T5 or LED Lighting

[mtraylor]

Well it depends on what kind of corals you plan on growing. Plan your lighting from there (PAR). If you plan on having SPS, then you will want to step up your lighting choices. If you plan on having a few zoo's say for example and some low to med light corals you will be ok with either of your choices. Personally I would stay away from the MH/T5/LED debate. All of the lighting choices will work and you will find amazing corals from each type of lighting. There are plenty of examples on the forum.

That being said. Some of the considerations you may want to ponder on when making a lighting choice is the following.
1. Is electrical cost a factor?
2. Is upkeep of fixture a factor?
3. Is maintenance (bulb changes) an issue?
4. Do you like the aesthetics of light?
5. Does the lighting choice allow you to upgrade in the future?
6. Do you want to control spectrum of light, luner moon features, etc on the fly.
7. Do you prefer a plug and play light?
8. Is heat from fixture an issue for you?

These are a few things I would review before making your choice.

Hope this helps.

 

[Gil03]

T5's and will leave this pic right here for evidence. Yes there is a replace cost but I don't care. Like the ease and simplicity of them.

I understand the appeal to some about T5's but do you not believe there are equally healthy and nice tanks utilizing LED's? I'm sure your tank would look and do just as good under led's is my point. Very nice tank btw!

 

[Gil03]

The nicer end T5 setups utilize multiple different bulbs resulting in having to replace multiples which to me is not something I find ideal especially if you're doing it every 6 months it can become quite costly. Some will argue that they grow certain corals better but there are so many variables that I'm just not sure you can definitively assert that their better at all vs LED's. IMO there's more pros to led's than there are with T5's, the controllability alone to me is a big thing and not having to replace the bulbs is another big one. Nowaday's with the evolution of led's IMO there's simply no reason to go with anything else when factoring energy consumption/maintenance/controllability/heat distribution among other things, and yes they do grow corals very well however, i'd do your homework on the cheaper led fixtures before buying....just my opinion.

 

[shorty2545]

Both. T5's for growth leds for color

 

[warby]

both. I was just running leds but found I was having issues with corals being shaded in certain areas so I added 4xt5s and the difference was like night and day. I'd never go back to just led now. I was sceptical at first just how much difference it would make.

 

[Bronx19]

T5 is a clear winner if you're into SPS. It doesn't matter how much money you spend with LED, its still a bunch of point source lights that wont hit the undersides of your frags.

Together with the astronomical upfront cost of brand name LEDs and the multiples of them required to cover any area larger than 2ft, T5 is the best bang for buck. But the bulb replacements and energy consumption you say? I did those calcs before I made the decision to invest in T5. For the price of two (2) Radions I would require to get coverage, I can purchase a ATI 6 bulb fixture and replace bulbs every year for almost ten (9.9) years before breaking even. The energy consumption savings often touted by LED manufacturers is overblown, the annual dollar savings are so small its hardly worth writing it on the packet.

There is however one aspect that LED will trump T5 in, controllability. If you want weather effects and fade in/outs, you'll need LED. For me, two (2) bulbs coming on followed by four (4) half an hour later it all the ramping I need.