when you mentioned the word SPS you nailed it.

ATI all the way, T5 hands down for SPS colour. Everyone running this fixture only does bulb changes once a year.

LED is great for some applications … but not for SPS in my opinion. A lot of people will vote for LED because that's what they have, even with no knowledge of using T5 before. They just really like their LED's (LED Guys are a cult lol pushing their low energy kool-aid on the rest of us haha) and need to convince themselves they are the best lol … sorry LED guys.

But I can offer you experience from someone who started with LED on his SPS tank, and has now switched to an ATI Sunpower 8x54 and has noticed marvellous colour shifts and increased growth.

I actually used to be a halide guy, and shot down T5 (with no real experience other than what I read, due to these bulb changes) … but after having used this fixture, with this bulb combination I wouldn't change right now if you donated 4 Radions to me, or 4 Mitras.

And cost … meh, (8) 4 foot bulbs are $200 a year shipped to my door. (6) 3 foot bulbs is prob closer to $110 for you.

What is $110 a year in a reef tank … with what we spend on everything else

Cut 10 frags with your excess growth you wouldn't see with LED and offset the cost muahahaha

P.S … let the floodgates open for the flaming I'm about to take from the LED guys hahahaha

Ha ha, I was waiting for you to get in on it. :biggrin:

lol I wasn't going to bother … I thought "he knows where I stand" so I voted and kept my comments to myself … and then I kept reading haha

They are right about controllability though, the ATI runs two separate ballasts for all of its bulbs, so you get 2 bulbs on one ballast, and the rest of the bulbs on the other.

Sunrise and Sunset are pretty much obsolete. Dimming isn't an option unless you buy the dimmable sun power.

But in terms of colour … I had LED's … and once I found the spectrum I liked, I never changed it … not sure why anyone would.

T5's give you the same option … too blue, and one more purple+ and eliminated a Blue+ Too purple … do the opposite.

You can hit any colour spectrum you want with T-5 as well … because you can run whichever bulbs you want, you just can't change that colour spectrum with a controller on a whim like the LED guys can.