Back to halides?

[bobby.w.hodges]

I currently have led and T5 on my display tank, but I've heard some good things about how halides grow coral and how crisp they look. I think I'm going to replace my radions with halides, I want to have all three types of light like @Coral Euphoria does. I would like to hear from reefers that have tried other light sources and went back to the halides, is it really that much better? How's your color? I'd love to see some photos

 

[ycnibrc]

I currently have led and T5 on my display tank, but I've heard some good things about how halides grow coral and how crisp they look. I think I'm going to replace my radions with halides, I want to have all three types of light like @Coral Euphoria does. I would like to hear from reefers that have tried other light sources and went back to the halides, is it really that much better? How's your color? I'd love to see some photos

Halide to me still the best light for Sps. Beside par the spectrum of halide bulb fit best for Sps. My tank start out with halide then the Corals grow too fast so I switch to orphek

 

[Abhishek]

Will a video do ? However , like leds and T5s - lots of opinions around ballasts , bulbs and reflectors .
The video is with Giessemann mega chrome 400 at 17K and to me it’s the best followed by Ushio 400 and XM 10K ..

I always say that in my eyes - radium 250 even on magnetic and 400 were the most overrated

Geissemann 400


XM 10K - 2x250

 

[bobby.w.hodges]

Will a video do ? However , like leds and T5s - lots of opinions around ballasts , bulbs and reflectors .
The video is with Giessemann mega chrome 400 at 17K and to me it’s the best followed by Ushio 400 and XM 10K ..

I always say that in my eyes - radium 250 even on magnetic and 400 were the most overrated

Geissemann 400


XM 10K - 2x250

Wow, so much color pop without the blue haze of leds. Thanks for the visual.

 

[Vette67]

I have been using halides for over 20 years. And I’ll never go to anything else, unless the EPA bans halide bulbs or something like that. In the center of my tank is a 4 year or acro that I grew from a 1.5 inch plug and is now the size of a volleyball. So no denying the growth rate. Have you considered color spectrum? I was using 10,000K bulbs the whole time but I switched to 14.000K a few months ago. I didn’t like the color at first, but I love the bluer color now and will stick with 14,000K. Here’s my tank under the 14,000K lights. I have a 175 watt on either side and a 250 watt in the middle.

 

[newjack]

I also believe halide is the best light source for growing sps. But, for color and pop you won’t beat LED. Like it or not, the hobby and lighting venders are all moving toward LED. Halide will soon be so hard to find like VHO T12’s. Enjoy them while you can, eventually reefers will have to move on.

 

[stephj03]

I use to use MH and T5 supplement. When I got back in I started with 4 Radion G4 pros. Amazing color, but I could tell I couldn't grow any acro anywhere in my 300g tank. After 6mo I realized I needed 2x as many Radions to do this.

So I went to 4 Orphek Atlantik V4.2 mounted parallel to the tank. Superb colors and much better spread, but I still had a strip across my sandbed with significant par drop off as per the Apex PMK.

After 9 more mo I spent a Saturday shining up my old 22" lumen max 3 reflectors. I added 2 of them to my tank each with an Orphek (perpendicular to the tank) on either side. Boy what a difference. Better spread, growth, faster acclimation. Not a big jump in heat on my system due to how it was designed and local climate.

Corals seemed much less sensitive to any mistakes I made vs before, but color pop was definitely the trade off for me.

On a big tank like mine, I would never go back to just LED or even a hybrid fixture where the T5 are just supplementing the LED.

The downside is mostly visual for me. LEDs look sleek and blend well asthetically while almost any MH reflector worth using is a giant hunk of metal oragami. I tried to mut mine by painting them to match the brown accent wall behind the tank.

I would actually suggest that you buy some used MH gear and run them with Radions first. LED marketing has done such a good job of trashing MH that you can easily get a Radion's worth of MH for less than $100 including a bulb with several mo of life left in it. But keep in mind, reflector is key with MH.

 

[stephj03]

I am sticking with MH/LED hybrid for the long term to get max growth on my acros again while still being able to dial in as much color pop as I want.

And perhaps more importantly, I want to avoid feeling like my acros are looking for reasons to get ticked off at me which was my experience with LED alone. I think a lot of ppl that have only run LED or LED with T5 supplement don't realize exactly how much more finicky acros are when lit by mostly LED. Going T5/MH dominant is such a stabilizing force on an acropora ecosystem.

 

[blasterman]

You can match any spectrum that MH provides with LED. You cant do the opposite. Halides have far narrower spectral lines than LED and the unique look of halides has more to do with the abrupt harsh cutoff of halides in regards to spectral bands. Want to see the spectral graphs for proof?

