Advice needed:

I'm in the process of helping my parents set up a new 6 footer tank. Most of the build up has been decided. Its going to be a reef tank with this stocking list: http://www.3reef.com/forums/tropical-fish/advice-stocking-list-92456.html
--> There may be a few changes but the core is the same. Obviously some corals will get nipped at, but the parents are willing to risk it.

The problem i'm currently having is choosing an appropriate lighting set up. I've done a little bit of research, but it is doing my head in and so here i am asking for advice.

The choices at the moment is whether we go for a t5 set up or a newer style LED set up. MH's have been ruled out becasue they simply get too hot.

The main criteria is something that will both last long term, support decent coral growth without too much effort/maintenance. The budget is not a huge factor but ideally less than $1500 AUD which could be about 1200-1300 USD.

I've used t5's before and they seem to work ok, the only problem is you don't always seem to get enough light and bulb changes every 6-8mths get tiresome and expensive.

As far as i'm aware LEDS give of significantly more light and bulbs last significantly longer. Apart from being a relatively new concept I'm not aware of any downsides ?

My question is, what would you get given the criteria and what benefits/downsides have I overlooked ?

Any constructive comments are welcome and of course K+ for helpful posts.

PS: expect a build log soon!

 

LEDs can be hard to find within the budget listed is probably the downside. They last 50000 hours with minimal light production dropoff and spectrum drift. T5HO are good for 12 months without a lot of shift on the blues and 18 months on the daylights. There have been no long term studies that I can find on the newest LEDs for there effectiveness. I have heard the previous generation the corals tended to suffer after about a year or two.

 

T5s will probably be the way to go. I'm not sure how you measured light production, but T5s are stronger then MHs, they just don't penetrate as deeply. They also run cooler and are not that expensive. Make sure to get good reflectors and you'll be fine.

LEDs are good, but very expensive and new. LEDs don't necessarily give off more light too. It all depends on many factors. You mentioned you want as little maintenance as possible, well I would stay away from LEDs until a few generations into it to make sure you don't invest that amount of money and end up needing to fix/repair it soon.

 

thanks for the advice...
I'm still very unsure, i guess i've just gotta do some reading... I've still got 2-3 weeks to make a decision