Lights
 

I see a lot of people who went from Metal Halides to LED are now leaving the LEDs for T5 or T5 hybrid lighting.

I have been looking at LED lights for some time but seeing people leaving LEDs for T5s has me wondering are LEDs all they are cracked up to be? Or are people just wanting a change?

I started with T5's and really liked them but they cost more to run and you have to change the bulbs a lot and they are expensive (IMO) so I purchased LED's about 4 years ago and really like them.

Pros

Powerfull and will grow all coral
Cool to run, no extra heat
No changing bulbs for a long time (50,000 hours)
Cheaper to run
you can adjust the color to what you like (more blue, more white)

Cons

Sometimes too powerful for soft or LPS coral. I've have ricordia melt under them.

Uni directional light. SPS don't get any light under their branches and it causes shadowing underneath. They only get light from one direction. This is why a lot of people suplement their lighting with T5s.

Set up cost. If you go Radion or something like that they are expensive to start off with. I went Ebay black box so the set up was pretty cheap.



In the end I'll never go back, I like the LED lighting in my tank and have great success with the coral I have. I do think some of my coral would prefer a more reflective light but other than that...

The most common combo is led and t5 mix.

If you have a chiller and can afford bulb changes every 8-10 months then t5 are a great choice, but they put out a fair amount of heat so unless the fixture is well ventilated it will transfer some heat into the tank. LEDs are great for growing coral but sometimes can be expensive to start up, the up sides is virtually no heat and no bulb change. Downsides is leds don't have tons of spread and light is directional so lots of shading which is why people supplement with t5.

I run all 3 and couldn't be happier!

Any issues with fans burning out or losing a bank of lights as I've read many people with LEDs experience one or both issues with their LED lights

Fan no, light bulbs yes. I've had a few bulbs burn out but I just replaced them myself. You just need to know how to solder...

I've had my led fixtures for 4 years or so. No issues at all as of yet

I've been using vertex illumina for a couple years now. loooooove it.

I'm running radions supplemented with 1 t5 blue+ bulb on each side of my leds. Seems to bring out more color than just LEds alone and there's not rly much heat. I'm thinking of mybe adding 1 more t5 on each side. Dunno yet

are you running sundblasters? for the T5

Yes sun blasters.