No love for MH?

[Captain Quint]

Don't remember and is hard to get to. Was 60 inch w/2 t5 and 3 halide bulbs

+1 on sometimes difficult to get.

And running a few lights like this on a few tanks I was spending +- $600 every 6ish months not including replacing the T5 costs yearly. I did it for years until Radions came out.

Don't get me wrong, I still love them and would buy one of my old ones back from a friend I sold to.

 

[Ragnar]

20+ years of successful tanks, 18 with halides. Nothing was better than the look of 10k with VHO actinics, have to settle for T-5 supplement now. Tried Radions but didn’t like the look and the fiddling.

LED’s can produce some crazy colors lighting up those flourescent proteins, something I think you would have a hard time finding in the wild under the good ol sun. I personally want my reef to look like a reef

John

 

[andrewkw]

I busted out one of those old giant coralvue reflectors,and I'm using one 250w MH to nicely light a 36x24 90 gallon tank. I do plan on adding some blue led's eventually, especially since I'm currently running a 14k bulb. When it gets old I will probably try out hamilton 20k since they no longer make XM 20k which was my old bulb. The tank is still very new and currently only has one fish in it (lightning maroon) but I absolutely LOVE the way she looks under MH. An all blue led may make your corals pop but your fish are going to look very unnatural.

I did originally move away from MH when T5's became more popular. I used to run 250w de phoenix 14k, then I switched to T5, then led. Really PC lighting is the only "bad" type of lighting I've ever used. My Kessil A350 that I purchased in 2012 is still working great and growing (mostly soft) corals. I never threw out this older metal halide light because I knew one day I'd use it again. I also used it in the past for frag tanks.

 

[OhDumb]

Heat, electric consumption, and bulb replacement costs makes it a no for me dawg. I ran two 250w MH over a 90g for years.

 

[Dancingmad]

Can I have my cake and eat it too? Love MH, but they produce too much heat in my home (I have a chiller, so it isn't the tank heat that crushes me) during summer. My poor AC system can't handle it. During what we call "winter" here in Houston I could use my MH to heat my whole home lol.

I drink that kessil koolaid right now(have 2x 160s and 2x 360s - love 'em), but if circumstances were different I would still be using MH+T5 on at least one of my systems. My fixture was made by a company that is no longer around and came preinstalled with truck headlight bulbs. Once I put some *real* reefin' bulbs in there it was fantastic. T5 flexibility is awesome too. At some point I want to retrofit some T5s w/ my kessils. Folks that have shared pictures of this setup all look sweeeeet.

 

[Reefcowboy]

Love MH’s so much I've stocked on Radium bulbs until end of 2021. Ran G4 pros, orphek, ATI t5s, Hydras. MH’s best fulfills my taste on coral growth and color, and visually I just love the look of the tank.

I run them on a giesemann spectra so the sharp look of the fixture doesnt make me miss leds at all.

My tank is a 150 in the basement so the house AC keeps the tank at a cool 79 in the summer without use of a chiller. I supplement it with blue led bars so I have all I need.

 

[DSC reef]

Love MH’s so much I've stocked on Radium bulbs until end of 2021. Ran G4 pros, orphek, ATI t5s, Hydras. MH’s best fulfills my taste on coral growth and color, and visually I just love the look of the tank.

I run them on a giesemann spectra so the sharp look of the fixture doesnt make me miss leds at all.

My tank is a 150 in the basement so the house AC keeps the tank at a cool 79 in the summer without use of a chiller. I supplement it with blue led bars so I have all I need.

That is a seriously slick looking fixture. I believe we are going with the Hamilton fixture.

 

[kkiel02]

Nope. I started this hobby with power compacts 12 years ago. I would not go back to those or the metal halides. I also do not like the pure led fixtures like the radions. This build I’m using kessil 360x but will be adding a 4 bulb t5 fixture with blue + bulbs.
The reasoning for not using mh again is because of the heat they produce along with the power draw they require.

 

[ca1ore]

Plenty of love for MH still. I know quite a few long tenured reefers that still use and swear by them. I personally used double-ended HQI over my reef tanks for not far short of 25 years, but I’ve switched over to LED. TCO is a push, halides cost you in one way, LED in another. I get acceptable coral growth with LED. Maybe if I were growing frags for sale I’d use MH, but I have no intention of doing that so I voted never.

I do think it inevitable that MH equipment will get harder and harder to find, but likely not in the near term.

 

[Sleepydoc]

I've used T5 since the beginning. Some day I'll probably switch to LEDs but honestly I don't think I'll ever use MH.

