Radium vs Hamilton 20k spectrum

[jda]

Thank you again, for bringing up UVB, which nobody has said has anything good to offer a coral and should not even be in any discussion or any post about anything. This is super helpful and not distracting at all or might lead the less experienced people to the wrong conclusions about the good UV spectrum since they will soon forget the difference in A and B. Also, thank you for your actual experience and experience with coral and reef tanks

I am out. Y'all can discuss this more if you want. My apologies for wasting anybody's time. I mean it... my apologies... I see the error in my ways now.

 

[A. grandis]

IR moves energy from PSII to PSI. Dana has some posts about it - you can search or I can find a link when I get back home (sorry). Orhpek also has started doing this and there is some info on their website for the V4 which has 850nm diodes in it.

Hummm, that's very interesting. Even the Orphek works with that?
If you can post the links later.
Thanks!

 

[A. grandis]

Thank you again, for bringing up UVB, which nobody has said has anything good to offer a coral and should not even be in any discussion or any post about anything. This is super helpful and not distracting at all or might lead the less experienced people to the wrong conclusions about the good UV spectrum since they will soon forget the difference in A and B. Also, thank you for your actual experience and experience with coral and reef tanks

I am out. Y'all can discuss this more if you want. My apologies for wasting anybody's time. I mean it... my apologies... I see the error in my ways now.

I wish I had time to read more and understand all what you guys are talking about. Haha!!!
I have a problem and if I stay here in front of the computer too long my eyes start to hurt even though I use my glasses.
I remember when I was young reading about the benefits of UV light coming from halides somewhere, but don't know what was the source. Perhaps I should start to dedicate some of my internet time on this. I'm working a lot and my mind is tired by the time I get home with all this hard to understand talk. LOL!!!
I think I'm getting old indeed. LOL!
send me some online article links about UV and reef tanks, would you?
Grandis.

 

[Centerline]

Was it the 17.5k crystal or 14.5 k bulb that you ran ? Was there a purple tint to the tank ? Asking because the spectral graph in BRS shows a huge spike in the purple/ violet region on the left which intrigues me .

Regards,
Abhishek

I have ran both the 17.5 and the 21 - no purple that I could see. Both bulbs are very bright, the 17.5 white with a hint of blue and the 21k with a slight bit more blue but still pretty white. With respect to growth I would say they were pretty much even. I ran them on a Luxcore ballast using the 400 watt "super lumens" setting. I ran both the 17.5 and the 21k in a Giesemann Spectra with 1 ATI Blue Plus and 3 Giesemann super actinic. The reason for the Blue Plus was to add a little blue to cut the purple from the actinics. I ran the MHs for 8 hours a day and the T5s for 12. Its really a beautiful and natural look. If you have ever seen Gen4 Pros on the "Radient" Profile thats about the look.

 

[A. grandis]

I have ran both the 17.5 and the 21 - no purple that I could see. Both bulbs are very bright, the 17.5 white with a hint of blue and the 21k with a slight bit more blue but still pretty white. With respect to growth I would say they were pretty much even. I ran them on a Luxcore ballast using the 400 watt "super lumens" setting. I ran both the 17.5 and the 21k in a Giesemann Spectra with 1 ATI Blue Plus and 3 Giesemann super actinic. The reason for the Blue Plus was to add a little blue to cut the purple from the actinics. I ran the MHs for 8 hours a day and the T5s for 12. Its really a beautiful and natural look. If you have ever seen Gen4 Pros on the "Radient" Profile thats about the look.

Thank you for your tips on the bulbs.
It's very hard to understand why everyone sees different colors from the same bulb!
Grandis.

 

[Abhishek]

I have ran both the 17.5 and the 21 - no purple that I could see. Both bulbs are very bright, the 17.5 white with a hint of blue and the 21k with a slight bit more blue but still pretty white. With respect to growth I would say they were pretty much even. I ran them on a Luxcore ballast using the 400 watt "super lumens" setting. I ran both the 17.5 and the 21k in a Giesemann Spectra with 1 ATI Blue Plus and 3 Giesemann super actinic. The reason for the Blue Plus was to add a little blue to cut the purple from the actinics. I ran the MHs for 8 hours a day and the T5s for 12. Its really a beautiful and natural look. If you have ever seen Gen4 Pros on the "Radient" Profile thats about the look.

Did the 17.5 have a yellow tint in burning phase for the first week or so?


Regards,
Abhishek

 

[Centerline]

Did the 17.5 have a yellow tint in burning phase for the first week or so?


Regards,
Abhishek

A tad bit. Thought that was just me . If you run them on HQI they will run brighter and whiter.

