[mike31154]

It's not only the bulbs/tubes. MH & T5HO ballasts are going to be more difficult to find if you have a failure. If you're fortunate enough to have an old magnetic MH ballast, you may be better off since the individual components such as capacitor & coil are replaceable. These parts are not going away since they're used in other applications.

Vernon's a small city with only one pet store remaining that does salt. AJ's has been slow to move with the times in some respects, but I was in there the other day & the store is full of LED fixtures, with virtually all the T5 stuff marked down significantly. I appreciate where all the folks who love their MH & T5 tanks are coming from, but I really don't think you'll be able to continue with that technology much longer than 5 years.... so enjoy while you can!

So does anyone remember plasma? And what about that skylight in the ceiling for direct sunlight? Isn't that what our livestock really needs?

EDIT: As an example, most of you have undoubtedly heard of a small company called Icecap that manufactured high quality ballasts specific to our hobby. They've been out of business for a while now because they missed the LED boat. Granted, the big players like GE & Philips aren't going away that easy, but they're also on the LED boat full bore & it's unlikely they'll continue making bulbs/ballasts for a small niche such as the salt water aquarium hobby.