Lights for my new 3ft...50g

[kien]

tank lighting is sort of like dating. You gotta try a bunch of them before you can make an informed decision on which one is best for you. You can't always rely on what your buddy or your mom tells you because she/he/it may not be right for you.

[Skimmerking]

Originally Posted by kien

tank lighting is sort of like dating. You gotta try a bunch of them before you can make an informed decision on which one is best for you. You can't always rely on what your buddy or your mom tells you because she/he/it may not be right for you.

[Doug]

Originally Posted by Aquattro

You need to decide on what you really want out of lighting. Control or coral color. LED will give you better control. T5, better color. Ya, so you have to replace bulbs. Suck it up, cost of doing business.

Actually control is the least thing I want. Does not serve much purpose for me and I just screw it up anyways..

And like you, bulb replacement is a non issue, as long as its not on a 6 month basis or something stupid like that.

I basically want the best light for my.......SPS....tank. And roughly in the price range of both the listed fixtures. And both, one being 36in. and one being 32in. should provide good coverage for my 36 by 18 tank.

And as I have time to decide, I seek all possible information from other users. .. I prefer the 2080 leds but then besides the many I know on RC, I see well seasoned aquarists on here like yourself and others dumping their leds to get better colour in their sps corals or even growth and colour, as some have mentioned.

Sooooooooo, there must be something to that, regardless of the successful led lit sps tanks.

Is that not correct. And the t-5 vote is almost twice that of leds vote....interesting.

I should just suck it up as you say and buy the powermodule combo unit and be done with it....

[Doug]

Originally Posted by kien

tank lighting is sort of like dating. You gotta try a bunch of them before you can make an informed decision on which one is best for you. You can't always rely on what your buddy or your mom tells you because she/he/it may not be right for you.

That is a fact for sure, but thats kind of expensive. I have run every kind over the many years. Not exact models but halide, pc, t-5 and leds.


AND, I only dated one woman and I married her.

[Aquattro]

Doug, a lot of people try to defend the growth ability of LED, and I think that's unwarranted. LED will certainly grow SPS, probably as well as MH. I had no complaints with growth. Really didn't have much to complain about in color either, just a difference that was noticeable to me. In the end, you can't go wrong with either, it just comes down to what you want to look at in YOUR tank.

[kien]

Originally Posted by Aquattro

In the end, you can't go wrong with either

unless you pick the wrong one.

[Doug]

Originally Posted by kien

unless you pick the wrong one.

[Skimmerking]

Originally Posted by kien

unless you pick the wrong one.

kien I totally agree with you on that one. Brad I seriously think if yopu had the money and could afford the Mitras you would still be using them. IMHO. I know that you loved your MH for the longest that I can remember. If you took the plunge on the AI sols but deep down I think you should have waited on pulling the trigger on those and went with the Mitras but that is alot of $$$ to fork out. I lucked out and got my unit the black 6100 for a smoking deal it was used for 30 days and the price i couldn't hold back on.

[Aquattro]

Originally Posted by Skimmer King

kien I totally agree with you on that one. Brad I seriously think if yopu had the money and could afford the Mitras you would still be using them.

sorry Mike, crack smoking at it's best If I had the money, I would have installed an HRV and kept MH. I would not spend the money on Mitras even if I won the lottery. The only thing I like about them is the quick disconnect. The light itself is crap, IMO.
If I were to start over, I'd seriously look at the ATI hybrid, which would have cost me what I paid for all my AIs originally. Having tried all three types of lighting now, for a SPS tank, I would choose MH, T5 then LED, in that order.

[thmh]

I agree with brad!!! If I was a baller I would do triple threat like Darryl mh+t5+led!!!


-Tony