I used only actinic blue and fiji pinks on my 4 bulb T5

i went from mh to led and couldn't be happier. Never used t5 but have seen friends add t5s to existing leds to fill gaps in spectrum with positive results.

I went from t5 five bulb to mh to LEDs . I was happy with the mh but I hated the issues with trying to keep the tank cool. I now run two Kessil a360w it's been three months and I couldn't be happier. My sps growth hasn't slowed I feel that it may have even increase . The versatility is amazing I love being able to change the look through out the day. The best part about the Kessil is no disco ball . I like the look of t5 but I like the look of a open top better and shimmer is a must for me .

I'm planning my MH upgrade already :)

I love mh they are sweet it was a hard change for me . I haven't sold the yet