 

[Ztrain]

Has there been any consensus on this? I can't get an m80 Ballast so running Radium's in their correct way is not a possibility. The Reefbrites claim that they are the same as the Radium but with just a spike in the 420 which isn't in the Radium. How did the Hamilton's end up comparing? The charts from the beginning of the thread seemed that the Hamiltons are nearly identical spectrally to the Radiums and they can produce that spectrum with ballasts sold today?

 

[deedubz]

Glad I found this thread.

I've had a 48" Hamilton mh/t5 fixture over my 55g for about 9-10 months. Love it! I'm upgrading to a rimless 60x24x26. I'm currently using 2 Hamilton 14000k bulbs and 4 of their actinic T5s. I was leaning towards the Hamilton 20000k, but I'm not sure what T5 bulbs to supplement them with. Any thoughts?

 

[DSC reef]

I run 4 blue plus with Hamilton's 20k bulbs, looks great IMO

 

[deedubz]

Thank you!

 

[sghera64]

Has there been any consensus on this? I can't get an m80 Ballast so running Radium's in their correct way is not a possibility. The Reefbrites claim that they are the same as the Radium but with just a spike in the 420 which isn't in the Radium. How did the Hamilton's end up comparing? The charts from the beginning of the thread seemed that the Hamiltons are nearly identical spectrally to the Radiums and they can produce that spectrum with ballasts sold today?

I run a 250W Radium wiht a LuxCore in the SuperLumens setting. The lamp has fired up on the first shot every single time, including the first time I screwed it in to the mogul base.

It's been running about 9 months now. I have it over a 30 x 36" frag system supplemented with two 39w BluePlus ATI bulbs.

 

[A. grandis]

Has there been any consensus on this? I can't get an m80 Ballast so running Radium's in their correct way is not a possibility. The Reefbrites claim that they are the same as the Radium but with just a spike in the 420 which isn't in the Radium. How did the Hamilton's end up comparing? The charts from the beginning of the thread seemed that the Hamiltons are nearly identical spectrally to the Radiums and they can produce that spectrum with ballasts sold today?

It is possible!
Here is the link for the M80 ballast:

https://hamiltontechnology.com/index.php?route=product/product&path=25_108&product_id=180
This is a M80 ballast, regardless of the brand.
Grandis.

 

[A. grandis]

I run a 250W Radium wiht a LuxCore in the SuperLumens setting. The lamp has fired up on the first shot every single time, including the first time I screwed it in to the mogul base.

It's been running about 9 months now. I have it over a 30 x 36" frag system supplemented with two 39w BluePlus ATI bulbs.

The "250" setting on the Luxcore runs at ~245W, the "'Super Lumens" runs at ~300W, and the M80 ballast runs at ~ 330W.
I've heard very good things about Luxcore and no complaints. It's a stable ballast and very dependable.

Grandis.

 

[Semisonyx]

My apologies for digging up a dead thread, but thought I'd add my 2 cents.

I bought and ran the "new" Hamilton 20k 250w (after seeing this thread) for 9 months on luxcore select-a-watt on the 250 setting in Hamilton Cayman Sun pendants. They are slightly more white than the Radium 20k, and the color is very pleasing (coraline algae a little more purple, yellows a little more yellow, etc). I don't have any readings from when the bulb was new, but at 9 months I was reading right at 22-24,000 lux at the surface of my tank. I put in a Radium 20k with one year's use on it and turned the ballast to the super lumen setting. Measurements at the same spot were 30,000 lux. Oddly enough, there was no visible increase or increase in lux when I turned the Hamilton bulb from 250 to SL setting.

I honestly prefer the color and price of the Hamiltons, and wish I had my lux meter back when I first installed them. If this bulb starts out with the same par as a Radium (operating at 250w vs 250w per kevinsquint's test), then being 9 months old, it has lost about 13% of it's intensity and is approaching time to be changed out.

The Radium runs blue enough that on the SL setting I get much more PAR and don't need or want supplemental actinic like I would/did with the Hamilton... and the Radium lasts well over a year vs needing to be changed at 9 months.

Bottom line, it's a wash. Great bulb with amazing color yet somewhat shorter useful life, and you'll need supplementation to get the little extra blue and PAR of the Radium (when the Radium is run on the appropriate wattage). For me and my setup, that's roughly 150 par at the surface.​

 

[aabjones888]

Love some halides!

 

[sghera64]

I replaced 3 of my 4 250Watt MH’s with LED lights. With cold weather now here, I miss the “warmth” of my ballasts and bulbs.

Oh, well. So the pendulum swings.

