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LED vs MH / T5 (1 Viewer)

peterock

peterock

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Sep 8, 2013
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Ok fello reefers I have been been in the hobby for a while and have always been a t5 guy just recently moved to mh... here are my questions with LED's .... Yes they are cooler and last longer- that is a huge + but how is it determained with PAR / Pur , K, and lumes.... Im always one of the last people to switch to something new. I need a lot of convensing, yes I have seen the results of LED's they are nice but I had the same thing with T5/ mh...

How do I get the perfect lighting for a 125g staying in a budet
 
Like everything there is such a range of fixtures and quality that PAR numbers are going to be all over the board but a quality fixture is perfectly capable of PAR and is not really an issue. Biggest issue is how the light is spread is far different from conventional T5/MH.

Electrical savings is really minimal on larger setups. Only thing you really gain is in bulb replacements. I switched from T5 to LED on a 180g and runs more watts to get the coverage I need than my old T5 setup so there was no electrical savings at all.

Less heat is good for summer but can increase your heating costs in the winter so it's basically a wash unless you had so much heat to require a chiller the it may become a pro.


Leds are basically mini flashlights, Something in the way up top leaves shadows the rest of the way down. Unlike MH that where you can have a large parabolic reflector above to not only spread the light but light coming in at different angles. Same with T5s.

It's not so much an issue with LED fixtures that have leds evenly spaced on a grid and you have mounted basically the entire square footage ( - say 6" on all sides ) but ones that are more spotlight will NOT give you the same coverage as T5 or MH like they try to tell you. Yes can light say a 2X2 area but thats' at the bottom providing nothing is in the way. But the upper and middle zones don't get near the 2X2 ( for example ).



Acros and other branching types this cause lower branches to be shaded by upper branches and die off quicker than more conventional. To over come this you need more LED fixtures to provide overlap from on to another and this significantly adds to cost.
 
Last edited:
David Grigor said:
Like everything there is such a range of fixtures and quality that PAR numbers are going to be all over the board but a quality fixture is perfectly capable of PAR and is not really an issue. Biggest issue is how the light is spread is far different from conventional T5/MH.
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Depends on type of LED fixture being used. some act like point sources and the others not so much. I had a DIY fixture and had very few issues growing Acros/SPS on the sand bed or bottom of a 24" tall tank.

Having said that every light source has its advantages and disadvantages. What you want to achieve should be your starting point. one thing to note though is with LEDs becoming popular it may soon happen that choices of bulbs in T5's and MH's become limited.
 
I've had 800W of metal halide on a 70 gallon to my current 54W LEDs on a 14 gallon. I feel that the light emitted from a MH have a broader spectrum for the same Kelvin rating. I think MH produce a prettier color.

LED lights dispersion will be an issue, mine is like a spot light and it's 6'' above water. But the light is as intense as any MH setup. I think LEDs are better in terms of power consumption/heat/size/looks. I am willing to bet that 400W of LED will produce the same par anywhere in the tank as 800W of MH/HQI

MH may require a chiller, the setup I had definitely needed one. Chillers are also very ugly, noisy, inefficient.
 
I've had 800W of metal halide on a 70 gallon to my current 54W LEDs on a 14 gallon. I feel that the light emitted from a MH have a broader spectrum for the same Kelvin rating. I think MH produce a prettier color.

LED lights dispersion will be an issue, mine is like a spot light and it's 6'' above water. But the light is as intense as any MH setup. I think LEDs are better in terms of power consumption/heat/size/looks. I am willing to bet that 400W of LED will produce the same par anywhere in the tank as 800W of MH/HQI

MH may require a chiller, the setup I had definitely needed one. Chillers are also very ugly, noisy, inefficient.
 
I currently run a DIY combo of both LED and T5. It really has a nice look to it. I wouldn't concern yourself with PAR numbers much with LED. It has been shown over and over that you can burn up most anything with the mainstream fixtures available today. Spectrum is what really comes into question with LED, they are getting better but I am sure we will continue to see advancements like with anything in this hobby. Good look, and good researching.
 
The only difference I have seen is color/ looks, the cheeper models of led definately do not give you the looks of MH
 
Using both is possible. On a 120 I go 1 hour halides,3 hours led, 1 hour halides, 3 hour leds, 1 hour halides. Mainly for heat plus cost. I think that the halides may make up for the spectrums that the leds may lack.
 
What does your hood look like? Do you have an led fixture or just strips of led? On my current fixture I supplemented the lack of blue with another add on strip of blues that I also use for lunar lighting
 
If your asking me, it's just a corallife pro type of fixture with power compacts gutted and leds/heatsinks put in that location. Old, even ugly, and a boat anchor blue wave magnetic ballast.
 
Currently on my 125 I have no canopy yet due to unsurenif I'm keeping it
 
cheezybuda said:
What is your budget? :)

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This question has been avoided throughout the thread, and is probably one of the most important questions! What kind of budget are you on for lighting your tank?

If your looking at a budget for Marineland, Coralife, or Aquatic Life LED's then your not even close to what you need for a quality LED fixture that will compare to MH's....

For a 125gal tank (assuming its 6' long) the cheapest LED's that you can purchase will cost you at least $1200++ Only other cheaper option than that would be DIY LED's but once you get to a controller, dimmable ballasts, etc. you will not save a whole lot of $$ even with DIY.
 
I used MH lights for a while and loved them! But for cost and heating issues I went with the "cheap" Chinese LED's and I'm very happy with the colors, shimmer, and the growth I have gotten from them. For a 125g you could spend as little as $600.00 for three 16" non controller but dimmable versions up to $1000.00 for three controllable versions. If you can jump in on a group buy you can get them even cheaper!

I have had a very good experience with mine and the best part is they work. One day I would love to "upgrade" to either AI or Vortech lights just for the cool tech features they offer but for now these are working out great for me.
 
So again I guess I will say where is the cost effectiveness at with going LED if its about to cost my mortage. For $1200 on lighting
 
I guess the primary driving factor for me was the heat MH caused not only in the tank but the house in general. I had a chiller though never got to hook it up before switching over to leds and I can just imagine the extra heat and cost it would have added. I was running 2 250w and 1 400w over my 165g. I was also running 2 150w and 4 t5's at 39w each over my frag tank! I went from nearly 1400w in lights to 560w of LED's. and after switching over to LED's my electric bill was 150.00 cheaper per month!

I figure in a little over 12 months the leds will have paid for themselves in electricity and bulb replacement cost!
 
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