Lights

[Dearth]

I see a lot of people who went from Metal Halides to LED are now leaving the LEDs for T5 or T5 hybrid lighting.

I have been looking at LED lights for some time but seeing people leaving LEDs for T5s has me wondering are LEDs all they are cracked up to be? Or are people just wanting a change?

[Animal-Chin]

I started with T5's and really liked them but they cost more to run and you have to change the bulbs a lot and they are expensive (IMO) so I purchased LED's about 4 years ago and really like them.

Pros

Powerfull and will grow all coral
Cool to run, no extra heat
No changing bulbs for a long time (50,000 hours)
Cheaper to run
you can adjust the color to what you like (more blue, more white)

Cons

Sometimes too powerful for soft or LPS coral. I've have ricordia melt under them.

Uni directional light. SPS don't get any light under their branches and it causes shadowing underneath. They only get light from one direction. This is why a lot of people suplement their lighting with T5s.

Set up cost. If you go Radion or something like that they are expensive to start off with. I went Ebay black box so the set up was pretty cheap.



In the end I'll never go back, I like the LED lighting in my tank and have great success with the coral I have. I do think some of my coral would prefer a more reflective light but other than that...

[tang daddy]

The most common combo is led and t5 mix.

If you have a chiller and can afford bulb changes every 8-10 months then t5 are a great choice, but they put out a fair amount of heat so unless the fixture is well ventilated it will transfer some heat into the tank. LEDs are great for growing coral but sometimes can be expensive to start up, the up sides is virtually no heat and no bulb change. Downsides is leds don't have tons of spread and light is directional so lots of shading which is why people supplement with t5.

I run all 3 and couldn't be happier!

[Dearth]

Any issues with fans burning out or losing a bank of lights as I've read many people with LEDs experience one or both issues with their LED lights

[Animal-Chin]

Fan no, light bulbs yes. I've had a few bulbs burn out but I just replaced them myself. You just need to know how to solder...

[dino]

I've had my led fixtures for 4 years or so. No issues at all as of yet

[Sharkbait-huhaha]

I've been using vertex illumina for a couple years now. loooooove it.

[chi]

Switching back to t5's as LEDs can't truly provide sufficient UV. You can tell that there's no UV sterilizers that uses LED for our hobby. Nor UV tanning salons. That being said. The photons emitted via electricity through gas medium produces a much more even spread. I noticed that my anemones have much better colouration under t5's.

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[dino]

To be clear I'm still going to use my led but want to add another fixture. Just wondering what I should use for the extra unit. My led have uv bulbs on them

[sphelps]

Originally Posted by chi

Switching back to t5's as LEDs can't truly provide sufficient UV. You can tell that there's no UV sterilizers that uses LED for our hobby. Nor UV tanning salons. That being said. The photons emitted via electricity through gas medium produces a much more even spread. I noticed that my anemones have much better colouration under t5's.

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They make LEDs for sterilization and tanning beds so I'm not what your assumptions are based on. It's all fairly new technology so certainly not the most common yet but options are available if you care to look. Most LED fixtures these days also have LEDs that produce light in the UV range so I don't believe there's much advantage using other light sources over LED for the sole purpose of providing more UV.

At any rate I think all lighting options have draw backs. T5 only tanks look amazing in pictures due to the even light distribution but IMO look flat in person and lack contrast. Halides on the other hand go too far in the other direction and lack the ability to evenly light a tank and bring good light and color to all corals and areas. The combination of the two however gives you best of both. LEDs are no different and will lack certain things when used solely, however out of the three they are best on their own IMO, provided you use the right fixture. That said supplementing with T5s will obviously produce better results but often won't be worth the effort for most people.