Best reef lighting as far as keeping acros
 

Suggestions

Radion. Probably 4 of them.

Totally subjective; T5's, halides and LEDS can all be used to support fully functional SPS tanks.

Whats best? Bhahahahaaa, let the flame war begin. Everyone has their opinions, even differently branded LED owners will throw each other under the bus.

That being said Radions all the way!!!

Surprise that so far u guys all go for radion, I would vote for AI

Three way incandescent 50-100-150 watt. You string together enough of those suckers and LOOK OUT!! That's what I'm talk'in bout JACK!!

Mh were great. Only had issue when bulbs got old. I had a sol and liked it but controller was like a cheap kids toy. I had a great deal on radion. Started it low and ramped up over a month and half. And looking great.

Lots of good options out there that will get the job done, some things will suit certain situations better than others though. What size is the tank?

Natural sunlight.... I think.... Can't see through the algae bloom but I'm sure they are growing great!

Metal halides baby! Nuts on those LED fan boys! (hey, someone's got start the war :razz:)

After using ai sol for nearly a year currently switching to radions. Ai makes a great light, but either my parsms are off or its just not up to snuff for sps. They are both great lights as far as led goes but I think radion takes the cake.

I have sols, vega's and radions on my tank now and as for growth I would say they are equal. Now I would also say they are equivalent to the mh I used to have. I wouldn't go back to t5s or mh lights I love the led technology and the adjustability, and the old schoolers don't agree but they ride dinosaurs to work still :razz:

8 x T5s ( timer for each pair ) over my 75g and my SPS are growing well

RADIUMS

:pop2:

Hahaha

Radiums pound for pound are one of the nicest lights out there. They're just, you know, warm, and electrically-hungry is all!

Radiums not Radions :). Lots of money on fuzzy sticks - Radiums - proven over and over - no fuzzy sticks?, then Radions :)

I am kinda digging my Kessil right now, the sticks seem to like it a lot.

If I had a dinosaur to ride to work, I wouldn't be riding to work!! lol

Best light for SPS growth, Iwasaki 65k MH on HPS ballast. Best color, 400w Radiums. Best of all worlds, some sort of LED. Money being no object, I would go Vertex. If money doesn't grow on a tree in your back yard, AI. Sure, Radions are nice, and with adjusted price, maybe a better buy, but at the old double AI price, not worth it.
Kessils are nice, but comparable in price and coverage to AI Sol. AI Sol plugs into Apex controllers nicely, a good feature.
Not into LED, but MH too hot? Can't lose with all the available T5 bulbs out there. Some of the nicest tanks I've seen are lit with T5. The rest are lit with Radiums :)
A local guy is setting up a 12 foot tank with plasma, I'd like to see that once it's all done.

Currently using t5 on my nano, I want either a 150 or 90 gallon but I might have to go 90, I think il do led there's so many packages and set ups compared to metal halide

For ULN system I would go with T5HO because the intensity and spread of the light make for some very nice pastel colors.

With a regular system I much prefer MH.

So far all the frags that I either sell or get from people using LED are either coming in very dull or going dull after I sell them.

Ive only used T5HO and MH

MH takes the cake in nearly every aspect from my experiance.

FWIW, in the past i had a sweet sps tank using 400W MH.

and in the future, if i can deal with the heat and power cosumption, i'd use them again.

I'm running a 14 bulb 6' T5 on my 180 and get a good amount of growth and a great mixture of color options with that many bulb. Just costs a lot to do a bulb change lol.
Probably a couple years away from switching to any new technology.

Realistically for best color, growth and over all initial effect (as when you first walk into the room with an SPS tank) a MH and T5 combination is what I believe to be the "best" however "best" is a relative term and the benefits LEDs offer these days are just too large to ignore. I'll sacrifice some colors that don't look quite as good and how the tank doesn't appear as bright as before (might be a benefit to some), growth is debatable but when you're using a fraction of the power before it's hard to really care about a few mm. I could never go back to MH, T5s maybe but doubtful.

Plus LEDs are cool, there's even a special club for losers that don't have them, enough said.

:wave: plus we have popcorn! (Complements of my halides)

I run 6 ATI T5 bulbs and have great growth in my tank with SPS

Never used a halide to pop popcorn. Huh. Probably gets hot enough though

LED's for sure when looking at all features as a whole. MH may still win if you just look at a few of the features, but I am sure we are not to far off from having a LED that wins in all categories.

+1 Radion