Brad just to give you a tease of what you can achieve with full t5 , this is one of the tanks that made me a t5liever. P.S iam now selling his secret bulb combination!!!:D

This is one of my reefin buddy tanks aka FlagSwipe !!!!
http://i89.photobucket.com/albums/k2...ps530952a5.jpg

How do you justify the cost of the hydrid?

We not wrecking his thread. This is a very kool, {no pun intended}, lighting thread.

Looks like mine except with baby corals :razz:

So let's hear about the secret bulb combo!!

The hybrid is about what I paid for my AI's, so I think fair, if the coverage is there.

And ya, have at it in this thread, it's just meant to spur discussion on people moving away from LED to various other technologies.

I just dont see the purpose of Hybrids. T5 on their own for years have been a leading source for some of the worlds best tanks, so other than some tweak-able moonlight and shimmer what is the point?

Either be one or the other, but that's my own feeling.

Here ill give you a breakdown of our thoughts at the time.
i got my 4ft hybrid fixture for less then $2000
brand new 4ft 6bulb ati fixture + reefbrite(2) $1500 ish
brand new "highend" led fixture would cost me $1800-2000 ish

So if you take that into consideration ati hybrid fixture is not that ridiculously expensive vs other brands. We love our ati hybrid because its the best of both worlds!

These are the 2 features i miss with LED, so if I can supplement them without too much trouble, it would be nice to have those features back. The hybrids give you that, although there may be a loss in available T5 to make room for the LEDs.
I would like a 4' strip that is controllable via my Apex. For not a lot of money. lol

I personally dont like the general tank look of a pure t5ho tank. But the corals coloration are great! I was going to go with the power module and add 2 reef brights for the shimmer and pop which I like the look of. After the cost of a power module and 2 reef brights you are up there already.
At the end of the day i paid a little premium to get the ati hybrid to have a nice complete package hanging on top of my tank.
From my experience with leds, watt for watt they grow my sps great, dare I say better than t5ho alone. But colouration is lacking in the sps. So the white led on my hybrids can provide the muscle to grow my corals so i can pack the lights with blue plus and purple plus bulbs to obtain the colours in the coral.
Cost to run T5ho is negligible to me because when i purchase specific coral for top $ it frustrates me that i cannot obtain the colouration that i bought it for.
So to sum it up the hybrids to me... Offer a compact neat package that offers leds growth advantage, with the t5ho colouration advantage and the shimmer and pop the blue/ royal blues offer.

I think this thread is awesome, one of the main reasons we keep a reef tank is due to the crazy colours we get to see in our tanks. So picking a fixture that works for YOU in your own unique SITUATION (tank size, what corals you own, cost running, cost for initial purchase etc) is very important.
IMO theres no perfect fixture out there, you just gatta weigh the pros and cons for each one and see which one offers more pros to you.

Agreed. But your adding led,s. Im comparing with just the 6 bulb sunpower. No shimmer, but good growth and colour

Ok nevermind. Just seen your next post..:D

I believe the Hybrid fixture was built for the Hard Core SPS Guy - obviously can be used with a mixed reef also - but for us SPS freaks that spend thousands of dollars on High end SPS, we want to see that color and growth , as mentioned above, The Led provides that extra punch for growth, gives you that shimmer effect that we Halide users love, t5's provide that uniform coverage and color.