Who likes Metal Halides ?

[Young Frankenstein]

I love my Metal Halides and after 30 years experiance on the electrical field and after talking to specialized lighting and bulb reps, I can tell ya LED's have allot to catch up to meet the spectrum and longevity of a metal halide, yes dont tell 50k hrs because you will be replacing them sooner than that its too much info to post but open for a constructive debate

 

[Saltgator]

I love my Metal Halides and after 30 years experiance on the electrical field and after talking to specialized lighting and bulb reps, I can tell ya LED's have allot to catch up to meet the spectrum and longevity of a metal halide, yes dont tell 50k hrs because you will be replacing them sooner than that its too much info to post but open for a constructive debate

I love the "pop" of LEDs, but my MH work and I'm getting the "pop" with VHO's. No intention on changing to another light source, so I'm in with ya. Plus, if it ain't broke, don't fix it.

 

[BillyC]

Halides/VHO fan right here.

 

[Ace25]

Not quite understanding where you think LEDs have a lot of catching up to do.. I can create a better spectral output with LEDs than any MH out there, and have it fully adjustable to any spectrum I want. I was a DIE HARD MH user for decades, I do have a fondness for them, but I could no longer afford them. The only spectrum missing when you compare the MH vs the LEDs is spectrum below 440nm, which can be fixed by adding 420nm LEDs. I have over 9000 hours on my LEDs and still working as good as day 1 (according to PAR readings). Even if I get 1/2 the expected lifespan of LEDs, 25k hours, I still have saved thousands of dollars in electricity and bulb replacement cost in that time, and by the time I have to replace them, there will be much better LEDs on the market for much cheaper than I originally paid, so I will have been wanting to replace them by that time anyway just to get the latest and greatest.

Here is the spectral output of the 3 white Cree LEDs vs a Phoenix 14k MH (my favorite MH bulb).

 

[Young Frankenstein]

I am in the electrical business, commercial and industrial, have access to representatives from every company selling industrial and commercial lighting and asked myself people that have gone to seminars regarding LED’s. I build warehouses and offices up to 1,000,000 sq ft ………….its all T5, LED’s have too many recalls mainly the driver fails, color changing happens within 5k hrs due to the shell plastic hardening, and if you don’t have a heavy duty heat sink you will experience failure much sooner than 50k hrs. See Sun Jays research on MH to see the spectrum of different MH bulbs, and frankly I trust my eyes, and SPS results not some biased spectrometer reading. J

 

[Ace25]

Are we talking "industrial use" LEDs or "Aquarium specific" use for LEDs? There is obviously a very big difference. Sounds like the industrial market is using some very cheap components if they are having the issues you describe because I have never seen any of those issues when using quality components on a reef tank. I have spoken with Sanjay many times about lighting so I am not sure what your referring to with his research.

How does one get a "biased" spectrometer reading? You put the light under the spectrometer and tell it to print out (at least that is how I do at my work when testing spectrum output of lights).

 

[ritter6788]

I am in the electrical business, commercial and industrial, have access to representatives from every company selling industrial and commercial lighting and asked myself people that have gone to seminars regarding LED’s. I build warehouses and offices up to 1,000,000 sq ft ………….its all T5, LED’s have too many recalls mainly the driver fails, color changing happens within 5k hrs due to the shell plastic hardening, and if you don’t have a heavy duty heat sink you will experience failure much sooner than 50k hrs. See Sun Jays research on MH to see the spectrum of different MH bulbs, and frankly I trust my eyes, and SPS results not some biased spectrometer reading. J

I'm electrically retarded. I don't know the first thing about electricity except that I plug something in and hope it comes on. I have no complaints about color or growth from my leds, I also had no complaints with my MH. The leds are plain ol blue and white, 119 1w in each fixture. If the fixture only last 3 years it will be cheaper for me than MH bulb replacement, not counting ballast failure and actinic lighting replacement. I trust my eyes too and I don't see any problems with my sps. I wouldn't know what a spectrometer reading was anyway. MH, led, t5 are all great for growing corals. I don't get why people keep arguing that one is better than the other.

 

[Reef Breeders Verified Sponsor]

I am in the electrical business, commercial and industrial, have access to representatives from every company selling industrial and commercial lighting and asked myself people that have gone to seminars regarding LED’s. I build warehouses and offices up to 1,000,000 sq ft ………….its all T5, LED’s have too many recalls mainly the driver fails, color changing happens within 5k hrs due to the shell plastic hardening, and if you don’t have a heavy duty heat sink you will experience failure much sooner than 50k hrs. See Sun Jays research on MH to see the spectrum of different MH bulbs, and frankly I trust my eyes, and SPS results not some biased spectrometer reading. J

Industrail LEDs are the cheapest out there. Any good fixture for aquarium use will have a heatsink or fans to keep the LEDs cool. If the LEDs run at a high temp, the spectrum will change. LEDs blow mh away no question, you can make any color output without even touching the fixture, just press a few buttons, and a color change is free. I have 3 LED fixtures over my 125 gallon reef, that use 60 watts each. with mh, each pendent was using 200-250 watts each, plus $150-$200 every year in bulbs. There is no bias on spectrometer readings, and eyes are very very poor at telling the difference. I have seen sps frags become mini colonies twice as fast as they did when I used mh, not to mention the color. And this is with the older XP-E LEDs, not even the newest XT-Es and XP-Gs.

 

[Ricks Reef]

I haven't joined the LED crowd yet and don't know if I will.I LOVE the color my Phoenix 14 k MH gives off on my reef tank.On my 180 gallon Fowlr I have Vhos and am more than happy with the color.The best part is as everyone goes to Leds,The prices of Mh bulbs and Vhos are coming WAY down. Picked up 2 Phoenix 14k 150 watt Mh for 33 bucks each a month ago.