Are MH lights going extinct?

[Abhishek]

Realistically yes they are dying. I can't remember the exact numbers but Ryan at BRS said the sales of MH are tiny. Sure a few love them, but with how the aquatic life led t5 combo is taking off I suspect there will be more combo lights like this that really push mh away except in very deep and large tanks and who know if that will be enough to keep mh alive.

Ok here are my reasons for running halides :-

1. It is of no doubt that leds can grow acroporas . People like Adam @Battlecorals , Dr. Sanjay Joshi and Mike Paletta have grown them under leds into huge colonies. These people have enormous experience that has helped them to overcome spectrum issues with leds. I do not have that experience and hence would rather rely on proven old technology of Radium and Ushios and simple on/off to help me succeed at keeping acros.

2. Yes, market share has gone down for halides. You dont get Aquaconnect, XM, Reeflux 12k 400 watt bulbs any more but you still get new Radiums, Ushios, Hamiltons , geissmann and some reeflux. You have amazing reflectors from hamilton and Lumenbrights . You have luxcore and magnetic ballasts from hamilton which would run your bulbs just as good as PFO used to for the most part . As stated above, if you talk to hamilton or other halide manufacturer - there is a ressurgence of halide users in the past couple of years. Its wrong to say that halide is going away for they are coming back with full force !

3. I live in minnesota where its cold for 7+ months of the year . I have the option of running 800 watts of heater or 500 watts of halide and I would take halide any day . Sure it gets hot in summer but nothing that a room ac and a couple of fans that cannot handle. Heater failures are still one of teh weakest spots in technology of reef keeping and I would like to keep that at a minimum .

4. With the money I have to spend on leds, I would rather concentrate my time and effort and money on buying new equipment that would keep my system stable like kH controller , Dastaco calcium reactor .. the less I have to worry about fiddling with lights, the more effort I can spend in doing water change , testing and keeping my water stable and invariable I will be successful in keeping acros.
If nothing, I would spend the extra money on buying amazing acros available these days . Who doesn't want to buy more corals and fishes ..

5. Nothing and i mean nothing even comes close to the shimmer from a halide . this is not debatable topic but a fact .

6. On top of everything, I love looking at a white tank where the acros show their truer colors and not blue tank that from leds where everything is fluroscent . Difficult to achieve the same looks of running XM 10k with T5s or vhos with anything on the market.

I think these are enough reasons to keep me with halides for a long time to come .


Regards,
Abhishek

 

[Jamie7907]

Kessil shimmer more than a halide. And to hear Jason Fox say it most of these acros come from blue light not white. That said some corals look good in one light or the other but usually not both. For my halides I prefer 14k and I go for what appears to be the same color temperature on my t5 tank and many sps like pm and Oregon Tort look amazing. Much better than in a blue tank but for my lps tank with chalices and torches mh and t5 aren’t even in the ball game. Each light has its own application where it will shine depending on the corals being grown. Mh isn’t the holy grail of light and never was and I’d venture to say that most people run it in combination with something else, vho, t5 or led because mh just doesn’t provide a look on its own that most people like imho

 

[hart24601]

Ok here are my reasons for running halides :-

1. It is of no doubt that leds can grow acroporas . People like Adam @Battlecorals , Dr. Sanjay Joshi and Mike Paletta have grown them under leds into huge colonies. These people have enormous experience that has helped them to overcome spectrum issues with leds. I do not have that experience and hence would rather rely on proven old technology of Radium and Ushios and simple on/off to help me succeed at keeping acros.

2. Yes, market share has gone down for halides. You dont get Aquaconnect, XM, Reeflux 12k 400 watt bulbs any more but you still get new Radiums, Ushios, Hamiltons , geissmann and some reeflux. You have amazing reflectors from hamilton and Lumenbrights . You have luxcore and magnetic ballasts from hamilton which would run your bulbs just as good as PFO used to for the most part . As stated above, if you talk to hamilton or other halide manufacturer - there is a ressurgence of halide users in the past couple of years. Its wrong to say that halide is going away for they are coming back with full force !

3. I live in minnesota where its cold for 7+ months of the year . I have the option of running 800 watts of heater or 500 watts of halide and I would take halide any day . Sure it gets hot in summer but nothing that a room ac and a couple of fans that cannot handle. Heater failures are still one of teh weakest spots in technology of reef keeping and I would like to keep that at a minimum .

