Ya, I'm still sitting on the fence with LEDs at the moment because I think there's plenty of room for better pricing & as lastlight mentioned, development of brighter, more efficient LEDs is a race that's far from over. Even with what's out there currently, between manufactured fixtures & the DIY crowd, there are so many variables that you are going to find it just as difficult to document what's happening as you are understanding what's going on in the first place. Not everyone runs the same type of marine system, FOWLR, LPS dominant, SPS dominant and on and on, so I'm afraid it really is up to the individual to do the research and decide whether there's a ready made fixture out there to suit their needs or whether a DIY build is a better choice.
The biggest difference I find with LEDs over MH or T5s for example is the fact that you can customize the colour to a much finer degree since many LEDs are required to provide the same spread as the other lighting technologies. Most serious manufacturers of LED fixtures already give you options as to colour combos. Then there is the choice of optics which is also a game changer as far as focusing the light. Dimming is possible with much greater flexibility due to the ability to fade in & out the different colours. Powerful LED lights with Crees that replace normal household bulbs are starting to show up more commonly on lighting department shelves. Building a LED fixture for your system is already as easy as using an array of PAR 38 (parabolic) spotlights with normal household bulb holders. No soldering, just replace the defective spotlight like any common bulb. Pretty sure these are also available in dimmable versions.
... and to throw a curve in here on the LED thread, have you researched Plasma lighting for aquariums? Seems to have been a blip on the radar recently, but a search will likely still yield some strong proponents of that technology.
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