Modern lighting confusion... Sigh

[jda]

I would not dim a MH bulb. That can jack with the spectrum. Just turn mine off and on with a light timer. The Coralife one that I remember did not dim like LEDs can, but rather just under or over drove the bulb with a knob on the ballast - this would not work for daily dimming.

If you can live without the thunderstorms, black-lights and changing colors on your Android while laying back on your couch and just have fantastic, best-of-breed corals and performance, then this might be a good idea.

 

[xCry0x]

Interesting you go so long on the MH - I'll need to try to dig up the article.

I run t5s and have been replacing the bulbs every 6-7 months at about $120 a go to replace them all. I ran LEDs for years and like the output of the t5s more -- but the bulb cost adds up quick.

I have a cheapo actinic LED bar that I use for sunrise/sunset + 6x T5s and it all works great.

 

[jda]

BRS has a current video where they show that after an initial dropoff, ATI bulbs stay stead up to 12 months. They are waiting for more time to go by and then they are going to test them again. Their hypothesis is that you can probably use them for 24 months. I get that ATI wants to sell more bulbs, but I have never bought into the 9 month thing that they suggest.

When I use T5s, I rely the most on GE 6500K bulbs - these are like $4-6 bucks a bulb. Then, I replace the actinic rarely since they are just for looks and the daylight is doing all of the heavy lifting. I would always make room for a GE 6500K in any T5 setup that I ran.

 

[xCry0x]

Wow - thanks. I will check out the video and the bulb.

I am running 6 ATI bulbs something like 1 Aquablue 4 blue plus and 1 purple plus IIRC. Changing them every 12-24 months would be a dream.

I don't have a PAR meter so I just went with what I read all over which was 6-8 months before they start to crap out. I rotate and do 3 at a time so at any given time 3 are newer 3 are older.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

If you’re handy with electronics , B.B. are easy and cheap, you can controll them with a Blue Fish controller. You can likely make a Hybrid Led MH too.

I’d also Highly suggest talking to Bill at Reefledlights. He’s an old school MH guy. His kits are inexpensive. You could easily go full led or MH Hybred.

https://reefledlights.com/

 

[KJAG]

I would not dim a MH bulb. That can jack with the spectrum. Just turn mine off and on with a light timer. The Coralife one that I remember did not dim like LEDs can, but rather just under or over drove the bulb with a knob on the ballast - this would not work for daily dimming.

If you can live without the thunderstorms, black-lights and changing colors on your Android while laying back on your couch and just have fantastic, best-of-breed corals and performance, then this might be a good idea.

Can you explain what you mean by “jack with the spectrum?” Are you referring to the real-time spectral change isolated to the dimming function,
or claiming some sort of permanent detriment to the bulb’s spectrum.

 

[jda]

Temporary with the acute lower wattage. You can see all of the color shifting that they go through when they start up and are getting warm. You can also see this when you use higher powered ballasts to drive bulbs - the color shifts along with the output. I do not think that it would be permanent, but I also do not know.

 

[KJAG]

Temporary with the acute lower wattage. You can see all of the color shifting that they go through when they start up and are getting warm. You can also see this when you use higher powered ballasts to drive bulbs - the color shifts along with the output. I do not think that it would be permanent, but I also do not know.

Gotcha. Yes this is true. I have dimmable ballasts with also an overdrive option and the spectrum does indeed fluctuate from more actinic to less.

 

[zuri]

I'm curious I've read alot of tanks that run MH have to run a chiller is this true and how much would a good chiller cost to keep his tank cool?

 

[jda]

Fans keep mine plenty cool. The heat is legit, but it is not really an unmanageable issue unless you live in a desert or in the hottest parts of Florida. In the summer, I have a fan that blows across the top of the tank as soon as the MH come on and this will keep the tank from moving a degree. If you wait until the tank heats up (temp controller), then you are already behind and then you can get a bit of temp swing.

I live in Colorado now and heat is a blessing here and I only really need fans about 6 weeks, or maybe 8. Before this, I live in the midwest with 100 degree, 100 percent humidity summers and the fans were enough there too. I do have a chiller and it only ever ran when I had a kiddie pool outside to grow coral - the sun is REALLY hot - and even when it had to run, it was about $5-6.00 a month with a kill-a-watt plugged into it (I wanted to know how much it ran). Heating at night was still well beyond this.

Chillers can certainly be helpful in some climates, but none that I have ever lived in. Some people also like to put them in another room, or outside, and keep fans from blowing. They are more of a red herring for MH consideration than a real issue... easily mitigated. I have never even found 150w HQI to heat up non-nano tanks.

