T5 vs LED vs MH lighting fixtures
- Thread starter studd muffin
- Start date
I'm a halide guy myself. I've used T5HO, T12VHO, metal halide, power compact and I still prefer mh over anything else. You will get more lumens per watt on mh over T5HO the spectrum is more rounded over florescent unless you are using multiply combination on bulbs. The only advantage to T5HO is the low heat output. I agree when LEDs come down in price they will be the way to go but for now buying an LED fixture would take you around 10 years to make up in energy savings.
To answer this question properly, I'll need to know what kind of tank you plan on setting up and the dimensions of the aquarium. For anything over 30" tall, I would only go with halide. For a reef tank that's under 30" I would go with led, it gives you the shimmering effect of halides without the heat issue associated with them. With different lens you can overlap different leds so you can get a blend of light. The initial cost of setup is quite high even if your doing a diy fixture, and hopefully your handy with a soldering iron because your going to be busy soldering the leads from all those leds to the drivers. For fish I would go with T5 and for plants I would go T5HO. You can suppliment all of these lights with moonlight leds. If your going from halide to led, you will see drop in your power bill, since you won't be running as many watts from the lights and your chiller won't be going into overdrive in the summers. The only thing holding back leds currently is the price, that's why you see so many nano tanks with led lighting. I used VHO's years ago but now that T5's are more plentiful in the all the Kelvin ratings there's never a need to go that route. Depending on what you are planning on setting up will determine what type of lighting is best for you. I think led is the future of lighting, especially with a computer running the setting and lighting effects.
