Considering switching to MH

Kevotron · #1 02-04-2010, 04:41 AM

Im im the midst of starting a 40G Breeder
and im debating whether to do T5 or LED as well
i checked the Maxspect g2-160W LED system and it looks great and price is great too..
only skeptical part is that is Made in China...
heres the link...
http://www.fish-street.com/maxspect_...ategory_id=118

kien · #2 02-04-2010, 06:27 AM

There are lots of great T5 tanks out there. Doug and Johns tank just to name a couple. They seem to be doing very well with T5s so I dunno. I'm actually going to try T5s over my shallow 104.72g tank because I'm a little curious too. I have never run T5s exclusivly before. My main 150 tank is a combo fixture 3x250 halides with T5s supplementing. I don't have any complaints about it. It is fairly high over my tank so no huge heat issues. I do love the halide shimmer though and would totally miss that. That alone is probably the only thing keeping halides over my tank :-)

lorenz0 · #3 02-04-2010, 12:30 PM

Its up in the air. I am getting a qoute on a set up today so it all matters on how much it will cost. So far Changing the skimmer showed huge improvement in my tank, and i really want to stay out of KZ products.

banditpowdercoat · #4 02-04-2010, 01:36 PM

I started with T5's and although I still like the color choices you get, and cooler temps. I don't think I could give up my MH's now. They add a shimmer, make the tank seem more alive it seems. WHat I want to do is Add T5's, or some blue LED's to the MH's.

doch · #5 02-04-2010, 02:17 PM

I had MH on my last tank, and ended up cooking it when I was out of town during a hot spell. Came back and all my corals were melted, and most fish and inverts were dead. I'm sticking with T5's... to be safe. From people that I've talked to, and setups that I've seen, you can grow pretty much anything under the right t5 set up anyways, so why pay the extra power and worry about the extra heat???

blueyota · #6 02-04-2010, 04:33 PM

I have MH on my tank and love it I did try t5 but cant get the bright color with just t5 imo i do have t5 supplement with my MH to give more color pop
but like stated in previous posts the shimmer alone is worth it

lorenz0 · #7 02-04-2010, 04:45 PM

thanks for the input guys. my biggest concern is heat in the summer as a chiller is a bit out of the budget. could running fans across the surface reduce heat from the lamps enought that i won't have to be worried about cooking my tank?

ponokareefer · #8 02-04-2010, 04:56 PM

I have MH over my 125 gallon, and if I had to do it all over again, I'd get a nice T5 fixture instead. The multitude of light combinations, and the lack of heat issues are 2 major items that swing my vote for T5's. I know the shimmer is "nice", but I have seen too many amazing T5 setups that I wouldn't think twice about it if I had to do it all over again. You can get a nice effect by placing a powerhead close to the surface creating waves and ripples in the water giving you a nice effect, even with T5's. I do this even with my MH's.