[Delphinus]

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..