ChrisB

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LEDs are great especially for large tanks.. But they are better in color as far as I've seen against t5.. I have two 40 g t5 tanks, but my 7 ft tank is run by LEDs.. LEDs will achieve it soon enough.. If I had to compare color Saying t5s are a 10... LEDs would be an 8... I have aqua illuminations I couldn't be happier.. I hated mh.. I had it for 9 months... My LEDs wash out some corals but most look amazing!
But which would you say your corals thrive under, grow and color pop under. I notice all my blue sps does not do well or reds turn orange and yellows n grrens do well. I think my Sol blue will become a Mangrove light.
Gonna check out rapid led now. I might just go with t5s and see what comes out next year
 

mbg75

DIATOM MAGNET
Location
Mt Sinai, NY
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But which would you say your corals thrive under, grow and color pop under. I notice all my blue sps does not do well or reds turn orange and yellows n grrens do well. I think my Sol blue will become a Mangrove light.
Gonna check out rapid led now. I might just go with t5s and see what comes out next year

I run a 6x54 ATI over my 75 rimless and love it.
But it sounds like u don't have your AI's dialed in correctly.
Gary's reef runs AI's and looks great
 

tunicata

Tunicate Tamer
Location
Brooklyn, NY
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lol, yeah, that's why I said, "If I had enough"

Dace has a thread on here that shows what it does for his tank.

Pretty hot overall.

But that is a hefty price tag. I'd only pay for that kind of thing if I routinely had 2-3x that much as expendable cash.
 

mbg75

DIATOM MAGNET
Location
Mt Sinai, NY
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Man almost 1800 for the Ati t5/led fixture for my tank ugh.

Yup. That's a lot of money.
If you want set and forget, go t5. All you have to do is get the right bulb combo. Get a quality fixture the first time. Any ATI is fine. Dimmable is nice but not needed.

If you like to tinker with settings or don't want to change bulbs every 9 months. Go led.
 

B.BASH

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Location
S.I.
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the ongoing debate! in my experience leds do an excellent job satisfying corals needs for photosynthesis, however i have noticed the under side of my sps are not coloring up as well as the tops. I believe this is due to the very direct beam of light leds offer where t5s offer 360 degree of light. That being said there is no shimmer effect at all with t5s which for me is a must have in a reef tank. The only other way to get that is halides (i think they are dinosaurs) A combo of the two would be ideal if your budget allows an all in one fixture. Diy may be an option with leds in the center and a strip of t5 front and back. There are options if your a diy guy
 

NYreefNoob

Skimmer Freak
Location
poughquag, ny
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nothing gives off the appearence in color of the correct t5 light and bulb combo, ive ran mh, pc, t5, and led and several leds, several t5's and several mh, no other light enables you to run so many different spectrums as t5's, and i know yada yada there are alof of color leds, but unless your running them in almost the same amounts of all other leds you cant tell they are on, i personally think mh and vho give next best color and deffinately the best growth... i am running led now with warm white, cool white, royal bllue, blue, red and uv and i have good growth and color but do plan to add 2 t5's...... but more importantly then type or brand of lighting, nothing does more for growth and colors then proper maintanance and levels
 

B.BASH

Advanced Reefer
Location
S.I.
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mh and t5s are an excellent combo however energy costs and bulb replacement and added heat need to be considered adding all the variables led t5 combo is more cost effective in the long run
 

Nottick

Advanced Reefer
Location
Staten Island
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Check out the rapid LED onyx units. 279 if you don't want dimmable and use Cree chips ( except uv) which is a quality chip. They have a configuration that provides a spectrum which is comparable to similar fixtures near its price range ( no one else is as cheap as this )

My fixtures will be arriving next week as I have waited for the dimmable version. Once the units are over my system I plan on having A fellow reefer/blogger/photographer do a review of them.
 

Reefcowboy

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Location
Long Island
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I've seen so many of my reefer friends change lights, lose corals, break their heads trying to figure why those bleached, why those didnt...they spend lots of $, get tired and frustrated, grab their old T5 and go back to what they were doing before. God bless reefers that switched to Led and from the get go found themselves a system that worked and satisfied them. I'm not siding on Led or T5. T5 s are a safer fixture that have less risk of damaging or impacting negatively the corals, in case not dialed properly. LEDs have lots of +'s, and do well with reefers that are willing to risk for their benefits.
 

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