Pros vs Cons: Metal Halide VS LED Lighting

[revhtree Verified Admin]

Pros vs Cons: Metal Halide VS LED Lighting

There are many options when it comes to lighting our aquariums and none more popular than Metal Halide and LED lighting. On one hand you have the die hard MH fans and on the other you have the LED fans. Both believing that their way is the best way.

So which is it? What lighting is best for the overall, long term health of our systems?

Pros vs Cons please.

 

[nateroten]

still no answers yet? Led's def. save money but can you still get the intensity of halides from led's?

 

[Mufasa31]

some corals change colors under leds.

zoas/palys and chalices seems to thrive under leds.

 

[Quinn123]

I think MH is still the light to beat, LED is good if you have a shallow tank, but for deep tank MH is the way to go, the only draw back to MH is the heat.

 

[Reef Breeders Verified Sponsor]

Optics can remedy the depth problem very easily, and LEDs are a ton brighter than mh using the same power. I have seen an increase in growth since switching to LEDs, as well as color from all of my corals. I think that the key is RGB LEDs.

 

[Ace25]

LEDs without question. I ran MH for 10+ years, love it, but LEDs can do anything a MH can do and do it better while using a fraction of the electricity, it just takes a little forethought to get the coloring right for your preference. There is simply no need for MH in todays reef world IMO unless you have money to waste. PAR isn't everything, actually PAR is only the intensity of the light between 400-700nm, meaning it is a very crude form of measurement but just to get the point across (simply on intensity) here are some pictures.

Can anyone find 1 MH we use in this hobby that can reach PAR numbers this high, 14" from the light? A 400w MH can't put out 1/2 the light as this 48 LED light (1886 PAR) and the LED light only takes 140w of power AND I don't have to worry about frequently replacing bulbs anymore. I have saved so much $ in the last 2 years since switching it isn't even funny, thousands of dollars back into my pocket (on top of recouping all cost for the LED lights) just since I switched to LEDs.

In comparison to a 375w XM 10k bulb (250w SE bulb on M80 ballast draws 375w) (804 PAR):

And a 330w 20K Radium bulb (250w run on a true M80 ballast pushes it to 330w) (475 PAR)

 

[Ace25]

And speaking about depth, my LEDs get 600 at the sandbed, which is 36" from the light, when I had MH in the same spot the best I could do at the sandbed was 200 PAR. No question LEDs (with proper optics) penetrate much better than MH.

 

[Quinn123]

Look like I have to save up some money to buy some LED,

 

[Quinn123]

I have a 144 half cylinder, it is 27" deep, currently I am using 3(250) with 4PC , to switch over to LED what would I need to achieve the same result, thank you

 

[robinreefer]

Wow,what a thread.Has me thinking that I am SO light iliterate!LOL....I would not even know where to start.Have run MH for so long that the thought of changing to LED is so scarey.Although I love the thought of not having to change bulbs so often AND saving money!Someone ....please educate me!

 

[navila06]

I use a PC for now, when it's dead I may consider LED's...

"There is simply no need for MH in todays reef world IMO unless you have money to waste" quote from ace25

I think we all have money to waste, since we are all reefers...

 

[Troylee]

What is there to complain about a mh????? Heat that's about it!!!! Mh has been around longer than 90% of the reefers on this forum and are proven... You don't hear about corals turning brown under radiums only how sick the colors really are.... nuff said.... LEDs are great for supplemental lighting only IMHO... Just my 2....

 

[Ace25]

I think there is a difference between spending $ wisely on items that will better a tank vs just wasting $ on antiquated lighting technology. For me, electricity costs + bulb replacement cost made it so within 1 year I fully recouped all cost of LEDs by switching, after the first year, everything else is $ in the pocket. I was paying $500/mo in electricity for all my tanks on top of having to replace 10 T5HOs + a 250w MH, came out to over $350/yr just in bulb replacement costs. You can see how LEDs save $ quickly when you are dealing with that many tanks/bulbs (6 T5s on one tank, 4+MH on another).

Initial cost between the different lighting types is pretty much equal today, so up front cost is a wash between the 3 major lighting types.

Pros of MH = Tried and true lighting technology - Hard to go wrong (nuke your corals) with a proper reflector and a bulb made for our hobby.
Cons of MH = lots of wasted electricity, heat, and bulb replacement cost

Pros of LED = Long term savings (power and bulb replacement), much more customization of color preference, more realistic sunrise/sunset ability.
Cons of LED = Harder to acclimate corals, takes a little tweaking to make a DIY light perfect for your tank (height/optics issues, color rendition for personal preference) and biggest one I see is the fact people use PAR readings to acclimate between different lighting technologies. When switching to LEDs, you can not use the same PAR numbers you got from MH or T5 lighting, LEDs must be much less in PAR output (due to the use of Royal Blue LEDs, which is the "problem LED" because it puts out so much good light for photosynthesis it is easy to reach photo inhibition in corals.)

