Metal Halides vs. T5's vs. LED's vs. Ecofriendly Bulbs Which is better?

[kien]

Originally Posted by Aquattro

And the MH people have nicer SPS -lol

That's a different topic, and I dare you to open it!

[Aquattro]

Originally Posted by kien

That's a different topic, and I dare you to open it!

It's just fact. Again, SPS color is also a matter of opinion. BTW, gala is better.

[mrhasan]

Lemme put some kerosene in the fire:

"LED is just a trend! Period!"

[kien]

but let's face it, we are at a great time in this hobby where there are a butt load of options for just about every aspect of this hobby from filtration, salt, supplementation to lighting. They all work. There are fabulous tanks using all the various LED/T5/Halide units out there. There are tonnes of people who love their LED/T5/Halide fixtures. Everyone has different needs, tastes and preferences. In my opinion, the answer to the thread question, "which is better" is, the light fixture that you like. What you like is defined by a set of criteria which only you know. That is unless you're the type of person who prefers that other people tell you what you should and should not like :-)

[globaldesigns]

I like my Hamilton Belize MH/T5HO... I don't find the heat generated by any MH a concern, nor the overall cost to operate, and it just works. Bulbs are not costly either overall.

However, I am seeing many LED's for sale, seen may units at LFS with defective fans, lights, etc... I don't have this problem with MH, so I just stick with it for now, future you never know.

[Proteus]

I use a radion in my tank and I do like it. BUT I do consider going back to mh as I really don't like some of the color loss. The only thing that stopped me so far is spike in temp and evaporation. I used geissmenn 21k and loved them

[somewherebeyondthesea]

Another thing to add to LED lore I've discovered is that many of them may need controllers to vary their output.

I've overheard many reefers using 100% light intensity instead of dialing it down to say 30% off the hop...and I wonder if this is contributing to color loss?

[chewie]

Switched from Mh (2x 400w) to LED about two months ago. I find that my sps is actually doing better now, more growth and coloring is great.
I think that just using blue and white led like many of the "older" led fixtures used caused issues by not having proper full spectrum, but now many led fixtures are incorperating different temps of white 4000k up to 14 000k, and other colors, like violet, red, green ect, which seems to be helping with growth and coloration issues.
It is a newish technology so as things progress it can only get better and better, and cheaper.
Oh and the leds I got are cheap chinese made ones custom ordered to try get best spectrum possible. They make my tank look great, it was like going from a plain tube tv to an HD tv.

[Lance]

MH + T5

[11purewater]

Just wait until we start talking about plasma!