# Why do you use MH? And other lighting questions



## twobytwo (Oct 25, 2014)

I'm hung up on lighting. I have a choice with what I want to do right now on the tank I'm setting up and I'd appreciate some input from the forum...

For my 60" 120XH tank, it came with two 30" lighting fixtures which *each *consist of one 250w MH, four 24w T5HO and four blue double-LEDs.

What should I expect in terms of $ cost to run these 2 fixtures between electricity consumption and bulb replacements (both the T5Ho's and MH's) over - say, a year?

I went to the Big Als Scarborough superstore yesterday and spoke to a fellow who said they are basically going out of the MH business... not really carrying fixtures anymore and pointed to a fairly barren wall of only a handful of bulbs. So... why should I stick to the MH's? Why do you?

If I'm determined to switch over to LED only, and wanted something suitable for Corals - what would be the advantages/disadvantages? Some specific fixtures I'm looking at have reviews saying to use 2 units for corals - would buying 2 adequate lights like CurrentUSA Orbits (trying to budget at least a little) or work for me? I like the programmability right out of the box with ramping up, different weather modes, etc. Im also considering Maxspect Razor R420R (perhaps one [email protected]" or 2x [email protected]"). For the MH, I only have a basic timer for on/off which I'm not as excited about.

Is there a difference (generally) for LED's in output between using two 24-36" fixtures versus one 48-60"? If I could get the output to have corals with two 60" units across the tank, I may go that direction... Again depending on whether or not the investment in the lights is comparable to what I would spend in electricity and replacement bulbs for the MH/T5HO over 1, 2, 3 years or more.

So... pro's/cons of MH/T5HO vs LED systems currently available.


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