What is this shimmer everyone is talking about with MH? is it the rays i see sometimes in my tank? i hate that.

im super leaning towards the LEDs now, its probably going to be 3 36LED modules and "maybe" ill run 4 T5 super actinics for some pop.

Yes, the "shadows" that come from the water ripples at the top of the tank.

LED's will give the same shimmer. Any point source light will. T5's won't.

thsi whole time i thought when I saw those ripples it meant my water was cloudy! doh! :frusty:

I'll pretend you didn't knock the shimmer. I'm also curious what bulbs are setting you back $500 for 3?! And don't most here replace bulbs more like every 9 months? Is this where you are getting that hefty number?

Just to mess you up...Dez uses $20 cheap bulbs off ebay. He's certainly not suffering! To be fair he also has a lot more light from his tubes.

You gotta have the shimmer. Shimmer is the shizzle!

I hate tanks that don't have the shimmer I'm halides all the way baby , 4x250w going on my new tank with 2x22000k and 2x14000k plus 24 LEDs :):)

500 is for:
3x
http://www.jlaquatics.com/product/lb...ble-Ended.html

4x
http://www.jlaquatics.com/product/lb...are+-Pin).html

thats 83*4 + 37*4 + taxes = 547ish

I guess with the fixture you are stuck with those compacts. Too bad as T5s would do far better.

There's no way around some big costs to change it up I guess. Try and find a nice 3x250w retro used? Sell the fixture?

well the cost of a 250w used + new bulbs would still take a big bite out of a LED fixture.

so im going ahead with LEDs and you will soon see an LED build thread from me. this is going to be fun!!!

I am doing the same comparrison and am leaning strongly toward LED myself. It just seems that the long term cost of LED's is hard to beat. Even if a few burn out early and need to be replaced after about 1 year they have paid for the increased cost and have 5-10 years left of life span. even at 400 per year replacement cost for bulbs that sholde be 3000 in savings plus electricity.
As for SPS liking them the key seems to be using enough LED's and dimmable ballasts so you can fine tune the color.