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View Full Version : Who has switched from halide to t5


Aslmx
08/15/2015, 09:51 PM
I've always ran halides, Radiums to be exact. I'm thinking of trying t5 and want some feed back from people that's made the switch .
Was it a good change?
Do you save any money on power bill?
Do they throw coral as well as halides?
Would you switch back
.

shifty51008
08/15/2015, 09:57 PM
I started out running 2-250 watt MH and 2 110 watt VHO's and loved the look. switched to a 4 bulb icecap T5 setup and while I liked the look and it did grow corals great I missed the shimmer look so I switched back to the MH's.

1. good change minus the shimmer effect
2. it did save on the power bill but IMO not to a huge degree
3. grew corals just as good as my MH's
4. I switched back for shimmer

theatrus
08/15/2015, 10:34 PM
Switched from a 2x250+PC to a 6 bulb IceCap T5.

Grew corals fine, lots of color tweaking options, not much of a power dent.

Going to be swapping for an LED + 2 bulb T5 soon, bringing back the shimmer.

krzyphsygy
08/16/2015, 06:22 AM
Switched from 2x 250 watts to 6 x 80 watts t5s ATI fixture. Much improved IMO. much better light spread and growing sps out of the water. Lost the shimmer and that sucks. But growth cant be matched. Looking into supplement leds for shimmer.
Made the t5 switch 4 years ago and didn't look back. My chiller is in the closet and I like it that way. Electric bill did go down enough for me to see a difference.

Would not go back. Have 3 tanks now. 2 with ATI T5 and 1 with led. Led is being taken down soon and only t5s will rain.

I like halides, don't get me wrong. But I switched for all the yes's to the questions you asked.

d2mini
08/16/2015, 06:40 AM
Why not both?!
You get the best of both worlds and you can alter how long you run each, what spectrums you use, etc.
This is what I have always done, and most recently I added an actinic LED strip.
Use each type of lighting for its advantages and to overcome the disadvantages of the others. :)

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?p=23922343#post23922343