No love for MH?

[dcuevas74]

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.

Which LED bars are accenting your MHs with? I'm about to do the same. Either Reef Brite XHOs or Orphek Blue Plus.

 

[Reefcowboy]

Which LED bars are accenting your MHs with? I'm about to do the same. Either Reef Brite XHOs or Orphek Blue Plus.

I've gotten reefbrites, after having used the orphek bars before.
The orpheks have a newer led configuration now and are much better priced.
The RB are very nice, but either way you would be happy as both are quality products

 

[Pablo reefcabar]

Is anybody saying LED grows corals better? My view would be that they are now close enough to make LED a viable choice. As to why folks switch back, I couldn't attribute too much coherence to it - people do lots of things because they 'think' it may help LOL (so more 'random' switching than 'informed' switching). All I can say is that I have grown THIS under LED exclusively. Nary a photon from MH or T5 in four years LOL. So I guess I'd be the 1 out of 100 long-term SPS keepers that picks LED.

Although your tank looks great . I always find that corals grown under led look "different " than those grown under halides that tend to look by a long stretch more "natural". Still in my 3rd setup process I plan on giesemann inifiti for my nuvo 150int IM lagoon . More to come

 

[Topekoms]

I have thought about going MH over the years never ran them before. Biggest draw back was I couldn't find anyone that really used them to explain them. So I ended up going with T5 LED hybrid. I love the look of MH but I just didn't know enough to push the button

 

[vanpire]

I have thought about going MH over the years never ran them before. Biggest draw back was I couldn't find anyone that really used them to explain them. So I ended up going with T5 LED hybrid. I love the look of MH but I just didn't know enough to push the button

MHs are the closet thing to plug and play. You can get simple ballasts, reflectors and bulbs. And that’s all u need. Ask in the forums/threads and you will get answers you need. If you look around, you can get used MH equipment for cheap.

 

[Skibum]

I have thought about going MH over the years never ran them before. Biggest draw back was I couldn't find anyone that really used them to explain them. So I ended up going with T5 LED hybrid. I love the look of MH but I just didn't know enough to push the button

Are you in Beavercreek colorado? Just asking because I'm in Dillon, not too many reefers in the high country ;-).

 

[Topekoms]

Are you in Beavercreek colorado? Just asking because I'm in Dillon, not too many reefers in the high country ;-).

Beavercreek Ohio

 

[biecacka]

Good golf courses in Beavercreek Ohio. I take the short drive from time to time. Haha

corey

 

[Graffiti Spot]

I have always thought halide provides much better growth form and branching thickness, plus color but I guess that’s arguable on personal preference. I have seen a number of large Radion lit tanks recently with very small branches and unhealthy looking growth forms. The only time I have seen Radion tanks look good is when there are a ton of fixtures over it and the user has taken the time to ramp the lights up as high as they can. Also the lights are always mounted up higher than average. I never like what I see on tanks when radions are low to the tank and underpowered.
I see a lot of people argue this but not many old school reefers who know what halides can do will argue with it. Leds are at their best wen hung high and fully powered. Otherwise I always find something I don’t like about the way the corals are growing or colored.

 

[Bpb]

I have always thought halide provides much better growth form and branching thickness, plus color but I guess that’s arguable on personal preference. I have seen a number of large Radion lit tanks recently with very small branches and unhealthy looking growth forms. The only time I have seen Radion tanks look good is when there are a ton of fixtures over it and the user has taken the time to ramp the lights up as high as they can. Also the lights are always mounted up higher than average. I never like what I see on tanks when radions are low to the tank and underpowered.
I see a lot of people argue this but not many old school reefers who know what halides can do will argue with it. Leds are at their best wen hung high and fully powered. Otherwise I always find something I don’t like about the way the corals are growing or colored.

I’d say I’ve seen plenty of led only tanks that are comparable.....but the problem is. They’re using an xr30 for every 12-18” square. On my 150 I just can’t see the point in spending $5000 on lighting just to have it perform equally to 3 MH pendants I got for free

 

[MnFish1]

I’d say I’ve seen plenty of led only tanks that are comparable.....but the problem is. They’re using an xr30 for every 12-18” square. On my 150 I just can’t see the point in spending $5000 on lighting just to have it perform equally to 3 MH pendants I got for free

I wish I had your luck finding free stuff. I also kind of disagree with the need for that many LED's put coral that need high light - in the high light zone - and coral that does better with lower light in the lower light zone. Now - if you're talking about an SPS only tank - yea - getting adequate light is hard without many LED's. Just my personal preference to have differently lit areas in the tank

 

[Bpb]

I wish I had your luck finding free stuff. I also kind of disagree with the need for that many LED's put coral that need high light - in the high light zone - and coral that does better with lower light in the lower light zone. Now - if you're talking about an SPS only tank - yea - getting adequate light is hard without many LED's. Just my personal preference to have differently lit areas in the tank

