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.