The savings are not huge, you may save money in the long run but your payback period will be a few years or more depending on how you look at it. Typically you can use about half the power with LEDs and on a 100 gallon tank you'd probably save around 250W which if run 10 hours a day will save you around $60 a year depending on what you pay for electricity. Your basic LED retro kit will cost around $1200 for 100 gallons and your basic halide retro kit will cost around $600 (ballast, reflector, sockets and cords). Based on replacing bulbs every year and the additional electrical cost you'd be about even after about 3.5 years. So provided you plan on keeping your tank for more than 4 years it may be worth while from a savings point of view.
As for color, I don't think you get better results from LEDs but this tends more to be personal preference. I find that MH's have the potential for a more broad spectrum which gives a better balance for various coral colors. T5s are also really good for coral color for similar reasons and that you can mix and match various bulbs to meet your preference. I find that with only using white and blue LEDs the colors in many corals are not spectacular by any means, you could add other color LEDs for better results but preforming this experimentation isn't as easy as changing a T5 or MH bulbs.
Also pictures can be misleading, I can take a picture of any coral under any light and make it look way better than in person. Cameras can adjust color and light balance much better than our eyes.
|