Planning my 36g Bowfront Planted Tank

[MrBeta]

Alright so I've been bitten by the planted tank bug and I want to turn my 36g bowfront into a fully planted tank. I currently have a large piece of driftwood spanning the entire tank and some fake fluorescent pink, yellow, and purple plastic plants (for my wife) and the substrate is a mixture of playsand and pool filter sand. Currently residing in the tank is an oscar (another wife choice) who is quickly outgrowing the tank so he might be up for adoption soon. I have a canister filter running the tank and the standard 17 or 18w 8000k single lamp lighting system.

Anyway I'm considering redoing the tank from scratch to use soil for the substrate, possibly keeping my driftwood, and restocking the tank as a community tank, and planting a different variety of medium light plants.

My primary concern is to get the lighting up to par (pun intended) and then focusing on the plants themselves. Eventually I'll do co2 but that's a bit out of the budget for now.
Should I go for t5ho fixtures or DIY a LED fixture. I've priced some of the t5ho fixtures and I can almost build a superior fixture for those prices. Or is LED even superior to t5ho? My tank dimensions: 30"L x 15"W x 21"H

I can probably sink $150 into the hardware at this moment, not including plants or fish and then expand from there.
Any input?

 

[MrBeta]

Bump? Perhaps my first post is too long?

 

[Flossie]

I don't know anything about planted tanks sorry wish I could help (

 

[Fdsh5]

If you are handy, go for the DIY led. As far as substrate, the only thing to really stay away from is large size gravel. Sand works fine. Keep us updated

 

[MrBeta]

Well I am handy with electronics and I've been researching LEDs and building a fixture but ultimately I want the best light between LEDs and t5ho.

Can anyone point me to an LED vs other lighting thread. I've read the T5 vs the other lighting thread but little is said about LEDs. Is it because they are still fairly new/expensive?

Thanks.