4. With the money I have to spend on leds, I would rather concentrate my time and effort and money on buying new equipment that would keep my system stable like kH controller , Dastaco calcium reactor .. the less I have to worry about fiddling with lights, the more effort I can spend in doing water change , testing and keeping my water stable and invariable I will be successful in keeping acros.
If nothing, I would spend the extra money on buying amazing acros available these days . Who doesn't want to buy more corals and fishes ..

5. Nothing and i mean nothing even comes close to the shimmer from a halide . this is not debatable topic but a fact .

6. On top of everything, I love looking at a white tank where the acros show their truer colors and not blue tank that from leds where everything is fluroscent . Difficult to achieve the same looks of running XM 10k with T5s or vhos with anything on the market.

I think these are enough reasons to keep me with halides for a long time to come .


Regards,
Abhishek

My comments were in no way a criticism of halides. I think the more options we have the better and people should run whatever they like. I personally don't like them but I do love they are on the market. I think there might be some misinformation in your post, but I am not here to debate those points.

I was just stating why I feel they are dying. I forgot the exact numbers from BRS but as other technology gets better and we have more led hybrid combos I have a hard time thinking halides will upswing in sales enough to save them 10 years down the road from now.

 

[Abhishek]

My comments were in no way a criticism of halides. I think the more options we have the better and people should run whatever they like. I personally don't like them but I do love they are on the market. I think there might be some misinformation in your post, but I am not here to debate those points.

I was just stating why I feel they are dying. I forgot the exact numbers from BRS but as other technology gets better and we have more led hybrid combos I have a hard time thinking halides will upswing in sales enough to save them 10 years down the road from now.

10 years is a long time ! In 10 years I shall have more experience and perhaps the technology will be so advanced that I can easily switch over . But not now !!!
If it comes to that there are no more halides, will have no option but to switch.
I hardly doubt that though.
But for now or the next year or so, halides remain and so does me using it .

Regards,
Abhishek

 

[DSC reef]

Kessil shimmer more than a halide. And to hear Jason Fox say it most of these acros come from blue light not white. That said some corals look good in one light or the other but usually not both. For my halides I prefer 14k and I go for what appears to be the same color temperature on my t5 tank and many sps like pm and Oregon Tort look amazing. Much better than in a blue tank but for my lps tank with chalices and torches mh and t5 aren’t even in the ball game. Each light has its own application where it will shine depending on the corals being grown. Mh isn’t the holy grail of light and never was and I’d venture to say that most people run it in combination with something else, vho, t5 or led because mh just doesn’t provide a look on its own that most people like imho

It's not about how much shimmer, it's how it shimmers. If people like the look then who cares? You don't have to run them just like I don't have to run leds. People complain when a halide guy talks down leds and the same goes here. People like what they like and halides are proven and to some people it is the holy grail. Halides alone look amazing so your assumption there is false but your entitled to your opinion. I think radions look horrible but if I ever thought about leds I'd run kessils with T5. So if people run leds with T5 then I guess the same can be said that leds don't look good enough alone with your logic? This debate is so worn out but halides are proven and have been proven and to knock anyone with what light they use is ridiculous IMO. Just the same if someone knocks an led guy for wanting his tank to look really blue.

 

[Abhishek]

In support of the looks of acros under just halides, if you guys ever get a chance to see Tim @aquavista99 acros, have a look at his thread.
It will easily knock the socks off of what colors he can pull under just 14K ushio bulbs .

@aquavista99 - Sorry to drag you mate but just wanted people to see what only halides can pull through.

Regards,
Abhishek

 

[hart24601]

10 years is a long time ! In 10 years I shall have more experience and perhaps the technology will be so advanced that I can easily switch over . But not now !!!
If it comes to that there are no more halides, will have no option but to switch.
I hardly doubt that though.
But for now or the next year or so, halides remain and so does me using it .

Regards,
Abhishek

Sweet, enjoy!

 

[biecacka]

Well I guess having a college degree and thinking I was semi intelligent was all wrong!!!!!!!! Apparently I am utterly ignorant...even though I thought using a single 400 watt bulb to light my needed area was smarter than buying multiple LED units. By raising my bulb higher off the water I can light a 36/36 area and achieve plenty of par. I bought a used reflector for 25$, used ballast for 75$, and a new bulb on clearnence from a store going out of business for 40$. So for 140$ I light my cube. Due to the layout I wasn't sure I could get leds for that cheap to cover that area. I ran 4 rapidled lights in the past and it wasn't enough for my tank. Now I am aware at some time when corals grow, I might need to add another halide or look at options. But I genuinely thought for 140$ I was making the right choice, but clearly I made the wrong one. Solely due to ignorance....@Dom274. At least I Dom was kind enough to tell me a few days before Black Friday so I can score some great sales to replace my 140$ lighting debacle that shows my ignorance to all those across the thread!

