I know I've posted this a couple times, and why I would not call my observations definitive, they are based on actual usage for a pretty long length of time, with these being the major changes and other parameters/equipment being kept pretty consistent.
I used AI Sol Blues over SPS for about a year, followed by Radions for about a year, then went back to Radium 400 watt Halides. No question you get decent/good growth with LEDs, and Radions (especially Pros) are great over LPS/SPS. I have two Pros over my 100 gallon mixed cube, and would not change them for the world.
LEDs and SPS: I found that Seratioporas, Stylophoras and Pocilloporas did great colorwise under LEDs, as good as halides, IMO. But it was the other Acropora species that suffered colorwise somewhat under LEDs. It was not that they didn't have color, it was the intensity, as Grouper Therapy said. Some were brown under LEDs and didn't color up until I went back to halides. Some were a light blue and got a deep blue, some were pinkish and got a deep red after.
Lots of my SPS were kind of pastel like in their colors under LEDs, just somewhat faded looking. Not unattractive, but just kind of like "meh". The Radiums have made the colors of many much more intense, and some that were a dull green have turned sky blue, etc.
I think what motivated me to go back to Radiums were that I used Radiums first when I got into Reefing. I started with SPS and Radium 250 and 400 watt halides, and then a bit later started playing around with LEDs, and throughout my 2 year experience with the AIs and Radions, I had the color of my first reef as a reference, and the LEDs just never reproduced that with the majority of my SPS corals. I haven't changed much in my husbandry practices aver the years except my lighting. Tried a few different things short term, like algae scrubbers, fuges, sulfur denitrators, etc, but my way of maintaining chemistry, water change schedule, and the salt I use, for example, have been the same for about 6 years.
That is just my experience. Not right or wrong, but there is a 35 page thread on Reef Central basically saying the same type thing, so I do know my experience is not unique, and shared by many others.
One last thing, I have not read anywhere someone that used halides over an SPS reef for any decent length of time, and then started using LEDs, stating "my acroporas look better with LEDs compared to halides."
I think it is a tradeoff, depending on what advantages each lighting offers. If I wanted less electrical consumption, lower tank temps, and no chiller, then maybe LEDs would be more attractive, even if it meant not as intense color in a lot of my SPS.
But right now my priority is color and color intensity, and Halides give me more of that right now than LEDs do.
One thing I will also add is that anyone using LEDs needs to give them at least 6 months or so of use before they start making observations about them, IMO. I am still seeing color changes in my SPS after going back to Halides.
I have a frag of Reggie's (Reeferman) Sunset Milli he has pics of posted above I got from him at last year's Carolina Frag Swap, and heck, it has stayed green for the last year, part time under Radions, and the last 9 months or so under Radiums, and has only in the last couple weeks started showing the orange highlights you can see in it in the pics he just posted.