 

[zuri]

good to know thanks! I have a MH back from my youth maybe I can find a good use for it.

 

[Mfannan]

I don't intend to dim the metal halides for daily use.. But it would be nice to lower it 20% or so in order to assist with acclimation.. Hmm to think about... Im still considering using a hybrid approach with some LED clusters to have my sunrise and sunset ramp, then click on the MH's during the peak hours.

 

[A. grandis]

Jesus,

You got me started, I've got in the garage a couple of old 150w MH dimmable ballasts, and the phoenix is ANSI compatible with them, I can run 3 or 4 150w MH if I don't need to replace them every nine months, plus, they are dimming capable.. (however, I've never hooked them up to a dimmer) Unless someone has a really good reason, I think I am going to be building some dimmable MH fixtures and supplementing with dimmable t5's...

That's going to be a very nice set up!
Please make a thread with your DIY halide/T5 dimmable systems.
So great!
Grandis.

 

[Mfannan]

I had a whole bunch of questions around dimming metal halides, and I've read posts from aquarium sites, hydroponic sites, and a mess of others, and opinions vary, so I send a fairly detailed set of questions to hamilton, and I'm waiting to hear back from them, when I do, I'll post the e-mail here so that we can all look it over and see how we feel about it...

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

I had a whole bunch of questions around dimming metal halides, and I've read posts from aquarium sites, hydroponic sites, and a mess of others, and opinions vary, so I send a fairly detailed set of questions to hamilton, and I'm waiting to hear back from them, when I do, I'll post the e-mail here so that we can all look it over and see how we feel about it...

I honestly wouldn’t sweat it.
I’ve got decades of arc lamp experience, yea, it changes stuff, but in the long and even short term , it effects nothing. Like swapping a tube in your t5 fixture.

My personal preference is to let them work at thier native out put from the ballast.
It easy, and there’s less questions. Lol.

 

[Mfannan]

I hate having unanswwered questions, plus I would like to know what a bulb manufacturer states, as the manufacturer of my ballast states that dimming is amazing (meh sure..).

 

[Mfannan]

I heard back from Hamilton, and apparently my questions were complicated enough that they have forwarded my e-mail to engineering, so that makes me feel good that I can at least stump level 1 support....

 

[reefwiser]

Look at the Reefbrite MH /LED combo unit nice light and you can run the LED' and not the MH all the time.

 

[oreo54]

I've built all of my MH fixtures, I used to go down to the local utility and buy old streetlight fixtures and ballasts and build them out of that, usually I could build 4 250w MH fixtures for under 100 bucks, but, the DW and I love the set it and forget it of programmable LED setups, which is why I'm asking... Honestly love MH, but LED just is easy, I don't mind replacing bulbs, but if I can get a couple of reliable types and counts of cheap LED's, thats fine too... I found these::

https://www.ebay.com/itm/24-96-DSun...hash=item4d645d3b46:m:m2pctxZTX_fdP41dgSW_2lg

and

https://www.ebay.com/itm/3PCS-DSunY...231855&hash=item4d44aa1c61:g:SbsAAOSwQN5afFWh

but I've also seen these, and really like them, but not sure if they are adequate:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/CURRENT-US...347268&hash=item1a2cab6ade:g:uC0AAOSwAPVZJjG6



Sigh....

Start here as to "economical"..
https://sbreeflights.com/sbox-reef-lights/9-sbox-extreme-16-wifi.html
x3

As to DIY.. well
https://blueacro.com/acrostar/
figure <$2/watt.. (w/ lens and diffuser) mentioned for easy comparison purposes.

attaching a bunch of these to a hunk of aluminum is fairly cost effective. Add power supply (30-100)
meanwell Ldd-h drivers ($7/per channel/group)
and a bluefish mini for $100

not much, if any cheaper than the sbreef unless one doesn't need that much power (sbreef) or wants more than 2 channel control.

Doing DIY manual black boxes is not economical for the most part.
When you get into controllable muti-channel Led is where you can save.. sometimes

 

[Drhyed]

I'm having a very similar situation as you, I got out of reefing just as the first radions came out, and I cant wrap my head around the price vs the benifit especially over my 54"x 24" x 24" tank. Since you do have some LED experience Id be curios to get your thoughts on a middle of the road LED like reef Breeders

https://www.reefbreeders.com/shop/photon-48-v2/

while they touch the top end of your budget (and mine) they do offer more channels with active cooling and I think 1 light looks a bit better that 2-3-4 fixtures daisy chained over my tank. I also thought of building my own hybrid T5-Led light, it seems with dim-able ballasts you can control your T-5's and Leds with the same controller as long as you have a way to power off your T-5's completely.

Jay