LED or Metal Halide

[Shiggknight]

This is not based on look or what your eyes can see except growth. Can you get better growth from a LED or Metal Halide?

I have no experience with the really expensive G5 xr30s. Or Halides. I’ve had T5s up until now.

thank you for your experience.

 

[polyppal]

Maybe halides grew better when LEDs were new and unrefined, but the spectrum blends are so advanced now that im sure LEDs have taken the crown.

If halides were still superior in 2021 the big coral companies (WWC, etc) would use them, but just about all of them use LEDs (mostly Ecotech)

 

[TLO45]

IMO hands down halides win!

 

[reefz]

I've had success with both. I use led on almost all my tanks. The customizable part of led gives it a huge advantage. Personally, I find more growth with led. But its your preference.

 

[X-37B]

Both do just fine.
Halides are my preference.
When I went from 8T5s to my halides growth went up noticably.
I have friends that run leds with quite amazing growth too.

 

[Kfactor]

My new build I’m going mh I like leds but the Simplicity of mh I don’t think cant be beat

 

[MONTANTK]

I’d say halides. Many stores use LEDs to continue to sell them and for energy savings. They will grow SPS well also. Can’t go wrong with either option

 

[Shiggknight]

Does anyone know the cost difference in Halides vs LED on the electric bill? I’m sure LEDs win but by how much would be interesting to know.

 

[stephj03]

What specifically do you want to grow and over what footprint at what depth?

 

[X-37B]

Well if you run 250 watts of halide or 250 watts of led, a watt is a watt same price.
You can get by with leds that have less wattage but are similar to MH strength.
My halides do not heat up my tank either.

 

[Shiggknight]

What specifically do you want to grow and over what footprint at what depth?

90g tank 48 x 18 x 25. Nothing but space for the SPS to grow no rock, tangs, wrasse that’s it.

 

[User1]

It is a preference, a personal thing. Anything else is just a recommendation. You can search the web and find a metric ton of successful tanks using both.

Go with what works for your design from installation to bio-type. Focus on installation, maintenance, buy in cost, yearly cost, and above all SPECTRUM (COLOR). Once you look at this and decide what you want then you can answer your question.

TL; DR - both will grow corals at a similar rate. One is not better than the other. We have moved on past this argument.

 

[polyppal]

Begun this lighting war has...

 

[stephj03]

90g tank 48 x 18 x 25. Nothing but space for the SPS to grow no rock, tangs, wrasse that’s it.

And when you say SPS are we talking slimers, Digis and stags or are you going to be more focused on more challenging Acros?

 

[Shiggknight]

More challenging collector pieces.

And when you say SPS are we talking slimers, Digis and stags or are you going to be more focused on more challenging Acros?

 

[kenchilada]

You can use either.

but halides are the best

 

[Shiggknight]

You can use either.

but halides are the best

So neither is significantly superior to the other in growth rate?

 

[X-37B]

You will get many different opinions here.
Bottom line is if you know how to properly maintain a stable system either lighting system will have very similar growth rates, imo.

 

[User1]

So neither is significantly superior to the other in growth rate?

It is a personal preference. If you want the best then use what Mother Nature gave you and go natural (SUN). That "IS" the only thing better than what we humans manufacture.

 

[stephj03]

So neither is significantly superior to the other in growth rate?

If your prepared to configure watt for watt probably...

I'll prob get some shade thrown at me for saying that but that has been my experience.

I didn't know any better than to trust all the hype threads when I set my 300 up. And I had no idea that most of the ppl posting on them weren't actually growing a lot of acro colonies (excluding staghorns and slimers)

My 5yr goal was to grow Turaki and Lokani into baseball sized colonies literally on the sand in both front corners of my tank bc that's what "Acro dominant" is to me.

Started out with the recomended config for 8ft only to find out it would cost me a fortune to add enough LED units to get any acro, anywhere in the tank to grow as well as they did for me in the past under 4 250w Radiums.

Id have to hit approx .85-.95W of LED to 1W of MH to be equivalent for my application. Hence my questions.