Radium vs Hamilton 20k spectrum

[A. grandis]

I don't think there is a war here at all. We are just talking and it's nice this way.
We need to talk halide language! That's the way we learn.
Grandis.

 

[Ztrain]

This conversation is awesome tbh. I just received my first MH setup today and spent my lunch break mounting it above my tank. So seeing discussions about different ballasts and types of them and how they affect different bulbs is awesome to read about.

 

[A. grandis]

This conversation is awesome tbh. I just received my first MH setup today and spent my lunch break mounting it above my tank. So seeing discussions about different ballasts and types of them and how they affect different bulbs is awesome to read about.

What halides did you get?
Grandis.

 

[Reefanatik]

I love when MH guys argue about something. Looking at the specs hamilton are made to operate on the M58 or electronic ballast, proper ballast helps the lamp last longer. That was the great thing of electronic ballast when I ran MH, Radium lamps lasted an average of 18 months with the longest at 24+, the shortest at 12. I changed them when they dropped 10%. If I still had MH I would give the hamilton a try.

How does everyone test their bulb degradation? Do y'all own PAR meters? How do you measure the 10% drop? I have MH's and am currently running two Geismann Megachrome Coral 14500K bulbs on M80 ballast and am thinking about going back to the Radiums I have in my closet(about 6 months old). I wanted to try a different bulb for better growth but am really missing the look of the radiums. I want to see what the difference between the 14.5k and Radiums actually is. Would a lux meter be fine?

 

[Abhishek]

How does everyone test their bulb degradation? Do y'all own PAR meters? How do you measure the 10% drop? I have MH's and am currently running two Geismann Megachrome Coral 14500K bulbs on M80 ballast and am thinking about going back to the Radiums I have in my closet(about 6 months old). I wanted to try a different bulb for better growth but am really missing the look of the radiums. I want to see what the difference is between the 14.5k and Radiums actually is. Would a lux meter be fine?

How do you like them ? Any changes to acros colors compared to radium ? And did you get more growth ?
I heard they have amazing life or may be I am wrong - Its the megachrome crystal that are claimed to have 2+ years of lifespan.

Regards,
Abhishek

 

[Reefanatik]

Ive only run the 14.5 k about 3 months and cannot talk much about growth because my sps started bleaching before the change due to low nutrients and low DKH. I slowly increased nutrients (5-10)and DKH (8.2) the past few weeks and am now starting to see some new growth and coloration.

 

[hybridazn]

How does everyone test their bulb degradation? Do y'all own PAR meters? How do you measure the 10% drop? I have MH's and am currently running two Geismann Megachrome Coral 14500K bulbs on M80 ballast and am thinking about going back to the Radiums I have in my closet(about 6 months old). I wanted to try a different bulb for better growth but am really missing the look of the radiums. I want to see what the difference between the 14.5k and Radiums actually is. Would a lux meter be fine?

I've been running radiums long enough to notice a slight shift in spectrum and that tells me when to change. This usually happens around the 12-14 month range.

I run my radiums 6 hours a day

 

[jda]

With the 250s on M80, I cannot tell a thing at a year. I don't need to get greedy with extra time, so this is perfect for me and I just go with it. My coral don't even notice when I change the bulbs. When I was running 400W on PFO HQI, they would seriously shift color at 9-10 months, so I replaced them at 8.

 

[Abhishek]

@jda - Did you notice any difference in spectrum between the 250 on M80 and 400 on PFO HQI ? Also, any reason you moved away from the 400 other than heat ? Did you feel it was not necessary and 250 was enough ?

Regards,
Abhishek

 

[Reefanatik]

I've been running radiums long enough to notice a slight shift in spectrum and that tells me when to change. This usually happens around the 12-14 month range.

I run my radiums 6 hours a day

do you use T5's for supplementation? If so, what bulbs and how long do you run them?

 

[jda]

Abhishek,

They looked very similar. On different tanks in different rooms, I could not tell. On the same tank, you could see just a little bit in color difference but you had to look hard (on the contrary, 20K Radium on electronic was like a different looking bulb). I don't have a spectrometer, but Dr. Joshi's results seem spot-on to me - you can overlay them on the old site (not sure about the new). Both grow like crazy.

