Lighting (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter LilReef
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opcorn:It depends.
I'm not sold on LED yet. But, if you have the money and want them, go for it. T5 is a proven system. My preference - none of the above. I like metal halides.
Basically, any of the systems can do the job. You have to decide which fits your need and wallet the best.
It also depends on what you want to keep in your tank. softies/lps. or SPS.
montiporalova
Senior Member
It depends.
I'm not sold on LED yet. But, if you have the money and want them, go for it. T5 is a proven system. My preference - none of the above. I like metal halides.
Basically, any of the systems can do the job. You have to decide which fits your need and wallet the best.
+1 on the halides. Am a big fan of metal halides .I run dual 250 hqi 14k on my tank .I can keep any kind of corals.
Everything has a pro and a con. There is no such thing as perfect lighting therefore there is no best. If there were then we all would have it.
In a quick nutshell ( as there are many other pro/cons ) but these are problably the biggest/most important.
MH is the tried and true but heat can be an issue.
T5, you can really tailor. Intense enough ( as long as quality unit ) that won't limit coral. Less heat than MH.
LED, most expensive, sprectrum can be limiting so some corals may have a hard time acclimating. Least heat, Bulb life still a question mark, may not last as long as they say.
MH is the tried and true but heat can be an issue.
T5, you can really tailor. Intense enough ( as long as quality unit ) that won't limit coral. Less heat than MH.
LED, most expensive, sprectrum can be limiting so some corals may have a hard time acclimating. Least heat, Bulb life still a question mark, may not last as long as they say.
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Not quite, we would be looking for the next bestest thing ever,
T5's - give a pastel look to the tank, the shimmer found in MH is missing, same intensty light across the tank, dim the bulb it will dim full length. choice of bulbs/colors if more than one bulb used in setup.
MH's - need to arrange corals per light intensity, high intensity corals go right under the lights, as they grow they will have a shadow effect. Same color throughout, can supplement using T5 or LED or anyother
Alunai
Fedora Chick-Dream big!
Are you using this or this type of bulb perhaps? You didn't mention T-5, so I would like to assume you're using either florescent bulbs or power compact bulbs.
1. What kind of corals are you looking to keep? Different corals require different lighting.
2. What size tank do you have? This can have an effect on what lighting you can or should use.
3. What is your budget? This is probably the biggest factor in choosing lighting for almost anyone.
This information will help others to help you decide on lighting.
tommylee22
Senior Member
Go MH if you can, always a more natural looking reef... thats my 2cents :biggrin:
FOR3VER_3XILED
Senior Member
I love the color options I have with my T5s. You have enough money to get whichever one you like so I'd pick that first. With $200 you can get something that would support LPS too.
Chris88
Senior Member
i currently use a diy led fixture that have been supporting softies, lps and sps for about 3 months, it gives me an alternative to metal halides and still gives me that "natural shimmer" that everyone looks for and for a really decent price
If your trying to keep it under a $200 budget I would go with the T5's. I have read in places that softies dont like the LED's too much. There is a very large article if I remember on RC about it. I have no personal experience with LED's yet, but they do bring the colors out nice in the corals......
redeclipse6049
Senior Member
I like LEDs but I haven't been running mine long enough to see how they effect coral growth and stuff, but its nice to be able to get different ammounts of each color (royal blue and neutral white, for example) to get the look you want when you use potentiometers...
t-5s seem to fit what you are looking for in price and the types of coral you are going to have.
MH+ 4 or 5, lol. I run 3 175watt mh's and 2-48 inch 54w t-5 super actinic's. I love the lighting and shadowing the mh's bring out.
My T5 setup was way more than $200 lol maybe 3.5x more and it was all retro built.
T5 isnt always a ton cheaper than MH in setup costs, but MH cost a lot more to run, and produce a lot more heat.
I have an 8 bulb custom built setup on my 125 and my lighting is perfect IMO, i dont have all the shimmer but i have some, its not "pastel" as someone said. It just looks natural, you can create more natural light settings with t5 becouse of the spectrum options. I have a bunch of softies (i struggle with some leathers becouse i may have a little to much light) a bunch of LPS and some SPS, currently have about 5 or 6 select SPS corals that are all brilliantly colored and growing faster than they were in their previous tanks.
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That's because you did it in what is probably the singe most expensive way to light that tank with T5s. It could have been a lot less. So, this really isn't a fair statement other than to say - you can spend a lot on a T5 set up. But, I'll add that you don't have to.
i built my own light setup and used top quality parts. This isnt the single most expensive way it could have been more expensive, i could have bought everything brand spanking new.
So... like i said in MY post, T5 isnt ALWAYS a lot cheaper than MH. Thank you for reitterating my point and supporting my statment that i spent more than the average t5'er. Of course this was becouse i didnt want the bare bones minimum to run the tank and have other issues down the line.
You couldnt have gotten the results that i have gotten for less than what i paid, so i paid exactly what i needed to pay for the results that i got. Beautiful thing about T5 retro is you can build it to your personal needs and specifications, spend what you need to or want to and get results that you want. Everyone has their ideas of perfection, doesnt make it perfect for someone else.
So... like i said in MY post, T5 isnt ALWAYS a lot cheaper than MH. Thank you for reitterating my point and supporting my statment that i spent more than the average t5'er. Of course this was becouse i didnt want the bare bones minimum to run the tank and have other issues down the line.
You couldnt have gotten the results that i have gotten for less than what i paid, so i paid exactly what i needed to pay for the results that i got. Beautiful thing about T5 retro is you can build it to your personal needs and specifications, spend what you need to or want to and get results that you want. Everyone has their ideas of perfection, doesnt make it perfect for someone else.