Yeah I’m really speaking of sps dominant tanks top to bottom with colonies not frags. You really need that many angles of incidence to encourage good looking shapes and full range of color. Mixed tanks can absolutely get by with less. That’s the forgiving part about encrusting corals or lps corals that move a lot. They don’t get shaded by virtue of reorienting themselves constantly in the flow. That being said. I also wouldn’t hesitate to use 20k 150 watt halides on an lps/softy tank to get the par down in the 75-150 range. I just like how economical they are if you can manage to get a low cost of entry

 

[Skibum]

Good golf courses in Beavercreek Ohio. I take the short drive from time to time. Haha

corey

lol, so different than what I was thinking ;-)

 

[jkapit]

9 months ago my mixed 180 sprung a leak and replaced the tank and Canopy with a new 220. My 250 Watt X 3 MH with VHO would not fit in the new canopy so went with a more modern setup.

Purchased 3 x Radion xR30 G4 Pro and 4 60” T5s. I get great SPS growth with the new lights and love all the special effects and how the LEDs ramp up and down. I really liked my MH setup, but am convinced a hybrid system can work just as well in a Deep SPS dominated tank.

 

[Thaxxx]

How about theses 20 k led halides?. Not the black boxes. The other ones. Closest halide replacement on the market. 10 20 30 & 50 Watt 6500k,10k,12k,14k or 20k take your pick. Water tight.
Price... $30 to $70 per light.

 

[Burning Spear]

I started my first aquarium in 2000 and shut down my 120 with two 400w halides and vhos in 2014. I just set up another tank 2 months ago and it took me 2 months to catch up with all the new technology. Dc return and skimmer pumps, The new apex and leds. When I took a break from the hobby leds still were not there.

I ended up going with three Red Sea 90’s and so far the light they make is very nice and the app that lets you control them from your phone is great. The shimmer is not bad but they do not give the shimmer effect as nice as my 400 halides did but the lack of heat and power consumption is a big positive. I used to run a 1 1/2 hp chiller non stop. I had shut down my last tank do to a move. For power consumption the old house was 1700 sqft, one ac and one story house. My power bill in the summer was $400-450 a month. The house I moved to is double the sqft, two story , two ac units and a pool. Power bill has never been over $325 and I moved two blocks from my old house. Since the new tank has been running my power bill has not changed. Time will tell on coral growth. I just got an order from WWC today. My main concern with leds are how well they are made. It does not matter how long led lights last if they are poorly built and the cooling fan quits on them and destroying the fixture but in theory they should pay for themselves by power savings and the cost of ushio bulb replacement every 10-12 months.

Old tank

New tank

 

[Bpb]

I started my first aquarium in 2000 and shut down my 120 with two 400w halides and vhos in 2014. I just set up another tank 2 months ago and it took me 2 months to catch up with all the new technology. Dc return and skimmer pumps, The new apex and leds. When I took a break from the hobby leds still were not there.

I ended up going with three Red Sea 90’s and so far the light they make is very nice and the app that lets you control them from your phone is great. The shimmer is not bad but they do not give the shimmer effect as nice as my 400 halides did but the lack of heat and power consumption is a big positive. I used to run a 1 1/2 hp chiller non stop. I had shut down my last tank do to a move. For power consumption the old house was 1700 sqft, one ac and one story house. My power bill in the summer was $400-450 a month. The house I moved to is double the sqft, two story , two ac units and a pool. Power bill has never been over $325 and I moved two blocks from my old house. Since the new tank has been running my power bill has not changed. Time will tell on coral growth. I just got an order from WWC today. My main concern with leds are how well they are made. It does not matter how long led lights last if they are poorly built and the cooling fan quits on them and destroying the fixture but in theory they should pay for themselves by power savings and the cost of ushio bulb replacement every 10-12 months.

Old tank

New tank

That old tank was a show stopper. I so very much prefer that look over the max-blue appearance

 

[Burning Spear]

I do prefer the look of the 20k ushio 400 metal halides over the leds but estimating my power bill I would be near 500 a month in the summer. The blue in the photo is having the blue turned up all the way. When it runs its preset program at 15k its a crisp white with a hint of blue. I also have read at the beginning of this thread about the temperature swings. I recall going from 72 at night to 80 sometimes 82 during the day. I still plan on adding moonlights. The moon light setting on these lights isn’t the best.

 

[Bpb]

I do prefer the look of the 20k ushio 400 metal halides over the leds but estimating my power bill I would be near 500 a month in the summer. The blue in the photo is having the blue turned up all the way. When it runs its preset program at 15k its a crisp white with a hint of blue. I also have read at the beginning of this thread about the temperature swings. I recall going from 72 at night to 80 sometimes 82 during the day. I still plan on adding moonlights. The moon light setting on these lights isn’t the best.

That’s wild those volatile swings have not been my experience but every house is different I suppose. I wish you equal success to what you had before. It’s agonizing waiting on the tiny frags to take off

 

[DesertReefT4r]

I just traded off my 2 250w MH setup for a bunch of frags. Replaced the MH with Hydra 32s and so far I am happy with the change. Less power use and no bulb changes is a nice plus.