I moved to DE fixtures (AquaMedic AquaSpaceLight and OceanLight) on my displays to keep open tops and hang them. This is why I have no heat issues. I like the aesthetics better than a hood and I like to look top-down a lot (the best way to view, IMO). This took me to 250W 14K Phoenix on the displays. The only downside to these is that the reflectors are smaller and the output is less on the ends and in the front - the overlap between the bulbs is still strong. I still do use the 20K Radium over my frag tank, but at 11-12 inches deep and most of the frags at half of that, 400W just is not necessary. I take frags from tank to tank without acclimation and they never complain - ironically, I keep 7.1 dKh on the display, but 12 in the frag tank with slight higher nutrients. I do not supplement with any other bulbs - I would just rather run another Halide than run the same wattage in T5s.

I still have all of my 400W PFO HQI ballasts - I won't ever get rid of them. I have a 960G 14' build coming up and I plan on mixing about 4 400W with 6-8 of the 250W on it. I run 8 250W now. The eight cost me about $73 a month minus what they save in heating which I cannot measure.

 

[Abhishek]

Abhishek,

They looked very similar. On different tanks in different rooms, I could not tell. On the same tank, you could see just a little bit in color difference but you had to look hard (on the contrary, 20K Radium on electronic was like a different looking bulb). I don't have a spectrometer, but Dr. Joshi's results seem spot-on to me - you can overlay them on the old site (not sure about the new). Both grow like crazy.

I moved to DE fixtures (AquaMedic AquaSpaceLight and OceanLight) on my displays to keep open tops and hang them. This is why I have no heat issues. I like the aesthetics better than a hood and I like to look top-down a lot (the best way to view, IMO). This took me to 250W 14K Phoenix on the displays. The only downside to these is that the reflectors are smaller and the output is less on the ends and in the front - the overlap between the bulbs is still strong. I still do use the 20K Radium over my frag tank, but at 11-12 inches deep and most of the frags at half of that, 400W just is not necessary. I take frags from tank to tank without acclimation and they never complain - ironically, I keep 7.1 dKh on the display, but 12 in the frag tank with slight higher nutrients. I do not supplement with any other bulbs - I would just rather run another Halide than run the same wattage in T5s.

I still have all of my 400W PFO HQI ballasts - I won't ever get rid of them. I have a 960G 14' build coming up and I plan on mixing about 4 400W with 6-8 of the 250W on it. I run 8 250W now. The eight cost me about $73 a month minus what they save in heating which I cannot measure.

@jda - really appreciate the input .Am running 2x259 radiums over a 30 in x 3o in x 18 in tank - one on m80 and one on luxcore in hqi mode . When both are on , it's hard to tell the diff but looked closely the electronic runs it bluer and a little less PAR than m80 like 200 less .

Am debating whether to put one single 400 radium on electronic in a large Hamilton comuzel reflector that's lying around collecting dust .

Any suggestions ?

Regards,
Abhishek

 

[A. grandis]

Ive only run the 14.5 k about 3 months and cannot talk much about growth because my sps started bleaching before the change due to low nutrients and low DKH. I slowly increased nutrients (5-10)and DKH (8.2) the past few weeks and am now starting to see some new growth and coloration.

I thought the best ballast for the Giesemann bulbs would be electronic, like the Luxcore.
Does anyone know what would be the best ballast?
Grandis.

 

[jda]

Abhishek - If you were going to run a single, I would shoot for the 400W HQI and change the bulbs more often, or keep running the two. You can make your own ballast out of a Son Agro 430 if you cannot find a used one - there is a recipe around the web somewhere with what caps and ignitors and stuff to use. Somebody could probably make some money making these for people. 400W electronic will not be too much more than 250W HQI which is more like 330 watts - Dr. Joshi's results had PPFD results for both if you want to look them up.

 

[jda]

I thought the best ballast for the Giesemann bulbs would be electronic, like the Luxcore.
Does anyone know what would be the best ballast?
Grandis.

I think that Giesemann bulbs would be quite good on electronic ballasts. They seem to want about 250W on the money. I have only ever used them in IceCap (not Luxcore) and the color was consistent and grew stuff well.

