Anyone still use metal halide?

[Marktheshark83]

I'm building a 30gallon rimless aquarium and have looked at led lights and had no clue on what one I liked. If any maybe the kessil. After going to a fish store today and seeing corals under pretty much all the big name or popular led. I think I'm still a fan of the look with MH.

I had really good luck in the past with my nanocube with mh. I think I'm still going to use MH. Is halide a thing of the past now. Maybe I'm still just old-school

Anyone else use mh?

 

[SteveSTL]

I think it's personal thing. I had a Viper on my 27 and went to a Kessel and love it. (So if you want to buy a Viper cheap...) I think the only thing that's a thing of the past is PC and VHO

 

[BkReefBaby]

I use to have a Kessil 360we over my 40 nuvo it was a great light but I have a lot of corals that needed better coverage so i was going to switch to 2 360NE but that was too expensive so I switch to MH/T5 hybrid...now I have awesome coverage

 

[Jayrad]

It's not a thing of the past at all. Both will grow corals, but there is very little innovation in MH lighting and the potentially cheaper electric bills leads a lot of new aquarists to simply choose one of the exciting newer lights, which are probably going to be LED.

There are many threads about aquarists buying LEDs and then switching back to halides, simply for personal taste or they believe their corals grew faster/ looked better under MH or whatever.

I personally prefer the look of MH and use them on my tanks, but I also like the LEDs for the dimming and color control abilities. I use my halides as the 'high-noon' light and then use the LEDs sort of as effect lighting, to adjust the spectrum to be warmer and dim everything slowly towards sunset/sunrise.

Only issue I would say is that 30 gallons isn't a ton of water and you may run into issues with heat. I do not need a chiller on my tank, but your milage may vary. I would probably go with a smaller watt bulb if I wanted the look of MH on a smaller tank, just to try and mitigate heat issues. I would also use a decent fan for cooling.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

My 30 cube has a 150w MH right now. Love it. Old school cool.
Look out for the coralife 150 pendant. Round looks like anupsidewn wine glass. I swear it was made for a cube. Powerful enough for a 60 I'm sure. Handsome fixture too. Sorry don't have a pic on hand.
Smooth spread hardly a dip in intensity. Twice as bright as my rectangle because of the parabolic reflector.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

It's not a thing of the past at all. Both will grow corals, but there is very little innovation in MH lighting and the potentially cheaper electric bills leads a lot of new aquarists to simply choose one of the exciting newer lights, which are probably going to be LED.

There are many threads about aquarists buying LEDs and then switching back to halides, simply for personal taste or they believe their corals grew faster/ looked better under MH or whatever.

I personally prefer the look of MH and use them on my tanks, but I also like the LEDs for the dimming and color control abilities. I use my halides as the 'high-noon' light and then use the LEDs sort of as effect lighting, to adjust the spectrum to be warmer and dim everything slowly towards sunset/sunrise.

Only issue I would say is that 30 gallons isn't a ton of water and you may run into issues with heat. I do not need a chiller on my tank, but your milage may vary. I would probably go with a smaller watt bulb if I wanted the look of MH on a smaller tank, just to try and mitigate heat issues. I would also use a decent fan for cooling.

Agreed. Not much heat transfer here. I too have an led supplement. I'd like a kessel to strap to the unit.

 

[AllSignsPointToFish]

I love metal halide. I used to have two 175W Ushio 10000K lamps on my 90 gallon tank. That said, heat management was always an issue in the south (along with already high summer electric bills). I went to Kessil A360WEs for my new tank, but time will tell if I get similar success out of them. Most LPS and Zoas seem to like them, but I've had a hard time with Euphyllia. I don't have much SPS with the exception of those that came on my aquacultured live rock, but the SPS (Oculina robusta and Porites) seem to be doing okay. I came across two nice Montipora frags yesterday, so we'll see how they do under LED.

 

[Marktheshark83]

Awesome glad to see others still use them. Any suggestions for my jbj 30g rimless?

 

[AllSignsPointToFish]

Awesome glad to see others still use them. Any suggestions for my jbj 30g rimless?

Don't know anything about them now...LOL. I know the old school rule of thumb was 4-5W/gallon, so you'll be looking at a 150W fixture. If you're handy, you can DIY for pretty minimal bucks.

 

[hybridazn]

When I first set up my 180 I had 2x 400w halides and 1x 250w halide over it. I then took those down and ran 3x ecotech radions for a couple years. I then switched back to 3x 250w radiums and will never look back. Love the look and growth I get from my halides. I supplement them with a reefbrite xho blue led strip

 

[AllSignsPointToFish]

Keep in mind that you lose the ability to dim (unless the technology has changed since I last used them).

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

This one. Coralife. 150w. It has a yo yo to adjust the light for acclimation.
Look at the why I love Mh thread here.
And get a lux meter for checking intensity. 15 dollar light meter. I'm running 35000 lux on the tank with a 20k radium. Got the lamp for 20. There are dim able ballasts mine is not.