metal halide vs LED

[dmxy]

Just decided to planning a restart of my hobby after ~12 years break.
Back then Metal halide was the king for SPS and some LPS even with a nano setup while LED technology was rather immature.
I wish to ask how is LED right now? I know you can grow most plants with LED lights but can they support LPS and maybe some SPS? Or I should just play safe and get metal halide+cooler

Thank you very much

 

[bhodges82]

Led will grow anything very well. Most coral high end coral shop use led on their tanks. Things have changed a good bit while you were out.

 

[civics14]

My tank and a few of my friends that have SPS tanks are predominately lit by LEDs. I recently got the AquaticLife Hybrid to help fill in some shadowing though.

 

[bzb]

LED fixtures put out tremendous amounts of light. I left about the same time you did, and at that time, the LED stuff was used in the same way that T5s are now - supplemental.

You'll notice that most folks run WAY more blues than before. It makes corals that you'll remember as "brown and meh" are now "wow and expensive!"

Huge benefits of LED: power consumption and heat production - both are way lower.

 

[Reefried]

Go with LEDs for sure. I just got back to the hobby after a 10 year break also. The new LED lights can be programmed to your liking and have the timer integrated. I am thinking of adding a couple of T5s it is basically like the old school halide with VHO supplement. Your advantage is much less power consumption and no need to run a chiller due to much less heat. And the fixtures out now have just as much if not more par than the halides.

 

[FutureInterest]

I still believe that nothing actually grows SPS quite like a metal halide... However, for me its more about looks than growth anyways and as they mentioned above corals fluoresce much more under blue leds. So if you go with mh I think that's still a great option but replacing bulbs, heat, and power are concerns for most but not all.