I understand about the redundancy.. but you're going to see, the reality of it is that you're not going to be fiddling with your vortech(s) as often as you might think. They have a feed mode on the stock controller, which slows the pumps way down, and all wireless pumps go into feed mode as soon as its activated on just one pump. For LED lighting, You'd be surprised on the power cost. There's lots of variables that go into play, but once you start adding up watts for watts, you're going to see that the savings aren't as drastic as you'd expect. Yes, the lack of heat is nice--during the summer time. But, wait till winter time comes. Depending on where you place your tank and your climate, you may see your heaters come on a lot more often, negating any potential energy savings that you had previously gained. And, I don't change my T5 bulbs until approx. 18 months. Some of them are as old as 2 years, I try not to let them get that old, but sometimes I don't get to them as often as I should. Even with how long I run them, they grow coral just fine--maybe a little slower. As far as the 40's, that's probably a smart move. It's not only that you're going to be running them toned down, the flow pattern is considerably different. It's a lot wider. At least in my experience, I find that I can run my MP40's at a much higher setting, than an MP10 in a similar situation. IE: The MP10 can blow the tissue right off the coral, whereas the MP40 is considerably softer/wider. If you place your hand in front of each pump when it's running, you'll be able to understand. In one of my shallow tanks, I have 2 MP40's turned up to approx. 75%--in a tank that's only 36x24x12 tall. That same tank is running old whitebox MP40's that I bought about 4 years ago used, that were used for a couple years before that.. They're a little noisy, but I've never had an issue with them. I do zero maintenance on the wet/dry sides. To compare, my longest lasting Jebao pump has been about 18 months. The shortest, about 2. They've all required pretty regular cleanings as they all seemed to have experienced start-up issues. Eventually, they stopped spinning at all. Almost like the internal magnet demagnetized. It's not the impeller, or the power supplies either, as I've tried swapping brand new ones in from my large stock pile of Jebao pumps (I got in on one of the first group buys when they first came out). My experience is limited only to Jebao WP25, WP40, and DC12000 return pumps. Not sure about their newer pumps. The controls on the modern LED lights are nice.. being able to ramp up, control spectrum, change less bulbs, etc. But, from my experience, almost all lights will eventually have issues. Just like T5's and metal halides occasionally need bulbs and ballasts, LED's will get dimmer, pucks do go out, fans do stop working, drivers need to get changed out, firmware needs updating and can malfunction, etc. Granted you probably won't experience any issues for quite some time, that's not always the case and some particular brands have a better track record than others.. A more important question would be, what are you planning to put in the tank? In my opinion, if you're going to stick to softies and LPS, you'll probably be stoked with the LED's. That's what I keep in my led tanks, and everything does great, and has great color/growth. If you're going to eventually want a tank full of SPS, you may be dissapointed and have to eventually supplement your LED lighting. Not saying it can't be done, as there's plenty of people out there that have beautiful SPS tanks lit with LED's. You may find that there's just that one coral that you won't be able to keep alive, or colored up, that would otherwise do just fine in a tank with different lighting. I have multiple tanks lit by different lighting, that share the same water, in one system, and certain corals do night and day better in one tank vs another, with the lighting being the primary different variable. Perhaps I didn't acclimate them properly, or the placement was off, I don't know. At this point, it's much easier to just throw it in a tank and not worry about it dieing, or bleaching, or browning out. I've had way more consistent success sticking to tried and true lighting methods.. Just some more info to make your choices that much more confusing.. sorry! :wacko (2):
P.S. - I just realized this was in the Apex forum and I'm sorry to have taken your thread off-track by bringing up lighting. You can PM me if you have any questions on what I posted. You're welcome to come by in person and check out my tanks that are lit by different lighting.. LED vs MH vs T5. One thing for certain though, my APEX has been a great investment, and I'm not even using it any where near it's full potential.