 

[A. grandis]

I think that Giesemann bulbs would be quite good on electronic ballasts. They seem to want about 250W on the money. I have only ever used them in IceCap (not Luxcore) and the color was consistent and grew stuff well.

Thanks jda!
Grandis.

 

[Ztrain]

What halides did you get?
Grandis.

Went full Reefbrite setup. I was at Aquatic Experience show and they had a pendant on all day and the guy was like touch it. It wasn't cold but not hot either just kind of warm with a 250 bulb going in there. But I've heard for the last few years from BRS that "MH is for people that care only about results." so when I saw that it wasn't going to turn my tank and room in to a furnace decided to really start looking at MH.

Got the 15" 175-400 watt pendant with the 2 XHO strips mounted to it which are awesome. Never seen my frags look like that. Ballast is their 175 watt Apex ready controllable ballast. I don't know if I'll actually bother with the dimming features on it. With the bulb I went with the 10k/20k twin arc so I can switch between the tank looking 10k or 20k. At my local store they have this same setup over their 500 gallon show tanks and it looks awesome. They're using Radium bulbs and I don't know exactly how Reefbrite 20k is vs the Radiums but so far it looks really good.

Still have a lot of hair algae that I've been fighting off but it's getting there. Put Zeovit on the cube 2.5 months ago. When I started every surface was covered in long hair algae with nitrates over 100 and phosphate over 1ppm. Nitrates are now usually undetectable and phospate ranges from .03-.08 while the algae has been dying off and receding. So if I can fix up the cube before I buy my new tank in a couple months I should be good. Fist got the nutrients under control with Zeovit, then getting the water quality fixed with triton dosing and testing, now I'm finishing up with lighting. If over the next months the frags start taking off and everything is good I should be ready to upgrade to a 55-75gal.

So far I've detected no raising of the water temp with this fixture granted only been running one afternoon we'll see how things are tomorrow. Spread and brightness are amazing with the 175 I don't know if when I upgrade to the new tank I'll need another fixture with another 175 setup or if I can just center pendant and raise it a bit and run it at 250. If the 10k bulb really shows growth I'll keep using twin arc's. If the 10k doesn't seem to do much I may pickup a Radium if I go the 250 watt route in the future. Also in a thread I saw the Hamilton 20k has almost the same spectral graph as the radium and they offer it in a 175 watt bulb so if I stay with 175 I may try the Hamilton 20k and see how that compares. Maybe I'll just end up using exclusively Reefbrite lamps too haven't decided yet. But now is the time to experiment before I setup the new tank.

 

[Reefanatik]

I thought the best ballast for the Giesemann bulbs would be electronic, like the Luxcore.
Does anyone know what would be the best ballast?
Grandis.

From BRS, Look at bold print below. They state that the 14.5k should be run with a M80 ballast.

MegaChrome Coral are very strong in overall lighting performance while having a high blue blend. The MegaChrome Coral is a great bulb emulating the spectrum found among most reefs today. The 14500k is the most popular bulb for T5/Halide fixtures. The blue blend will help give your corals that fluorescent you are looking for while maintaining growth like lower kelvin bulbs.

Choose From:

• 250w SE M80 (mogul)

 

[Reefanatik]

Well I finally bit the bullet and bought a Apogee MQ210 underwater PAR meter from BRS a few minutes ago and can finally stop guessing what my light output is. I will post the PAR output on both the Geismann 14k and Radiums running on M80 ballast in case anyone would b interested in the results. The Geismann are about 5 months old and the Radiums are about 6 months old. Can't wait to get my new toy.

 

[Abhishek]

Well I finally bit the bullet and bought a Apogee MQ210 underwater PAR meter from BRS a few minutes ago and can finally stop guessing what my light output is. I will post the PAR output on both the Geismann 14k and Radiums running on M80 ballast in case anyone would b interested in the results. The Geismann are about 5 months old and the Radiums are about 6 months old. Can't wait to get my new toy.

Definitely am interested . Strange but when I checked with coralvue , they asked me to run geissemann bulbs in electronic in hqi mode .

Am sure m80 will run them but doubt it will be to spec .

Regards,
Abhishek