I certainly don't have $ to waste.. as an example, I picked up this 60G tank/sump/stand for free, also live rock and all corals in this tank were free, I only bought 2 fish for this tank, a multicolored angel and a black leopard wrasse, both cost me $20ea at my LFS. I have a pair of clowns that breed every other week in this tank, and the clowns were given to me for free.

 

[robinreefer]

Well.....with all that said I need to find a good friend,I LOVE free stuff!

 

[Saltgator]

I'll be watching this thread. My halides are good to me (3 x 250 14k w/ 2 x 454 vho's) but I've considered (again, only considered so far) a switch. I just don't have have the $$$ to drop enough into lighting my 240 (8 x 2 x 2). I still have to remind myself that ''if it ain't broke, don't fix it'' rule. Subscribe anyway. GL with the debate.

Country boy using tapatalk on a HTC Evo

 

[kuyatwo]

What is there to complain about a mh????? Heat that's about it!!!! Mh has been around longer than 90% of the reefers on this forum and are proven... You don't hear about corals turning brown under radiums only how sick the colors really are.... nuff said.... LEDs are great for supplemental lighting only IMHO... Just my 2....

+1 moved from ai sol blues to sfiligoi xr6 mh/t5's and I added a strip of DIY rb for actinics


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[TJM]

Gotta agree with ace on this one. I have had in the past many aquariums, the largest being a 300 gallon beauty. All of my past as well as my existing have had MH with supplemental. The 300 had 6 400watt MH with 6 72in vho, the existing 36 corner bowfront had a 400 watt mh with 4 24in vho. As you can see I really love giving my inhabitants as much light as they could possibly handle. I had tremendous color as well as growth in all of my reefs. Alas i decided to step out of the if it aint broke dont fix it mentality because the power company here in Florida has decided to raise the rates. I recently changed over to the led systems and I can say that I am coloring up corals that had previously thought were pretty colorful to begin with. The growth of the sps corals is also in line with what I previously achieved. My power consumption has been cut down to a quarter of what it used to be. So for now I am a huge fan of the LED systems for MY application. However I have several installs that are well over 1000 gallons and most are 40 inches tall and more. So for those applications the MH is the way to go for now. But with the advancement of the optics, configuration, and lower initial cost, the leds are becoming at least thought provoking when considering a retrofit. As is the case with most of the topics that we discuss about our reef aquariums, you have to find what works best for you and YOUR tank and go with that. As always this is IMHO.
T.J.

 

[debdp]

On my 30 gallon SPS: runs 250W single ended 10K on electronic ballast, 2x24W T5 and 2xPAR30 Led bulbs.
Challenges: trying to get color from high light SPS using T5s or T5/LED mix
PRO on MH: much better color and growth on all the SPS
CON: Heat
PRO on LED: the blue makes the colors of the corals really stand out, low heat, low electric usage
CON: I didn't see any changes in corals with growth or color with them alone

On my 60 gallon soft coral tank: runs 4x24W T5 in the back; in the front 2xPAR30 Led bulbs, 150W double ended 14K on magnetic ballast
Challenge: getting light to the bottom...20" deep tank
PRO on MH: gives the light needed to the corals closer to the sand at the front of the tank
CON: none
PRO on LED: small & compact, adds extra light, makes the GSP, zoas, acans really pop
CON: by themselves some soft corals were stretching for light

 

[Gideon]

Look like I have to save up some money to buy some LED,

 

[Pappy]

Metal halides are great but HOTTTT also u have to replace bulbs every 6-12 months depending on what reefer u are. Also take a lot of power and with power loss(often in Florida) they have trouble re-firing often.

LEDs...can't say enough about if you have the right setup. I've seen so many...ai, evolution, DIY, etc...the nicest growth and color I've seen has been from diy's all others I've been personally disappointed with. As far as par on LEDs they are WAY more powerful than halides which is why many have toasted their coral not knowing what they're doing. I had 2 150watt halides and 4 pc actinics over my 40 tall and stuff was beautiful and grew like crazy! SO I THOUGHT then I setup my 75 with DIY LEDs and slowly transitioned corals over within a couple weeks and WHAT A DIFFERENCE! LEDs win hands down for growth AND color!