Are Metal Halides Making a Comeback?

[ReefBum]

I know this is a hotly debated topic and many folks have strong opinions when it comes to the best lighting today for SPS. I have used MH's for years with a lot of success but I know the technology for LED's has come a long way recently. Are a lot of LED users jumping back to MHs after being disappointed with growth rates and colors? Seems like there are a lot of threads on this topic. Anyway, here is my POV & review of a not so new MH light fixture



Link to article for you text centric folks: http://reefbum.com/equipment/are-metal-halides-making-a-comeback-a-new-review-of-an-old-product/

 

[BoneXriffic]

Im a firm believer in halides, I love em, and have never needed a chiller.

My thoughts are halides are tried and true. We cannot question their abilities but they are old technology. I have no interest in l.e.d but l.e.d are quite expensive initially but cheaper to maintain. And given the right l.e.d they work great...

Besides the sound of a halide ballast firing gets me all giggley, and i love the shimmer (kessils seem to have this effect to so they would be my l.e.d. choice)

 

[trmiv]

I was halide, then kessil, then back to halide. My greatest reef success has always been under halide. Not saying you can't have success with other methods but for me I love the simplicity of them. Just plug them into a timer and you're good. No messing with spectrums or intensity. For some that stuff is great. For others (like myself) it can just get you into trouble.

I've never had issues with heat and halides. I keep my house cool in the summer and winter so it's never been an issue for me. A fan blowing over the surface is all I've ever needed.

Only negative for me is energy costs. Not as bad now that I live in NC instead of California but the two 250w halides on my new 120 will cost me around $18 a month to run. I'd be closer to $3 to 4 with led.

Still for now the positives I like with halides outweigh the cost per month so I stick with them.

 

[Humblefish]

I've never give up my MHs, just hate the cost of running them & replacement lamps.

 

[cracker]

I miss my MH's. However the last year I have been trying LED's . No real op's on the leds yet.

 

[BoneXriffic]

@Russ265 hes a good one on the l.e.d. revoloution

 

[Russ265]

@Russ265 hes a good one on the l.e.d. revoloution

thanks for tagging me buddy.

look. halides you cant go wrong. no one said "i hate my halides. im going back to led".

however...

leds is a new market and a lot of the trash has to shake out before we find the "phoenix" halides of leds.

i was within an inch of going back to halides until i tried the evergrow 165 wifi black boxes.

ill say this. im equally impressed with this as the phoenix.

some of my learning moments. use the par meter and what it says goes. dont add 15% or whatever they say. all you do is feel better about your purchase, not the performance of growth.

ton of respected vendors have crap leds... do your homework. if they cant give before and afters, then i wont give them a look.

leds need more nutrients in the tank.

gone are the days of 0 nitrate and phosphate unless you use these softer halides. people bleach their corals with 0 nutrients going the old 90s style. leds are laser beams essentially. they need a few nutrients to cover for that.

im agnostic to what is best. but halides are a bit easier to use. leds. well.... you better be on your game using them. it isnt "free" success

also. my leds are a combined wattage of almost 1000. thats right. i have 6x 165 watters. dont get them because you want to save money. get them because you are enjoying their productivity. i can easily return to 3x 400 watters and not bat an eye.

sorry if i wasnt more descriptive in my transition.

 

[mcarroll]

l.e.d are quite expensive initially

There's a notion that you are required to have something that's become known as a "full spectrum" fixture AND you have to spend $700 on one....otherwise you can't grow corals.

If you buy into that line of thinking, LED's are very expensive and sort of mediocre - mostly boring shoeboxes with added green and red LED's.

When the economy crashed and I was out of work, I had no way to keep the halide system going.

Somewhere along the way I had run into this thread:
http://www.nano-reef.com/topic/267432-gu10-led-build-thread-chinese-ebay-lights/

For the cost of one set of Radiums for my old fixture, I could build an LED system. No joke!!

I've built a few of these since then....still use one.

They lack gimmicks. They grow corals. With blue and white LED's and 30º lenses.

They'll run you about $20-$30 per square foot of surface area....hard to beat! No more than $40 per square foot, even if you wanted to go with custom bulbs and more features. (No need to go for the extras, but you can.)

The popular commercial fixtures go for about $300 per square foot for comparison!

 

[BoneXriffic]

There's a notion that you are required to have something that's become known as a "full spectrum" fixture AND you have to spend $700 on one....otherwise you can't grow corals.

If you buy into that line of thinking, LED's are very expensive and sort of mediocre - mostly boring shoeboxes with added green and red LED's.

When the economy crashed and I was out of work, I had no way to keep the halide system going.

Somewhere along the way I had run into this thread:
http://www.nano-reef.com/topic/267432-gu10-led-build-thread-chinese-ebay-lights/

For the cost of one set of Radiums for my old fixture, I could build an LED system. No joke!!

I've built a few of these since then....still use one.

They lack gimmicks. They grow corals. With blue and white LED's and 30º lenses.

They'll run you about $20-$30 per square foot of surface area....hard to beat! No more than $40 per square foot, even if you wanted to go with custom bulbs and more features. (No need to go for the extras, but you can.)

