Oof. Point made, I have been thoroughly schooled haha
In hindsight I'll admit that I made this post while actively mad about the sticker shock from many of the better lights out there. I didn't conceive of it as the 'engine of the tank' but that's totally what it is. Thank you for helping me check myself before I wrecked myself lol!
Also you guys have made me realize that lights are far from among the very first pieces of equipment I need to get started from scratch. Im going to be cycling the rock etc for a couple of months before I even think about getting lights going - and will have plenty of time to save and hem and haw over what I actually want.
At this point, having read these replies and marathonning a bunch of reef tank youtube videos last night, I'm mainly still confused about one thing - I keep reading that MH lights are really the best thing for corals in reef tanks, period - the corals grow 2x as fast and are more colorful and healthy. People were saying that they switched from MH to LEDs and saw decreased color, decreased growth, decreased awesomeness generally. However, every youtube video i see of ridiculous, beautiful dream tanks full of diverse corals are using LED kessils on their own. No MH in sight.
Am I missing something? Is it just that LEDs are adequate to keep corals happy but they're just not the most turbo possible option? Or is it more a question of what the corals are acclimated to - I could see how switching over from one light to another after the corals had adapted to the first would cause some temporary negative effects. Maybe corals that have been grown under LEDs their whole lives do just as well as ones grown under MH their whole lives, as long as that's what they continue to get?
