thoughs on mh vs led

Hey eveyone I'm looking to buy lights for my tank. Its a 300 gallon tank and curious on everyones thoughts on the Leds vs the mh pc style. My other question is what's the cost power wise difference on something like that thanks.

How's the growth difference

I'm in the same boat you are... I currently have metal halides over my 150g, but they're on the way out. I'm looking into an LED setup...so I decided to incorporate this as my graduate engineering project. I think there are plenty of "ok" options out there...and a few really good ones...but nothing that has convinced me yet.

In your case, metal halides may be the cheapest for such a large tank. However, you may have to run a chiller...which means LEDs may beat it out on price.

Here's a plot for the price break over my tank:



Edited by ReefdUp - June 10 2013 at 1:22pm

The other thing beyond price is color. I have yet to see a led thatakes the coral look as good as the mh /pc why is that

Exactly what Krazie said. My research project is comparing existing led fixture spectrums to those of what corals want...and existing metal halide fixtures. Most of the LED spectrums are just in the blue with a tiny bit elsewhere. Metal halides often have a nice spike in the reds as well.

Most of the high end LED pendants are catching on the the spectrum gaps and are adding the other colors. However, I stil believe that the LED manufacturers are struggling to come up with the exact spectrum that corals need. They are getting much closer and the best part is that with all of this new technology has also come some great information on what spectrums our corals actually use. There are tons of threads on LEDs and the colors to mix, etc. Your best bet may be to give Bill a call at Saltwater Paradise and talk to him about building some custom DIY's for you to add spetrum and still provide coverage. I just ordered my next set of colors from him and will be adding them in the next month or so.