To be honest I totally forgot about the ability to change the overall colour temp of the reef through dimming.

I suppose if you don't have dimming it's like buying say a phoenix 14k metal halide fixture and not being able to ever swap bulbs out.

That's exactly my point about dimming for color control... :)

It's sorta like getting married if we want to take it a step further. Hmmm...

Ok, firstly I apologize for my outburst. I do respect opinions. Thats why I asked.

I am most concerned with getting a quality fixture. To my eyes the whiter and brighter the tank the better. I really want SPS and LPS.

Like Mr. Wilson said. there are so many quality fixtures out there you cannot really go wrong. You said you wanted the most light aesthetically pleasing fixture. The orphek might do that for you, but if you do not like the color rendition then you just dropped tons of money on something your not going to be happy with. Depending on tank size AI's can get pricey, maxspect you can change each individual led until you are happy with it (plus the new G3 series is coming, so you might get a G2 model cheaper since dimming is not important to you).

or go the DIY route and save a bunch of money ( if you have a canopy)

It seems that a lot of ppl that go DIY choose higher quality components than are in many of the fixtures. Then source and ship a heatsink or two. My impression of DIY LED reminds me of building computers. People assume you spend less doing it but you usually build a sweet rig that costs more than a pre-built. Is this not true at all?

A year ago it was absolutely true that a DIY LED was better than an off the rack model. The aquarium lighting industry cannot turn on a dime; once a company has commited significant R&D money on a technology they can't drop it and change to the newest components. There are UL/CSA issues as well as the American patent and supply restraints. The current third generation LED cannot be emulated with a DIY project. Drivers are tuned to custom Phosphor coated high Kelvin chips and lenses are custom ground. Heatsinks are getting high tech and incorporate quieter fans. A year ago Cree or Luxeon LEDs were much brighter than the older outmoded Philips, but now you can get LEDs engineered for reef lighting rather than 6-7000k task lighting with some blues thrown in to drown them out.

Deciding on overall colour isn't as mysterious as some make it out to be. Just like MHL, you can have white, blue or half way between. You mentioned Phoenix 14000k bulbs, I would call them blue, as they are really 16000k compared to Ushio 14000k. You cannot make your lighting more blue or more white with dimming features. You cannot add, you can only subtract. This would be the same net effect as using a filter over a MHL light.

It sounds modular to be able to mix and match LEDs but to what end? Because of the limitations of product availability, drivers and optics, you are limited to colour changes only. Popping in one or two red or green LEDs will get you a few square inches of inappropriate light. It will not change what your corals get and will likely give you nuisance algae problems.

Most of the components and assembly of LED lighting is done in China and there is nothing we can do about that. What we can do is pick lighting products that are engineered for the aquarium industry and not a task light LED chip in a mass produced body with generic lenses, drivers and PCBs. This limits us to last years DIY technology.

Thank you Mr Wilson, very well said.

I ended up going with the Orphek PR-156 light for my aquarium. It was important to go with LED for the energy savings but I also wanted to make certain that I had a fixture that would stand the test of time. I think I went with the best choice. A lot of the decision was made on looking at the tanks posted on the net and seeing both lights in action. This pic shows what I am mainly talking about. I found it on a German forum. Didn't translate well but it's pretty self explanatory.
IMHO
1. There is a definite difference between the corals under the AI and the Orphek colorwise.
2. Stuff under Orphek has color and life, the AI stuff is dim and grayish/blue.
3. The AI lights appeared dim so I PM'd the owner and he told me that he had them at 100% and that's why he started looking, because he felt the AI were too dim. When he found Orphek he tried a few and has since switched entirely over.

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/...phekt4AI-2.jpg

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/...hekt4AI-11.jpg

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/...Orphekt4AI.jpg

I've never seen a more compelling product comparison pic the difference is unreal!