Metal Halide

I'd love to let you try out my old leds so you could sample them before you do the switch over to the new tank. I really think if you had hands on experience with leds for an extended period of time you'd fall in love. And that's just the cheap Chinese leds.
They really do work and the layout is better then you think. The added colors are to make the colors pop that normally don't because lights are so geared towards the blue/purple spectrum so adding in a couple reds and greens makes colors like pink, red, yellow and others show up better.
When your fixture is over powered and you never have the need to turn it all the way up why not add 4 out of 55 diodes to make things more visually appealing?
Imo I think adding a few extra 3500k diodes(because they have reds and greens in them) instead of pure reds and greens can get you the same results and they blend a lot better then have the red and green spots everyone hates so much. But then again, what do I know? Haha

the t5 in question has 12 bulbs, minimum of $150 up to $4050 to replace bulbs depending on the kind and color of bulbs you chose...
t5 is great as long as you dont mind paying for the power and bulbs to run it hell you can even run 90w vho t5 but again it will cost you.

my first led I built, and it worked great but without the other colors of led my corals suffered... they looked great still grew super fast but changed colors. I got the colors back when I switched to a multicolor led fixture.


as far as cost goes led is supposed to last 5 years, so even if it last 3 years
new fixture price
3 led= $450
3 mh light $450 + bulbs twice in 3 years add $150-$300 cant forget the t5 and cant forget the added $200+ each year
72" t5 $600-$800 + bulbs twice in 3 years add $150-$350 cant forget the power extra cost in power $150+ each year

The A350 is only $299? Idk if you like those but I think they're what scoobnoob uses? Could be wrong though

Can you explain your pricing a little bit better because you lost me. Does the fixture in question have 12 t-5s with 3 MHs? If so that is frickin crazy, On a 6 foot tank depending on the depth should have 3 MH and 6 T-5's.  Twelve T-5 lamps is a lot of space and spread I am assuming that you are using six of the Chinese fixtures to get close to the Lumens and Light spread let alone ULE ( surface penetration depth). Now putting apples and oranges aside on a tank of this size Mid line to high line LEDs many be the way to go on a tank of this size. Not initial cost wise longevity and the cost of re lamp.    

for a 6' t5 fixture they use 8 or 12, 34w bulbs. 360w of chinese fixtures verse 400w of t5, t5 dosnt have a chance and will cost you triple or more compared to the led over a 3 year time.

 How wide and deep of a tank are you talking? I have only seen 60" fixtures with 8 T-5 lamps which with reflectors gives you just shy of 18"


when you are talking led, led are color specific so you need to have multiple colors of led to fill in the gaps in the color spectrum compared to mh output. is all of this lite usable, no. but if we are talking usable light 1/2 the spectrum from mh is useless.

Your statement " usable light 1/2 the spectrum from mh is useless." is greatly incorrect.

 so why would mh be better than a light made from pure usable light? my experience over the past 5+ years using led, some of this useless light is necessary for healthy coral growth. even uv rays that hurt the coral make it stronger in the long run...

There is no such animal as a light made from Pure usable light, But can you give me an example of Absolute Pure usable light?
The LED's used in your Chinese fixtures emit little to no radiation. The Color spectrum falls into the
temperature of UV but it is not actually producing UV. VHO, HO, SO, MH and T-5 lamps do put out certain amounts of UV. I had a few of my crew who were sun burned by SO pen plex lamps when a temperature change occurred in the phosphor process.

having said this there is no way I would ever switch back to mh,t5,t12,pc or any of the high priced led that make your fish bang into rocks/walls....

Now with this being said you are absolutely happy with the LEDs you have over your tank again as everything in this hobby everybody has their likes and dislikes and things that work for them.

Cheap Chinese LED fixtures Vs. Expensive LED fixtures. Lets use another analogy to describe lighting lets say analog or digital, or better yet Mono and Stereo.  Chinese LED fixtures being Mono, power goes in cleaned and goes as an undefined sing wave and lights the LED's, it doesn't matter what the emitter needs it gets what the transformer gives it. Think of the high end fixtures as stereo or better yet Dolby Digital, The higher end fixtures use drivers to pulse and control the specific requirements of the emitters the final result of this is a fixture that is cooler, uses less energy, and produces more PUR light.  

Bottom line Do Cheap Chinese fixtures work? Yes we have seen them and they do. Higher end fixtures step up the good of the Chinese fixtures and greatly improves on them.

72" fixture with 10 bulbs, sale here on the site
mainefragswap.proboards.com/thread/2129/aquaticlife-fixture-bulbs-built-timer



btw- I have a 72"x24'x24 180g tank with 3x d120 led hanging 12" over the tank. I run blue 50-60% and white 30-40%
so 65w x3 I have 195w of light over my tank

I can grow sps about 36" under the light itself at 1/2 power, lets put 195w of t5,pc,mh... over a 180g nothing will compare... I doubt you could even grow shrooms...