Making Coral Colors Pop

I have 2 reefbreeders 16" controllable units over my 110G mixed reef. The guy I buy my coral off of uses T5 lighting and it seems as if the coral colors pop and are magnificent looking.

I get the coral, bring it home and it never looks like it did at his place. The color just isn't as good.

Is this due to LEDs? Are LEDs that much different then T5s?

Any recommendations to help me out?

 

I had the same issue and switched to halides, but it turns out that it was not because of my lighting. I was running an "Ultra-Low Nutrient System" (ULNS) that deprived my corals of organics that they required; not to mention I had issues from mass changes I made. I added a couple more fish and fed more to fix my issues and colors came back in 4 weeks.

One of my LFS has a massive SPS system with massive colonies that he frags every few weeks. His coral sales come directly from that tank and that tank only. It's plumbed into an even bigger frag tank where he grows out his frags for a month or so to let them fully encrust.

Both of those tanks are lit by Brideglux LEDs and have some of the best colors I have every seen. Now, he will tell me nothing matches the halides and T5s that he had (saves $600 a month on energy now with LEDs), but I can't tell the difference.

I guess my point is that the difference can simply be different tanks and or a sign of another issue on your end.

I hope that helps.