What are you talking about? That chart shows the cost of running said lights over a 50.000hr period. Even at $700.00 for a Gen3 it's still the cheapest to run.
Why I love my Metal Halide
- Thread starter RedneckReefer68
- Start date
- Tagged users None
What are you talking about? That chart shows the cost of running said lights over a 50.000hr period. Even at $700.00 for a Gen3 it's still the cheapest to run.
jackson6745
Valuable Member
Your chart doesn't take in consideration the spread of a MH bulb compared to an LED. One LED fixture does not = one halide.
Tab28
Valuable Member
What size tank would one 3g be enough for? A friend of mine has a great looking tank with 3g on his 6' long tank. The tank is 18" deep and 2' wide. It took 6 units to get the coverage. So would you have to times those totals by number of led units needed for same coverage? One led unit unit does not have same cubic coverage as a 250 mh or 6 t5 system.
Lilmatty5dimes
2500 Club Member
- Joined
- Mar 16, 2011
- Messages
- 2,972
- Reaction score
- 787
- Location
- Port St. John, FL
- What state or country do you live in
- Florida
That's a beautiful stunning tank.
Lilmatty5dimes
2500 Club Member
- Joined
- Mar 16, 2011
- Messages
- 2,972
- Reaction score
- 787
- Location
- Port St. John, FL
- What state or country do you live in
- Florida
Crap. I have a 65g tank which is 36x18x25 and was planning on using a single 250w halide and 4 vho.
Here is a tank shot, you can see it get darker the farther away from the middle.. Not placed any frags permanently yet so it's pretty barren
Last edited:
Lilmatty5dimes
2500 Club Member
- Joined
- Mar 16, 2011
- Messages
- 2,972
- Reaction score
- 787
- Location
- Port St. John, FL
- What state or country do you live in
- Florida
This isn't accurate at all. Your parameter and the stability of your tank would take more affect on color and growth. Not just lighting.
That's a stunning tank.I love my halides. Been running the same reflectors since my first tank 2 1/2 years ago. Lumen max elite 250w de with xm 20k bulbs. Id like to add some t5s eventually to supplement. Ill get better pictures tomorrow since ive cleaned the algae off the glass since these pictures
30
93
OP
OP
RedneckReefer68
Well-Known Member
I think you will be OK with a good reflector
Tab28
Valuable Member
Reflectors are a major factor. I have a pair of lumen max elite. The par 18" below bulb. Is still over 800. The front corner, the lowest par area, of a 24" deep 24" width is still at 200.
The bulbs take about 100 hours to burn in. I bought mine used and it came with m58 ballasts. I plan to swap them for either m80 or lumatek select a watt in a couple months
Where did you come up with the $200 ballast figure? You can buy the best ballasts out there for around $120
The chart you posted was obviously from an led fan and has lots of false information and didn't consider lots of things. Going from 6xt5 to 2x250mh and 4xt5 resulted to my power bill increasing $3 monthly. I really do wish someone would make an accurate chart showing the true costs of all the lighting systems.
Care to elaborate? Are you saying that LED's are NOT cheaper to run? I know for a fact that they are.
I didn't say they dont use less electricity. But the real difference is exaggerated to justify the start up costs by almost everyone.
This hypothetical 15 years difference doesn't take into account that the led fixture probably won't last that long either. There has also been information produced that stated the life expectancy of an overdriven diode (which are in most led fixtures) are around 7 years.
Let's try to get as realistic as possible here. A radion is supposed to replicate a 250w halide.
1 g3 pro radion $750
Lumenbright reflector, lumatek ballast and bulb $290.
The difference in cost is $460
Replace the mh bulb 1 time per year for the next 6 years is an additional $360 (we started with 1 bulb)
Replace the radion in 7 years at an additional $750
After 7 years the radion costs $1500 and the metal halide $650
7 years is taking it for granted that you could actually wait 7 years to upgrade.
Using the chart you provided the difference in cost for electricity over 7 years is $340. 50,000 hours at 12 hours a day for led is 11.4 years compared to 50,000 hours at 8 hours a day for metal halide is 17.1 years. But we won't take that into consideration for this purpose although we know it's there.
$650 plus the $340 difference in electricity comes out to $990.
So after 7 years halide vs led the halide comes out $510 cheaper
1 g3 pro radion $750
Lumenbright reflector, lumatek ballast and bulb $290.
The difference in cost is $460
Replace the mh bulb 1 time per year for the next 6 years is an additional $360 (we started with 1 bulb)
Replace the radion in 7 years at an additional $750
After 7 years the radion costs $1500 and the metal halide $650
7 years is taking it for granted that you could actually wait 7 years to upgrade.
Using the chart you provided the difference in cost for electricity over 7 years is $340. 50,000 hours at 12 hours a day for led is 11.4 years compared to 50,000 hours at 8 hours a day for metal halide is 17.1 years. But we won't take that into consideration for this purpose although we know it's there.
$650 plus the $340 difference in electricity comes out to $990.
So after 7 years halide vs led the halide comes out $510 cheaper
Last edited:
Tab28
Valuable Member
Gallaxy because you can use radiums on them easily. Not to say other electric ballast will not work. But the ballast and reflectors are same company. So it was plug and play. No need to retrofit plugs. My system is SE since radiums only have 150 in hqi. Also easier to just unscrew a bulb than to remove canopy to switch out the hqi bulbs.
How high are the reflectors off the water? I have the same reflectors as you but DE ran by a blueline dual ballast and my par sucks. With lights 12" off the water my deep blue 30 is only getting 75 around the edgeson the bottom of a 12" deep tank. The highest is only 420
Tab28
Valuable Member
About 10". What wattage are your bulbs, sure ballast and bulbs are good? I had a cheap odysea hqi. That pushed 800 at 6" below bulbs. In my 120 I can only keep chalices in very center of tank. The cross beam added with center gap between my reflectors, reflectors are 15" squares, is my dimmest area. It is 140 par. Still bleaches chalices and leptoseris if i do not acclimate.
gettaReef
Valuable Member
Just curious, how do you go about acclimating the chalices? I mean with your lighting being so strong, there is no other area to set them with lower PAR unless it's under a overhang or something
