sansouci01
Aquarium Advice FINatic
whats more important for coral growth...blue or white...or both
if you can go with LED (good ones not cheap ebay ones) your corals will grow like grass
+1 That's accurate. eBay is just one place, along with Amazon, craigslist and others where you can get a bargain. There is a vast amount of information on these threads about this topic. I think the synthesis has been that you don't have to spend big bucks on LED's to get ones that grow coral just fine. Even computer controlled dimmable panels are $300, or less now, when some are still selling for $750 a piece. In this technology, you don't always get what you paid for. A fancy case on the fixture or full color ads mean little. Ask forum members if what they have grows coral. The cheap Chinese panels are growing it just as well as expensive domestic fixture are.There's absolutely nothing wrong with the Taotronics or eBay equivalents.... though I highly recommend the dimmable models. The only specific models of LED's you need to steer clear of are the Marinelands.... they are OK for FOWLRS, but so are just about any other lights. The only thing you generally get from the really high dollar LED's is the capability to link the lights with a reef controller, allowing you the capability of slowly ramping up/down the intensity through the day & do things like replicating the moon cycle.
You can pay for fancy or simple, the coral doesn't care.