There are plenty of success stories using a 3 technologies and various combinations, so anything can work. Clearly, MH's are tried and true, and there are people with established reefs that have been using them for years. I can't blame those people for sticking with them, but the heat and energy consumption are what rule them out for me. Even here in Minneapolis, I end up running some fans on my tank for a couple months during the summer - and that's with the A/C on. MH would make the temp that much more difficult to control. For people further south I would imagine that MH vs T5 or LED would mean the difference between needing a chiller or not and at that point you're looking at significantly more energy consumption use that I would have a hard time justifying when there are other viable methods.

I agree with Greybeard - LED technology is still maturing, so we have yet to see what it will be. There are relatively few MH fixtures and bulbs, so it's easy to know almost exactly what you're getting. With LEDs there can be a lot of variability between different fixtures depending on the specific types of LEDs used, number, configuration, lenses, driving voltage, etc. Add to that apps that give you a near infinite variability in different channels and you've got a confusing picture indeed. The latest Kessels look nice but I've got other things to spend money on right now. Maybe some day...

 

[lancesmith1]

16% using MH in the current poll.

 

[Mark Gray]

I will stick with LED's It saves me a lot in the summer on AC bills I used to use them and then went to VHO then T5 but LED's run the coolest and I don't need a chiller now

 

[3mm3]

I've been back to halides for a while now. I'll keep led for a refugium and in stand lighting but that's it. Peninsula is halide/t5, biocube is halide only and my next big build will be halide/t5.

 

[Sleepydoc]

16% using MH in the current poll.

Wonder how many just MH exclusively vs a hybrid fixture?

Also, I'd be curious to know how many people have switched back. That's a bit of a loaded question, though. LEDs are changing so much that if you switched 6-8 years ago you may have had dramatically different results than if you switched now.

 

[jda]

I think that everybody needs to come to grips with the possibility that LEDs are not changing anymore, or at least have not for a while. There has not been a significant change since going from blue-white to multi-colored diodes on more channels. I am not counting the human comforts like apps and wifi that are just window dressing. The only recent changes are just more and different multicolored diodes. Seriously, how are LED evolving and going to get better? There are still panels and pucks, both with gripes and irritations. There are no reflectors for better spread or color blending.

In the same amount of time, there has been new dual-arc MH bulbs for both growing (whiter) and viewing (bluer), redesigned bulbs by both Hamilton and Giesemann that cuts down on the useless parts of IR and some ballasts that waste nearly no energy. These are real improvements and renewed energy in this space... and it is all just for this hobby. If companies are willing to invest like this, then I would not worry about these going away any time soon. Heck, people have been promising the death of T12 VHOs for a decade, but UVL is still in business making bulbs.

Fun fact that I learned the hard way... I put a LED light bulb in my garage door opener. It would open, but never shut while the light was on. Went to Google and there is something in LED bulbs that messes with signal reception with rolling-code garage door openers unless you are SUPER close. If anybody has this problem, put a CFL or normal bulb back in there. This drove us crazy for a few months until I figured it out. Of course, this has nothing to do with LEDs, just a wierd cooincidence of tech messing with each other.

 

[madweazl]

Absolutely! I'm planning on running them on the 120g that will replace the 75g because the environment will be conducive to it. The 150g in the living room will remain LED/T5 like the 75g is currently though.

 

[jgvergo]

I'll never use them again because...I've never used them once

 

[robert]

Running 2x400W Radiums along with 3xKessil AP 700s

Kessil - Radium - Kessil - Radium - Kessil (on a 8'x3'x3' tank)

Had 5 kessils - but had to put the radiums back up while the kessils were in the shop - liked it so much - left it that way.
Kessils ramp up till noon when the radiums come on for a few hours then and kessils ramp down to sunset.

Love the color, crispness and control of the leds - but the radiums absolutely flood the tank with that nice "summer sky", penetrating blue.

 

[ca1ore]

16% using MH in the current poll.

That doesn’t surprise me at all. Most folks new to the hobby within the last five years probably use LED.

 

[Dr. Dendrostein]

I know everyone loves the leds for this reason and that reason but With Metal Halide being a proven winner over the years why does it seem its a dying breed?

I see a few people swear by them and see great growth as its the closest thing to the sun but I know they do use a lot of power and put off heat compared to leds.

I for one like the look that Mh's give and you mix that with some t-5's and you have a great combo

After getting in and out of this hobby many times over the years, I would like to get a set up going but I really want to go with metal halide and t-5's because I like the look and I know they work good, but my hang up is It will be a very slow process to get enought corals to justify the cost of bulbs and electricity.

With that being said, if just having a few corals to start will it be over kill to use mh/t-5?

I'm still in the shopping phase but my wife said I have to have everything ready before I can bring another tank in the house. I have been know to bring a tank in and let it sit for a few months while getting stuff together or rushing into it and removing and replacing stuff

I bought 250w MH ballast, socket, 20k bulb, from Marine depot in the late 80's, never used it, still have maybe one day. I hope.