Thinking of upgrading to LEDs

[asylumdown]

Originally Posted by Aquattro

I think unless you can actually buy decent lights, you're better off replacing bulbs until you've got enough cash for decent lights. No point downgrading from a decent T5 setup, so as with everything in this hobby, do it right the first time or you lose more money than you can count!

+... 1 million.

I wouldn't trade a decent T5 fixture for that light. That would be OK as supplemental lighting to a metal halide setup, but based on those specs it would be totally inappropriate as your only light. Having only 450 and 470nm bulbs over your tank would make it look like you had a giant box of windex in your living room and I feel confident in saying that your corals would take a major hit in the growth department, if not stop growing/die completely. For an LED fixture to work as the only light source it needs white bulbs.

Once you go LED, I dare say you'll not go back, but only if you buy the right fixture. I still double think my lighting choice every time I see a healthy T5 tank because the SPS colours are so freaking good under them. I still haven't seen an LED tank that looks as incredible as a T5 tank in terms of coral colour (though some are getting close), so I wouldn't switch from them as a platform to LEDs unless I was getting the best there was. Whatever LEDs might lack compared to T5s in terms of coral colour (and at the high end of the market that's not much anymore) they more than make up for it in their other advantages, but if you went from T5 to an all blue supplemental fixture you'd be kicking yourself in a month.

It's better to either wait until you can afford better fixtures, or wait until what's considered 'cutting edge' today (which is very, very good) has come down in price.