 

[Centerline]

My apologies for digging up a dead thread, but thought I'd add my 2 cents.

I bought and ran the "new" Hamilton 20k 250w (after seeing this thread) for 9 months on luxcore select-a-watt on the 250 setting in Hamilton Cayman Sun pendants. They are slightly more white than the Radium 20k, and the color is very pleasing (coraline algae a little more purple, yellows a little more yellow, etc). I don't have any readings from when the bulb was new, but at 9 months I was reading right at 22-24,000 lux at the surface of my tank. I put in a Radium 20k with one year's use on it and turned the ballast to the super lumen setting. Measurements at the same spot were 30,000 lux. Oddly enough, there was no visible increase or increase in lux when I turned the Hamilton bulb from 250 to SL setting.

I honestly prefer the color and price of the Hamiltons, and wish I had my lux meter back when I first installed them. If this bulb starts out with the same par as a Radium (operating at 250w vs 250w per kevinsquint's test), then being 9 months old, it has lost about 13% of it's intensity and is approaching time to be changed out.

The Radium runs blue enough that on the SL setting I get much more PAR and don't need or want supplemental actinic like I would/did with the Hamilton... and the Radium lasts well over a year vs needing to be changed at 9 months.

Bottom line, it's a wash. Great bulb with amazing color yet somewhat shorter useful life, and you'll need supplementation to get the little extra blue and PAR of the Radium (when the Radium is run on the appropriate wattage). For me and my setup, that's roughly 150 par at the surface.​

I am a little confused, 150 par using a metal halide conversion table would be 10650. And 30000 Lux would be something like 500 par? Are you saying you are only getting 150 par at the surface with a radium 250? At 6" deep I get around 470 par on the normal 250 setting and 570 or so with my setup on SL with a newish radium. Honestly I get 150 or so on the bottom of the tank. Although I have a couple of new M80 ballast Im currently running my lights on CoralVue Luxcore Selectable ballasts.

For par measurements I'm using a Apogee SQ 520. I can double check this tonight if you would find it helpful.

 

[Velcro]

I bet if yo

My apologies for digging up a dead thread, but thought I'd add my 2 cents.

I bought and ran the "new" Hamilton 20k 250w (after seeing this thread) for 9 months on luxcore select-a-watt on the 250 setting in Hamilton Cayman Sun pendants. They are slightly more white than the Radium 20k, and the color is very pleasing (coraline algae a little more purple, yellows a little more yellow, etc). I don't have any readings from when the bulb was new, but at 9 months I was reading right at 22-24,000 lux at the surface of my tank. I put in a Radium 20k with one year's use on it and turned the ballast to the super lumen setting. Measurements at the same spot were 30,000 lux. Oddly enough, there was no visible increase or increase in lux when I turned the Hamilton bulb from 250 to SL setting.

I honestly prefer the color and price of the Hamiltons, and wish I had my lux meter back when I first installed them. If this bulb starts out with the same par as a Radium (operating at 250w vs 250w per kevinsquint's test), then being 9 months old, it has lost about 13% of it's intensity and is approaching time to be changed out.

The Radium runs blue enough that on the SL setting I get much more PAR and don't need or want supplemental actinic like I would/did with the Hamilton... and the Radium lasts well over a year vs needing to be changed at 9 months.

Bottom line, it's a wash. Great bulb with amazing color yet somewhat shorter useful life, and you'll need supplementation to get the little extra blue and PAR of the Radium (when the Radium is run on the appropriate wattage). For me and my setup, that's roughly 150 par at the surface.​

I bet if you used an m80 magnetic ballast on the radium you'd like the color just as much as the hamilton 20k. The hamilton bulb is spec'd to run at 250 watts I think. The radium is supposed to run with a magnetic m80 ballast which I think is around 330 watts. Running it at 330 will make it more white.

 

[Semisonyx]

I am a little confused, 150 par using a metal halide conversion table would be 10650. And 30000 Lux would be something like 500 par? Are you saying you are only getting 150 par at the surface with a radium 250? At 6" deep I get around 470 par on the normal 250 setting and 570 or so with my setup on SL with a newish radium. Honestly I get 150 or so on the bottom of the tank. Although I have a couple of new M80 ballast Im currently running my lights on CoralVue Luxcore Selectable ballasts.

For par measurements I'm using a Apogee SQ 520. I can double check this tonight if you would find it helpful.

I get about 150 more PAR out of the Radium on Superlumen than the Hamilton 20k at 250w setting on the surface. With a one year old Radium on SL setting in a Hamilton Cayman reflector 12 inches off the water surface, I'm getting about 600 PAR. Sounds pretty comparable to what you're seeing.