I don't know why I said aqua medic. I meant aquaticlife..... They're very similar in build quality to the offbrand. The reflectors would be the biggest difference. Even though these offbrand fixtures don't have parabolic.reflectors I have still not had a problem with coloring up acro in the sand at 16".
here's what I'm seeing more and more of with LED.... "I'm adding t5". Then why not just go with t5 to start with? If you want the blue LED color pop you can add a strip of LED for much less than starting with a LED fixture.
For me, its because T5s are expensive to replace. There are some really great T5 bulbs out there, but I don't want to ha e to spend $200 every 6 to 10 months to replace 8 of them. I'd rather buy an LED unit for my main light and add in supplemental T5s. Its not different from using them with metal halides. Its simply supplemental lighting.