Corey

 

[ca1ore]

this is not debatable topic but a fact

I was with you right up to this point LOL. Of course its debatable ....... these kinds of rigid statements are always ill conceived. Used DE HQI for years, now use Kessil LED (among others). Shimmer is just as good, maybe better. Is it EXACTLY the same, maybe not; but not all MH shimmers the same either. Frankly, any adequately intense, point source light will shimmer with surface agitation. It's neither a pro nor a con.

I think these lighting debates are increasingly pointless. If you like MH, and it works for you then use it. If it doesn't, don't. I'd bet there are very few folks here that were running MH before I was, and who ran it as long. But I switched and have been quite satisfied.

 

[turfster26]

Adapt and move on, after I switched to LED and never look back and I love it.

Give us a FTS to prove your success with LEDs

 

[turfster26]

Lol, this all sounds like Stockholm Syndrome to me. I don't understand why anyone would be proud to be "Old School" - That doesn't imply your are experienced, it says that your are being intentionally ignorant. If I was out of the hobby for 3 years, I would be more disappointed if things didn't change. 3 years and nobody tried to improve their products? 3 years and no technological advancement? Anyway, maybe you should give some quality LEDs a shot is all I'm saying. MH are nice, I've used them before - But if you can get a similar result in addition to reducing heat and electricity - Is that MH "shimmer" really worth it?

Let's see a FTS of your setup and success before you call someone ignorant. I actually commend him for looking into the "best options" for his new setup, regardless of age of technology.

FWIW

 

[Yuki Rihwa]

Give us a FTS to prove your success with LEDs

I'm keep clams so here FTS and only running at 60%. So enough said?

If these Kessil can keep my clams alive then don't you think it's strong enough to keep any corals out there alive and healthy lol!

 

[DeniseAndy]

Why is this such a hot topic for people? If you like MH and it works for your system or like LEDs since that is what works for you use it. Calling people ignorant for using one or the other is just not called for.

Beautiful clams. How long have you had them? I miss my clams so much. I have one now, but I wish I could put more in my large system. Puffer likes them too much.

 

[Yuki Rihwa]

Why is this such a hot topic for people? If you like MH and it works for your system or like LEDs since that is what works for you use it. Calling people ignorant for using one or the other is just not called for.

Beautiful clams. How long have you had them? I miss my clams so much. I have one now, but I wish I could put more in my large system. Puffer likes them too much.

Thanks. I have them for few months under Kessils.

 

[mtraylor]

Same with local fish stores here as well. Heck I couldn't even give away my old MH fixture.

 

[120reefkeeper]

Same with local fish stores here as well. Heck I couldn't even give away my old MH fixture.

I'll take it [emoji12]

 

[DSC reef]

Same with local fish stores here as well. Heck I couldn't even give away my old MH fixture.

I'll take it too!

 

[hart24601]

It's also amazing to me how passionate some people are about lighting types. Hey that's cool, but dang! Almost like someone talked smack about their kid!

I have never loved some lighting types, but I am in the hobby of reef keeping. I will happily take whatever light type I can get, and if something isn't available anymore... Ok. I will make a great system with any lighting type. I am thrilled we have so many viable options.

 

[DSC reef]

I like options as well. I currently use halides but I like the look of kessils mixed with T5. Hydras look nice but I'm not a fan of radions. To me the hydras looked better blended. I believe people are passionate about there lighting and it's a good thing, we all work very hard with our tanks. It's when others start to tell another that there lighting is not as good as there's and the big debate begins. Halide guys do it to led guys and vice versa on other threads. I believe one should enjoy looking at there tank without someone saying your electric bill is higher than mine or your spectrum will never equal this halide bulb. In the end were all trying to achieve the same goal, grow colorful corals and how we do that is the fun part.

 

[MTBake]

I still have two Lumen Arc mini stealth fixtures that I used to run years ago. I'll never get rid of them and really look forward to getting a tank large enough to use them again.