Anyone using halides with led fixtures?

[Graffiti Spot]

So there at tons of t5 and led fixtures as we all know, but is anyone using led fixtures along with halides? I hooked one led fixture up on a friends tank and it grew coral lovely and provided the extra punch to make corals even more natural looking and extra long coloration on the branches. With the ati pm fixture being so popular why not more people experimenting with halide and led? I understand a halide lamp is all you need but so are t5’s yet the pm fixtures are sought after like no other and price is the only thing holding most of us back. I do get that the t5 blends much nicer with the led but I am only after coloration, growth and coral health, not really aesthetics.
I am going to try this out on my 100gal Rubbermaid rub with two lumen brute mini reflectors with raidums. I was using 400’s but am tired of changing bulbs twice a year and with the 250s I won’t have too. I will hang the halides about 12” off the water hopefully depending on what led fixtures I get. The only issue I have noticed on my buddies tank is getting the led to be noticeable with the halides, the halide lamps overpower the led just from an aesthetics point of view. I just don’t know what options are out there for led that are affordable and will work with what I am planning.
I am thinking of trying the Orphek strips but I really want to use fixtures instead. I like the small size of the micmol fixtures and they are cheap option. They also have the mini which is very small and has 20 bulbs on it and is 5.5” square, the 40 bulb version is only 7.8” square! I could use three of those around my lamps but I am not sure how they perform. I ordered one of the mini’s to play with and it will be here Monday with the new reflectors.
Is there anything else out there that is very compact in size but delivers 60-120 watts?
Also if you have a halide tank with a decent amount of leds also as your main light source please share some pics and your experience!

 

[Graffiti Spot]

This is particularly about coloring acropora but I guess maybe other coral keepers could be mixing up these two types of light. I would think the sps keepers would be it though, probably overkill otherwise.

 

[JoshH]

On my new build I was debating on doing MH with Orphek LED bars as well, following along!

 

[Graffiti Spot]

Yea the only problem is I would have to buy a ton of bars to get all the colors that a normal fixture has. I would need like 4 bars at Least and one white strip on one side might make the tank look difference from one half to the other.

 

[JoshH]

Could ask Orphek for a set of custom LED bars, they will do some LED mixing for you so you could get away with less bars overall.

 

[Graffiti Spot]

Also the strips I feel would not be as effective as fixtures. With the fixtures I could mount them angled to areas that corals need the light more where the halides light is not as strong. Like the ends of the tub especially.

 

[hyprc]

Pretty sure a huge chunk of @Battlecorals propagation systems are MH/LED alternating

 

[MTBake]

I use metal halide and a Kessil over my 40 breeder with good success. The halide didn't really cover end to end so it is over approximately 2 thirds of the tank, while the Kessil 360we lights the other third of the tank.

 

[Graffiti Spot]

Pretty sure a huge chunk of @Battlecorals propagation systems are MH/LED alternating

I use metal halide and a Kessil over my 40 breeder with good success. The halide didn't really cover end to end so it is over approximately 2 thirds of the tank, while the Kessil 360we lights the other third of the tank.

These are both just overlapping the two types of light. This does work well but it’s not really an addition to the halide lamp. I would be using the leds to cover parts of the tank with less par but it’s not low par areas at all, the two halides cover the Rubbermaid extremely well. I am just trying to keep a high par and varied good spectrum at every part of the tank and not just underneath each halide bulb. Mainly because I don’t view the tank anywhere but from the top and the corals will be very close to the glass unlike normal tanks where the corals mainly in the centers and away from the sides.
I am more so trying to see tanks that use the two types of light together blended into the tank uniformly as possible to color the corals across the tank with good strong light.

One light I do like a lot for this application is Kessils but they are way to expensive for this application. I would have to buy three to evenly blend everything.

 

[Graffiti Spot]

I have the feeling this will just float to the bottom in this forum. I posted it in the sps forum because there are still a lot of halide users that frequent just that forum.
I am still suprised no one has made halide reflectors with leds built in!

 

[Peace River]

I have the feeling this will just float to the bottom in this forum. I posted it in the sps forum because there are still a lot of halide users that frequent just that forum.
I am still suprised no one has made halide reflectors with leds built in!

@jda, @Bpb, @Elegance Coral - any thoughts on MH / LED fixtures?

