Metal Halides are the bomb

[RCS82]

I think some people just really like the blue ambience more and think that a whiter cast off the sand and surrounding walls is unappealing. But literally every coral in the tank looked better under 14k with no supplements than they do under 20k with blue led supplements (leds to boost the par a bit)

I think the best pics I ever see in relation to colors, both tank and coral colors, is from Aquavista 99. Amazing sps definitely but the colors with no tricks involved, amazes me.

 

[ScottR]

My buddy @ylreefer is running MH on his tank and it looks great. Got me thinking.

 

[Mellotang]

Bpb,

250 watt or 400?

 

[ylreefer]

My buddy @ylreefer is running MH on his tank and it looks great. Got me thinking.

Funny, when I first put the MH on the tank which is only 70w by the way, in addition to my 2 MAXSPECT R420R Led's it was sort of an experiment. I have to say I didn't really fancy the look at first. But after a week or so the natural reef look has definitely got me. I'd like to go 250w but after spending time making the hanging rack and the heat that the 70w produces I think it's just not going to happen. Instead I'll likely add 2 orphek OR2 sky blue LED bars just to make the corals pop a little more. At the moment it's a game of plug socket roulette .

 

[Bpb]

Bpb,

250 watt or 400?

250 watt. Hamilton bulbs
M58 ballasts
Coralvue lumen bright reflectors.

 

[MabuyaQ]

This video is in German but it shows the best reef (and lighted with halides) I know of. I was lucky enough to visit Manfred Trusheim once and see it in real live as well.

 

[Mellotang]

I used to be a fan of this bulb
Killer par
Pretty white
Needed blue supplementation

Supplementation

 

[Backreefing]

Here is a few interesting spectrum charts I went with 14000k . Check out how much blue is in 10000k , 20000k is kinda flat just one narrow peak in the blue. I got these charts from ushio web site. I always have been told that coral mostly need deep blue for growth. But the whiter bulbs clearly have more blu than 20000k .

 

[Bpb]

Right. Problem I was having was slower growth from over lighting. Even in the 2-3 months I’ve switched I’ve noticed much faster growth under more moderate par. I actually wish I had some magnetic 150 watt ballasts and I’d use 10,000k bulbs because frankly I like how they look more. And 150 watts would be more manageable par. I don’t need 600 par on the sandbed 36” away from the bulbs.

 

[Backreefing]

Most electronic ballasts are selectable wattage. Just grab a couple ceramic mounts from eBay or wherever. They are cheap .
thx everyone for replying.

 

[DesertReefT4r]

I have grown a lot of coral using MH lighting. Phoenix 14k is my perfered bulb but I have used 10k and 20k as well and in the end 20k was the look liked best. I was having issues getting good color for the longest time and seeing the post about color loss and the spectrum of the Ushio 20k bulb I think that answered a lot of questions for me. I feel like I had the best results with 14k bulbs it was just a bit too white for me. I have recently sold off my MH setup and change over to LED. I am seeing better color so far than I have in a long time and I like the control a quality LED fixture gives you.

 

[Mellotang]

What LED are you using and for how long Desertreef?

I’ve used LED in the past and had decent results

Just something about the ease of use and consistency with halide

I always felt that my SPS that were grown under LED were extra sensitive. If I made the slightest mistake in water quality things quickly spiraled outta control

With halide I think I could grow them in a 5 gallon bucket and an air stone. Obviously I’m not serious but corals seemed more resilient to me under halide

I got some insane color with mitras fixtures just really unstable corals

 

[Mellotang]

I’m ready to break out my 250 watt 65k iwasaki

 

[Dana Riddle]

Sorry to pop the bubble. Unless you can provide PPFD (PAR) numbers, the observations are meaningless.

 

[Bpb]

I have grown a lot of coral using MH lighting. Phoenix 14k is my perfered bulb but I have used 10k and 20k as well and in the end 20k was the look liked best. I was having issues getting good color for the longest time and seeing the post about color loss and the spectrum of the Ushio 20k bulb I think that answered a lot of questions for me. I feel like I had the best results with 14k bulbs it was just a bit too white for me. I have recently sold off my MH setup and change over to LED. I am seeing better color so far than I have in a long time and I like the control a quality LED fixture gives you.

You’re not wrong. The best colors I’ve seen are typically in led tanks. I know that other mh purists won’t agree. Just what my eyes judge. I just can’t get behind the cost of entry on quality led units. I won’t buy a used one because the condition cannot be verified. The whole “but they’ll pay themselves off” bit does nothing for me. I pay $100 a year in bulbs and the difference in electricity would be about $10 a month doing the math. It would take close to a decade to pay for itself if I switched. Just not in the kind of tax bracket I can drop $2500 for a mostly lateral move.

 

[greekspec2]

I used to be a fan of this bulb
Killer par
Pretty white
Needed blue supplementation

Supplementation

Aqualine,Ushio,Giesemann, AquaConnect,Arcadia ect are all mfg by BLV Germany till this day and which created the first 10k MH.

Sylvania/Osram had a really great 20k bulb no longer produced

 

[Mellotang]

What bubble?

 

[Mellotang]

Wow, I never knew the AB 10k was the same as all those others

Good to know

 

[Mellotang]

I think the AB had a lot of violet in the spectrum

Been a long time since I ran that bulb

 

[A. grandis]

Sorry to pop the bubble. Unless you can provide PPFD (PAR) numbers, the observations are meaningless.

Hi Dana, how're you? I have 2 legit questions:
1) What are the observations you are referring to?
2) Would PAR alone be sufficient to prove such observations in a meaningful way?
I just want to understand the whole picture. Sorry for my ignorance.
Aloha.