please make suggestions on which way would be the best way to go on my lighting!!

What leds and how may of them did you have? did the have lenses on them? Also with the MH most people replace bulbs every year, but that depends on use time. MH are not very efficient at all! the better ones I have read about are as good as T5s at best, the few advantages of a MH that I know are high watt ability for a small area, signal point light source helps make the ripple effect, most of the other benefits (light penetration ect) are part of these two things if you ask me.

 

i had 2 panorama led fixtures bought off of petsolutions.com. ended up selling one for only 300 and the other is over my nano. on the other hand the lighting does look quite nice.

 

imo metal halides are still the brightest option of lighting that we have so far. but im sure led's, once given some time might be able to compare.

 

^ The lux of LEDs can greatly exceed that of LEDs already. My CREE LEDs are completely capable of bleaching most everything in my tank if I ran them at full power, something I could have never of accomplished with my old 250W MH setup.

http://www.3reef.com/forums/i-made/diy-dimmable-rapidled-kit-converting-mhs-96138.html