led's or t5's

[bobby014]

I have a 29g oceanic bio cube. I would like to upgrade my lighting to either t5 or led's. I have done re-search on both. I'm just caught in the middle.

Some Questions i have:

Do led's give enough light for a mixed reef, If so what's the best kit to get, with out braking the bank.

T5....what's the best kit to get or the best way to diy.

I know everyone has there own opinion, I'm just looking for more ideas or suggestions.

Thank you for any and all comments.

[NDsuperduty]

I do not have have a reef tank but did a lot of ready lately about t5 and led lighting recently. The reviews for led lights on reef was very mixed, primarily based on the depth of your tank. The shallower the better results people had with led. Excluding DIY lights you will probably spend just as much money on an LED light as you would a reef capable T5 or possibly more, but long term it will save you a good amount of cash.

[Totenkampf]

the smallest T5HO available is 18" lamps, with the BC29 having a ~21" length you will need to check if these will even fit. My experience with these lamps are that they dont give off near as much PAR as the longer ones so you will need more lamps...maybe 4-6. they are also harder to find in a decent brand, i have only found aquaticlife and current usa brands to be worth anything.

That leaves you options to the fast-becoming-obsolete power compact, very hot HQI halide, or LEDs. If it were me doing this i would try out DIY LEDs. Reeftopia has recently switched out to all LEDS over his 10 foot long reef tanks and he loves the results.