Help with Lighting

Currently, I have a 120 gal display tank that's 24" deep. I am considering buying either a Marineland or AquaticLife 48" MH/T5 combo (I think around $800+) because I do not want to limit myself if I decide to go for those corals that require that kind of lighting.
What is the current status of LED's that are equal to these? Are the MH's still the way to go or are the LED's worth the cost right now and for the long run? Thank you 3Reefers for your input.

 

LED's have not grown corals succsesfully long term is what ive read, i still think MH is the way to go for me..I could of upgraded to LED a while ago but i chose to wait and did research on MH and i like them better.

 

Have fun!

SPS Growth with LED's

 

But ,one of my friend tell me that LED lighting is hot sale nowadays.
Further more ,It makes the coral living more better.
Cause the Bright blue and white light are full spectrum.
I wanna buy one for my new fish tank.

 

orphek supposedly makes leds that are comparable to 150w, 250w, and 400w metal halides..not sure how true that is, thats a hard thing to compare..

leds are gonna cost you alot of money to light that tank to keep clams and sps

 

unless i had a $1500ish laying around i would try leds..but if it were my tank i would buy the halide/t5 fixture..

you dont have to guess with halides, we know for a fact they grow coral long term

 

A high quality T5HO with 6 high quality 54W bulbs will do the just as well as MH with out the heat and will use less energy to do so.

 

I have the same tank and I went back and forth about lighting for a long time. My history had been t5 which I liked a lot because of the color variations I could create and low heat etc. I went to metal halide/t5 when I upgraded to the 120g mainly because of depth. I was told that t5's won't penetrate deep enough. I like the metal halide look and I've since disconnected the t5 supplements and replaced with LEDs. I think I like this combo a lot. Helps keep costs down without needing to replace t5's and use less electricity.

 

Thank you all for the help. Seems like there is still some question about LED's. Think I'm gonna go with the MH/T5 combo and possibly make the change to LED if/when they are around for awhile.

 

High quality T5HO with good ballasts and reflectors penetrate 6" deeper than 250W MH.