 

[Bpb]

@jda, @Bpb, @Elegance Coral - any thoughts on MH / LED fixtures?

I run a MH/LED hybrid. It’s too strong to have them all running all day. My leds have to max at about 40% and I have to cut them off a few hours mid day for the corals to get a breather. It’s alot of light even at 12” off the water.

 

[Bpb]

I have the feeling this will just float to the bottom in this forum. I posted it in the sps forum because there are still a lot of halide users that frequent just that forum.
I am still suprised no one has made halide reflectors with leds built in!

Problem with this is heat kills LEDs. If you affix LEDs directly on a reflector that’s a tremendous amount of heat they’re being subject to beyond their own thermal generation. Makes it hard to cool them as well. Practicality aside....it’s not being done because the major led manufacturers just aren’t about halides. It’s dying tech they will tell you. Reefbrite offers something like what you’re suggesting. They offer mh pendants with xho blue led strips fixed to them. I did a poor mans version of that with coralvue lumen bright mini pendants and sb reef blue/violet led strips Mounted in the canopy. I’m getting roughly 1000 par at the surface 12” from the fixture and 300-400 through most the sandbed.

 

[Graffiti Spot]

bpd are you using all blue LEDs? I will probably have to slowly ramp the leds up of course but most of my coral is halfway down in the tank at most to leave room for growth upward. I am planning on using the same reflectors, what bulbs are you using? I wonder how much par I will be getting, seems each setup varies quite a bit and this will be my first time using these reflectors.
I get the dying tech thing and it’s nice reefbrite is doing the halide stuff now too.

 

[Bpb]

bpd are you using all blue LEDs? I will probably have to slowly ramp the leds up of course but most of my coral is halfway down in the tank at most to leave room for growth upward. I am planning on using the same reflectors, what bulbs are you using? I wonder how much par I will be getting, seems each setup varies quite a bit and this will be my first time using these reflectors.
I get the dying tech thing and it’s nice reefbrite is doing the halide stuff now too.

This was a par mapping I did when the bulbs were 3 months old, they’re 10 months now. Haven’t measured again

Lumen bright mini reflectors
2x250 watt Hamilton 14k mogul
2 m58 Hamilton ballasts
2 sb reef super actinic leds (mixture of 450/420nm diodes) run at 50%

Reference of points measured are the corals the numbers overlay

 

[Biglurr54]

I am running a 400w radium with some diy led bars that are rb violet and ultra violet. It works great. Great color and growth. I used stevesleds heat sinks. They are massive and passive. They are mounted to my Cayman sun reflector and they are warm to the touch at their hottest point. This light covers a 36x36 area and the tank is 31 inches deep.

The LEDs extend the day and allow for ramp up and down and actinic pop. I also run them as moon light for night viewing. I have the led build in my tank thread.

There's with the LEDs on.

Here's with LEDs and halide

 

[EW_Fish]

Here is a local build. (kinda old) and broken down now but it was MH LED

Build Thread - spspirates 150 gallon build

lookin good Water in 24hrs!!!

www.reef2reef.com

Build Thread - spspirates 150 gallon build

While your trying to extinguish the bryopsis issue I wouldn't try focusing on coloring up your SPS. If you have good illumination on your reef system and your colors are turned down than most likely it's a nutrient issue of some sort. Perhaps more nutrients but in your case that would be a...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[blasterman]

Using LEDs to augment halide actually makes more sense than T5 hybrids. LED strips are super efficient and are more flexible than tubes. They are just over priced for reefing.

 

[Katrina71]

I have the feeling this will just float to the bottom in this forum. I posted it in the sps forum because there are still a lot of halide users that frequent just that forum.
I am still suprised no one has made halide reflectors with leds built in!

I am too.

 

[Katrina71]

I am running a 400w radium with some diy led bars that are rb violet and ultra violet. It works great. Great color and growth. I used stevesleds heat sinks. They are massive and passive. They are mounted to my Cayman sun reflector and they are warm to the touch at their hottest point. This light covers a 36x36 area and the tank is 31 inches deep.

The LEDs extend the day and allow for ramp up and down and actinic pop. I also run them as moon light for night viewing. I have the led build in my tank thread.

There's with the LEDs on.

Here's with LEDs and halide

Do you mind sharing a pic of your lights? The setup I mean.