Metal Halide 250W bulb for $14?
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4FordFamily
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If it's anything like hid systems (high intensity discharge) and it is, then they're relatively cheap to produce when you can tAke advantage of economies of scale, produce overseas, and eliminate any product testing/quality control.
I used to install these systems aftermarket and buy them for years and offer them as a package and initially (10 years ago) 500-800 was a fair price. Now, a cheap kit (90% identical in every way to the 200 dollar kits) can be had for < $25.
Quality control was a large expense, and the fail rate was relatively low. So to drive costs lower they eliminated it for many entry level product offerings.
The technology is largely the same as metal halide. Metal halide has been used commercially much longer, however.
The reason hid lighting didn't take off in this hobby is two gold primarily,
1) the light distribution is less focused with HID (scattered) and requires different reflectors, so why would someone develop this when a largely identical (for most intents and purposes) alternative is available,
And 2) color temperature is less controllable with HID, primarily because of its distribution. The added work of properly marking and sending lights that were made the exact same way (hard to do outside of individual batches because they are produced with slightly different specs each time because this apparently brings costs down somehow I would guess). As is still the case, 8000k, 10000k, and 12000k bulbs can produce different color temperatures between manufacturers, and even batches within the same manufacture! To add to the complexity, for some reason the "ballasts" can change the color temperature emitted as well.. So replace one ballast with another one from a different supplier or perhaps even batch, and your lights don't match!
Even more problematic is that for the auto market they will ship you a different color temperature based on availability. For instance, you order 6000k (natural day light white) and they ship 8000k (very blue) because they're out of 6000k because most customers don't know the difference or wouldn't care as much.
Consumers in this hobby would have zero tolerance for ordering a 14000k system that produces 10000k light.
I used to install these systems aftermarket and buy them for years and offer them as a package and initially (10 years ago) 500-800 was a fair price. Now, a cheap kit (90% identical in every way to the 200 dollar kits) can be had for < $25.
Quality control was a large expense, and the fail rate was relatively low. So to drive costs lower they eliminated it for many entry level product offerings.
The technology is largely the same as metal halide. Metal halide has been used commercially much longer, however.
The reason hid lighting didn't take off in this hobby is two gold primarily,
1) the light distribution is less focused with HID (scattered) and requires different reflectors, so why would someone develop this when a largely identical (for most intents and purposes) alternative is available,
And 2) color temperature is less controllable with HID, primarily because of its distribution. The added work of properly marking and sending lights that were made the exact same way (hard to do outside of individual batches because they are produced with slightly different specs each time because this apparently brings costs down somehow I would guess). As is still the case, 8000k, 10000k, and 12000k bulbs can produce different color temperatures between manufacturers, and even batches within the same manufacture! To add to the complexity, for some reason the "ballasts" can change the color temperature emitted as well.. So replace one ballast with another one from a different supplier or perhaps even batch, and your lights don't match!
Even more problematic is that for the auto market they will ship you a different color temperature based on availability. For instance, you order 6000k (natural day light white) and they ship 8000k (very blue) because they're out of 6000k because most customers don't know the difference or wouldn't care as much.
Consumers in this hobby would have zero tolerance for ordering a 14000k system that produces 10000k light.
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4FordFamily
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I might add though, that this is a VERY good lighting technology to use in reef tanks if you can diy a reflector for your spread needs and can secure the correct color temperature you want. 25 bucks per kit plus retrofitting materials (and 12 volt to home 110 conversion) and you're good to go!
Anyone interested in suggestions on choosing successfully let me know I'm Happy to help. I've bought a lot of kits over the years from several suppliers.
Anyone interested in suggestions on choosing successfully let me know I'm Happy to help. I've bought a lot of kits over the years from several suppliers.
afamousjohnson
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Maybe a lot like the aquatrader bulbs - you can get those for like $9 each when you buy 4. They work and I grow lots of corals with them but overall opinion is they suck but well worth the $ so at the low value they are awesome.
Their spectrums vary from what ive found. Say you get to 20k 1 might be more purple and 1 might be more blue. Also found certain fixtures they run finicky in
Their spectrums vary from what ive found. Say you get to 20k 1 might be more purple and 1 might be more blue. Also found certain fixtures they run finicky in
4FordFamily
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Sounds just like hid I described above
hybridazn
Acro killer.....
I ran plusrite bulbs years back and they will of course grow coral. But they color shift quickly and will need swapped out every 3 months or so from my experience. If you dont you will get nuisance algae like crazy and coral color fades.
4FordFamily
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That's one thing I will say about HID that is different. I have not noticed any discernible color shifting, even after 5+ years of use.