Halides throw a lot of energy in a very small footprint which along with the harsh spectral lines gives them a unique look. The multiple facets of halide reflectors also has unique optical characteristics. To get close with LED its pretty much Kessil, and even kessil has limits matching the energy density of a 400watt halide.

Halides also dont have software updates and carnival ride emulation modes which is a distinct advantage over LED. No ramp up or down times either so we dont need to worry about the emotional well being of corals or whatever snowflake nonsense is being peddled this month.

I ran 14k and 20k halides for years and loved them. Always wanted to build a modular halide fixture using HQI bulbs with adjustable reflectors for coverage and dimmable ballasts. The problem though is halides get more efficient with size.

As much as I prefer halides a light year over T5 or PC the flexibility of LED wins out. I'm also mature enough and smart enough to realize most faults attributed to lighting arent lighting, and the best looking SPS tanks I've seem are a100% LED.

 

[SeaDweller]

I know @Coral Euphoria personally and have seen his tanks many times. The one that pulls and displays the best colors, IMO, is his halide tank; and when the MH are off and it’s LED only? Dayum that’s a spectacle to be seen. A real treat for the eyes.

I contemplated ditching my LEDs for MH after wanting the colors and growth he has, but then COVID happened, so you know.

 

[Graffiti Spot]

A lot of people I have talked to went back to halides because leds would not bring out certain hues in some of the more difficult to color acropora. Personally I have ran all three lights over one tank and it was great but I will stick with halides and leds for looks. Also I don’t feel like any of the features leds provide are of any importance and halides bring out such rich bright real color. Leds seem to just reflect a lot of Color and bring out too much of a wierd purple color when I used them. I won’t use them over my acros unless something greatly changes in the way the fixtures are made and arranged. Philips new light is intriguing but not enough for me to fish out money for one.

Ycnibrc, your the first I have heard say they switched to led to slow growth.

 

[Whasmack]

I just switched out my 8 bulb ATI t5’s for 250w radiums on M80’s with Orphek OR2 blue light bars after watching coral euphorias video. We will see what happens!

 

[Graffiti Spot]

I am using two 400w ushio 14k in the round mini reflectors with electronic ballasts along with four or2 bars. Probably my favorite setup although I would rather the or2 bars have some white in two of the strips. I tried the daylight but the layout was bright on the ends and looked horrible.

 

[Charlie’s Frags]

Will a video do ? However , like leds and T5s - lots of opinions around ballasts , bulbs and reflectors .
The video is with Giessemann mega chrome 400 at 17K and to me it’s the best followed by Ushio 400 and XM 10K ..

I always say that in my eyes - radium 250 even on magnetic and 400 were the most overrated

Geissemann 400


XM 10K - 2x250

Awesome tank and video. Did you film that with a filter?

 

[wjgeese]

I go with all three lighting options over my 54"x36"x19" tank: 6 x hydra26, 6 x 48" t5, 4 x 150W DE MH 10K

I love it when all are on as it very closely mimics a reef at 15 ft at high noon, and also love it in the eve when just led are on for the pop....

 

[Abhishek]

Awesome tank and video. Did you film that with a filter?

Thanks and No - straight up . Benefits of yellowish daylight spectrum

 

[JCOLE]

I have contemplated switching back to Halides for a long time. I have a SPS dominate tank running on 2 80w B+ bulbs and 4 black boxes with upgraded LEDs for a better spectrum. I am running at 100% peak and getting good growth and great color. I just don't feel they are growing as fast as they could be with Halides.

Only issue I have is if I switched to halides then I worry about PAR. With my LEDs I can turn them down if I feel they are too much. I worry the PAR might be too much with Halides.

 

[Abhishek]

@JCOLE - well you can raise them but honestly with my limited experience of around 15 years with halides , it’s a non issue unlike leds .

I used to run 2x250 watts XM 10K bulbs over a small 70 gallon tank and PAR was around 400-450 at the bottom and 600 at the top .

Similarly I have run 1 400 watt Giessemann and the reeflux 10Ks and Ushio 14K too and never had issues .
Honestly PAR used to range anywhere from 250-600 depending on what bulbs I used but acros never seemed to have issues ... they will adjust with time ..

Of course if going halide route , radium is my last choice but that’s just personal taste

 

[SeaDweller]

Here is a shot I took in 11/19 that showcases what his Radiums can do and then with some LEDs, things just pop like your mom’s bad back.

that’s BRC WD dead center and JF HW to the upper right.

 

[SeaDweller]

Halide to me still the best light for Sps. Beside par the spectrum of halide bulb fit best for Sps. My tank start out with halide then the Corals grow too fast so I switch to orphek

So...You paid more money for lighting to slow down growth, instead of fragging And selling?

What the... Anthony?!