Back to T5's for this guy...

Rob&Gab · Mar 30, 2014

you dirty dirty boy! switched form LED to T5

so sad im gonna Cry .

No but thats good tho. Great that you Found a good light for a great price. ! post some After photos in a month to see a change or not. keep us posted bro. !

Rob&Gab · Mar 30, 2014

"cough cough" i think we are switched form LED to T5 for our new build anyways

shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh dont no yet/

skinz78 · Mar 30, 2014

Hahahaha will do!

Reefing Madness · Mar 30, 2014

I was never one for T5s, Halides or LEDs are the only ones that give the shimmer. Do you miss that now that your back to the T5s?

Mtnbikedan01 · Mar 30, 2014

I'm just went back to MH over my new huge clam, went from LED to 250w screw in and actually just bought a 400w HQI.

Acro · Mar 30, 2014

I love my LEDs, and the look that my corals get with them. Only think I wish I had was UV, but that will come when I decide to upgrade my logging again.

skinz78 · Mar 30, 2014

Reefing Madness said:
I was never one for T5s, Halides or LEDs are the only ones that give the shimmer. Do you miss that now that your back to the T5s?

Yeah a little but I'll get over it.

tweeter · Mar 30, 2014

I started my tank a year ago with leds, so I don't know anything about the t5's. My question is, I have a Sun Blaze T5 Fluorescent Grow Light that i have been using to grow my plants. It's a 4 bulb. Will it take the same t5 bulbs as the ati's and other lights? Would it work for my corals? I have a mixed reef, lps and sps. I am using kessils, which I like, but in the event that something goes wrong with them at some point, I need a light on hand as a back up, so that's why I was thingking of the t5's and having some good bulbs on hand for the corals.

Thanks, Lisa

skinz78 · Mar 30, 2014

I would think that it would work with the proper bulbs installed.

reefsandrotts · Mar 30, 2014

I got away from led as well, now have a 6x54 over my db 80 rimless like the colors so much more

Gundo · Mar 30, 2014

IMO, MH + T5 cannot be beat in terms of growth and coloration, yes it has some downside in comparison to LED's but the way the corals grow and color makes me overlook the negs.

NeverlosT · Mar 30, 2014

I used AI Vegas for a year, decent color, terrible growth. Turn em up would nuke some corals, turn em down and SPS wouldnt grow. I switched to an 8 bulb powermodule on my new build and the difference was night and day. Corals that had been sitting doing nothing or just encrusting for a year shot up arms within 3 weeks. Growth is easily twice what it once was.

I am a fan of some LED, but my biggest gripe was the shadowing. I had a green slimer that was bright green on the side facing the LEDs and completely brown on the otherside. With MH or T5 I never had so many issues with shadowing. Also some corals just never got their color. To this day I have only ever soon ONE Pink Lemonade Acro under LED that was colored correctly. All of the rest were green.

I think that you made a fine choice. At the moment I like LED for supplementing and MH/T5 for the real oomph.

Someday though, someday ill try LED again...

Polyp Addict · Mar 30, 2014

I first started with t5's, switched to kessils and regretted it after 6 months. Luckily I was able to find a decent t5 fixture in a trade, wont ever be going back to LED's.

Connie · Mar 30, 2014

I know what you mean about getting a decent shot. I can't take one either under my LED's. Everything is blue! No matter how many edits you do, you can't get rid of it either.

mike007 · Mar 30, 2014

I went from mh to leds and my tank has never looked better. My philosophy is you have to buy high quality leds to reap the benefit. My leds produce a light that is much like mh. Also I have monitored my electric bill and I am seeing a average of $30 a month savings.Currently I am using the Orphec pr156 pendants.

TJ's Reef · Mar 30, 2014

WOW! I could not even imagine going back to MH or T5's ever after my experience with LED'S. Though mine are DIY's and feel a better mix/blend of emitters than any commercial units available, IMHO gives better color and growth long term than any MH or T5 combo I've ever had over any of my many systems. Don't know how above poster would/could state the loss of PAR with LED's in a years time, this is a given with all other light sources except LED's, mine are virtually unchanged after 2.5 years. I do truly believe that most all issues relating to LED's are due to a lack of knowledge/understanding of their output and the incredible amount of misinformation on the subject including some in this thread. I'm not knocking MH or T5's in any way as really like aspects of both, just feel if done correctly LED's TRUMP both.
Anyhow I definitely need to stop by on one of my fishing trips out to the Peninsula bud.

Cheers, Todd

Connie · Mar 30, 2014

I started out with T-5's and changed to AI Vegas when I upgraded to my 180g. I don't think I could ever go back to T-5's. Every tank is different though.

Connie said:
I know what you mean about getting a decent shot. I can't take one either under my LED's. Everything is blue! No matter how many edits you do, you can't get rid of it either.

Rob&Gab · Mar 30, 2014

NeverlosT said:
To this day I have only ever soon ONE Pink Lemonade Acro under LED that was colored correctly. All of the rest were green.

I think that you made a fine choice. At the moment I like LED for supplementing and MH/T5 for the real oomph.

Someday though, someday ill try LED again...

it does have to do with the lighting. Yellow is one of the hardest colors to keep from shifting, essp on Wild and MAri Acros. Our Pink Lemonade Shifted, Then We bought a pink lemonade as a Green and Pink. so at the same time there both pretty. it mainly has to do with lights yes, But your water has to be on spot for yellows as well.!

Lonelyreef · Mar 30, 2014

The thing i think is misleading about leds is there coverage. Unless you have a ratherndeep tank or the lights suspended fairly high you wont get the same coverage as you would with t5 or mh leds are directional lighting while mh and t5 just go to the water and spread all over wjich is why people need 3 fixtures over a 4 ft tank to get good lighting. At the price for thos lights your savings over t5 or mh really wont start until about half of thw third year with electrcity savings and bulb replacement. At 4 years your leds wont be as strong and you will be upgrading within a year. Not to mention i haventn seen a tank that was lit for 4 years with leds only yet so time will tell

saltjunky · Mar 30, 2014

A buddy of mine had the problem with the color shift on corals was with mh them led back to mh the he opened his store wouth orphek leds and has no color shift and has alot of wild Aussie pieces in there and they look like the day they were cut just check them out cool light