Need to loose the M/H lights, help me pick.

[swill]

I'm old school, I've been in this hobby for 15 years and have had metal halides pretty much the whole time. I had no plans to ever change to LED's until a month ago when my chiller died. Now that the weather is getting warmer I have realized that I have 2 options, get a new chiller or upgrade my lights. The thought of spending hundreds of dollars on a new chiller seemed backwards to me so it's time to upgrade and step into the 20th century of the saltwater world.

I have an aquarium that is 32" deep by 45" long by 26" wide. It is a 190 gallon with the sump. We have SPS and LPS coral all throughout the tank. We are currently using Metal Halide (1 x 400 watt and 1 x 250 watt) and 2 VHO's. We are looking to upgrade to LED's and have no clue on what to get. Could someone tell me exactly what we can safely use in our system?

[Coral Hoarder]

Go with one of the ever grow fixtures

[Proteus]

T5

[Aquattro]

Replace the chiller.

[zv3n]

Originally Posted by Aquattro

Replace the chiller.

+1

[WarDog]

Sounds to me like you have a huge investment in LPS and SPS. I agree with Brad and zn3n, replace the chiller. If you are old school I think LED's would disappoint you and your SPS's.

[spit.fire]

Originally Posted by zv3n

+1

+3

imo your tank would do best wth mh due to the height of it

[xenon]

Originally Posted by Aquattro

Replace the chiller.

+1.

I have tried almost every brand of LED's and came to the conclusion that there is something missing in the spectrum that corals need to get optimal coloration.

We actually just downgraded from LED's to MH and it was the best move I ever made.

With that said, LPS seem to do just fine under LED. SPS, not so much.