How would you have any idea about most of this? You were not around. Don't feel like you should pay attention to people who were... the same people who have tanks that you will probably never have at their level. If you are still around in a decade, then you might have wandered into enough breath and depth of experience to look back on that post and know that it is purely bunk. This all reminds me of Robin Williams sitting by the lake explaining to Matt Damon about how he does not know crap about anything since he never experienced any of it and just read about it.
You are welcome to come over and take a look at what I have done in my own home. Then, if you can duplicate those same results with LEDs, then you will be THE FIRST ONE ON THE PLANET. If you want to tell me that you like other things about them and that you use them because of this, then fine (this is where Dr. Joshi and Mike Palletta's new tank are at)... but do not tell me that they produce nearly the same results with not noticeable side by side tests. You either are just being stubborn or are not paying attention - have you ever noticed how most of the BRS lighting videos start off with a statement along the lines of "if pure performance is what you are after, then Metal Halide cannot be beaten?" Dr. Joshi has acutely pointed out that he spends just as many watts on his panels than he did on his Metal Halide... no chiller now, but the heaters run more... electric is a total push. You are just seeing what you want to see.
Pay attention to Dana Riddle's talk at MACNA later this year. They are finally able to quantify quality as a component of lighting... and guess what... the people who always knew which ones were better are right. They did not need 50k worth of equipment to do this, they could tell based on their experience. I have only had a preview of what is to come, but it will pretty much sum up what the best already know. It might shock those who watch TV videos or believe what manufactures have written, but it shouldn't if those people were paying attention.
Any tank started with live rock a decade ago is better off in the first five years than any tank started with dry/dead rock today. This is hard to argue. Mike Palletta summed it up pretty well here and he has the experience to know. Most new hobbyists do not even last 5 years anymore whereas it was quite common back then.
https://reefbuilders.com/2017/07/08/revisiting-my-elos-tank-after-18-months/
I have no doubt that you think some of these things, but they are not right. You are not right. It is all out there in front of you to see if you want... but you have to want to. Life is all about the details and the bad asses get and understand the nuance that normal people cannot see. You can be better than normal if you choose to, but you are not there yet.
I do not consider you a biocube generation person... more of the BRS Generation. The Biocube generation is the first one where people started to choose convenience over husbandry... or themselves over the inhabitants.
Do not think that I am not acutely aware that the energy that it takes to power my reef can also damage them in nature. I am a responsible adult and spent a good amount of money of Solar panels for the reef and my hot tub - neither of these can be even close to excused as necessary. This cost a lot of money - more than what I spent on all of my college. It is important to me.
This is neither here nor there, but a response from Tom to these same type of thread a number of years ago. He thought that he had a wide breath and depth of experience. I made him so mad that he dug in and he truly started to see what I am saying. He set up his new tank with MH as the primary driver and had one of the best tanks around for a while. He did not like my classifcation of the BioCube generation either - he thought that I said BioCide, which is different. The only difference here is that Tom is not an entitled millennial, which I can presume is at root for some of this.
Yep - I think you have a great message and story and I am agreeing with your "analysis". I truly value your opinion and plan on listening to you more. After all, your posts annoyed me so bad on how you classify people that I actually got your message and what has got me looking in a different direction.