*LED vs MH vs T5*
I will start off by saying I have not used MH's over a reef tank, only a reptile tank
My progression of lighting has been PC's, T5's, LED's and the LED/T5 combo. I have never skimped and always bought/built the best version of each genre. The more recent debate in my mind is do LED's give the necessary spread/blend of light required for a thriving reef? They have the PAR/PUR power no doubt, but is it delivered in a fashion to truly compete with a good MH/Ballast/reflector combination?
I can't really say either way since I've never had the MH setup. But I have had a nice overdriven T5 system! I started my new tank with 3 x Mitras 6100's and eventually decided to add 4 x 48" T5's to help with shaded areas and maybe give the corals a little more spectrum to work with for colour. I like the current blend I have now but after seeing what one_divided could do in around a year in his current reef tank with MH lighting it really does make me think about adding a little MH supplementation to my system. I'd have a LED/T5/MH combination for lighting
Best of all worlds.
Discuss!