The popular commercial fixtures go for about $300 per square foot for comparison!

I have not had experience woth diy. Ive seen alot of success stories.

Halide systems can be found cheap now a days though. Bulbs are still pricey though and a yearly expense. Theres alot that can be said about looks too.

Im likeing this thread however.... me and my halide buddies are bonding, like the last of the mohicans

 

[greg 45]

At this time I am running Reef Brite metal halides with there led supplement. There reflector packs plenty of punch .My tanks are 4 foot by 8 foot and running them on a light rail. Being old school I like on off with a simple timer. I did try led Pacific Sun and a no name brand. The Pacific sun were a total waist of money for me. The cheep black boxer were 100 % better. The whole ramping up ramping down is just a selling feature for us to enjoy. I also don't enjoy a blue tank .This led game wasn't for me. I have seen both work over the years. Take your time and do your home work before buying any light set up.

 

[FL_Reefer]

I have always used MH for my main light sorce and probably always will. It just works for me and it's what I know so I don't think I will change it. I've used MH on 2 different tanks. Ya there is a cost to run and replace bulbs but that cost doesn't out weight what I get from them. I've never had an issues with heat either. I'm in FL and we keep the house nice and chilly in the summer anyway. I love my MH lights and what they do for me.

 

[reeferfoxx]

As a newbie to reefing(almost 2 years) but not freshwater, i opted for led as i used full spectrum leds on my planted freshwater tanks. I don't want to make a general statement for most newbies however leds are more readily available. I, like Russ, use chinese black box and will never consider MH for my tank. Mine are the 165w wifi controlled and programmable. They are super bright. I have to keep them 16 inches above water level. I never ran the intensity higher than 70% on either blue or white channel. My sps loves them. I couldn't imagine switching to MH and then jumping into R2R, 10 or so months down the road, asking whats going on with my coral? The nightmare for me would be when someone asks, how old are MH lights?

 

[FL_Reefer]

You would never have to ask that question with MH REEFERFOXX. Lol jk

 

[reeferfoxx]

You would never have to ask that question with MH REEFERFOXX. Lol jk

Haha.. I was gonna say, those tubes go bad lol

 

[Elegance Coral]

I too run MH's in Florida with no chiller. Never needed one.
I work in the industry and deal with many different lighting methods. For me, the reliability of MH's is just hard to beat. They don't come with a bunch of bells and whistles. They don't make lightning storms, ramp up or down, or cook breakfast, but they work. I can depend on them to come on every day and do their job. When the lighting is the life support system for thousands of dollars of coral, I need them to work every day. I've just seen far to many LED's break down. I know others have had better luck with them than I have.

I know of a shop that started out, about two years ago, with LED's on all their systems. About 90% of those have been replaced due to failure. Of the roughly 10% that remain, many of them don't work 100%. The only dependable lights in the shop are the T5's they purchased about 8 years ago, (and had to pull out of storage) and the MH's they bought used.

 

[reefwiser]

Whatever works I own them all. The long term outlook for MH is bad industry wide as more large plants which to LED for plant lighting the overall market for MH bulbs decreases putting pressure on plants that make MH bulbs and causing prices to rise for all MH bulbs. An the small niche that the Reef hobby uses get's hard and hard to keep prices reasonable.

 

[Elegance Coral]

Whatever works I own them all. The long term outlook for MH is bad industry wide as more large plants which to LED for plant lighting the overall market for MH bulbs decreases putting pressure on plants that make MH bulbs and causing prices to rise for all MH bulbs. An the small niche that the Reef hobby uses get's hard and hard to keep prices reasonable.

I agree. And it's also harder to find the equipment.

 

[AllSignsPointToFish]

I had halides in the past, and I loved them. I have Kessils now, and I love them as well. I think what you end up with depends on what you're trying to grow. I've mostly grown softies and LPS in the past, so either technology would work for that setup. However, I recently started with a stick of green Acropora, and it is doing very well under the combination of Kessil LEDs and T5HOs.

 

[shred5]

Leds are fine for softies and lps but fall short on sps. I switched to kessils a while back and they still provide growth but colors still lack some but are better now with some UV added.

The real problem is self shading with leds, most SPS tanks I have seen that look decent have loads of leds, matter of fact they have so many leds they do not save money on energy. I switched from t-5 to leds and my corals started to bleach, loose tissue and loose colors on the undersides. Can leds work yes but with allot of them, you need to light more than just the tops of corals.
We mainly view corals from the front. I am now looking at hybrids or just back to t-5.

They need to find away of spreading out the light of leds. Most people do not run leds at 100 percent anyway so who cares if there is a little lost light.

 

[Russ265]

Leds are fine for softies and lps but fall short on sps. I switched to kessils a while back and they still provide growth but colors still lack some but are better now with some UV added.

The real problem is self shading with leds, most SPS tanks I have seen that look decent have loads of leds, matter of fact they have so many leds they do not save money on energy. I switched from t-5 to leds and my corals started to bleach, loose tissue and loose colors on the undersides. Can leds work yes but with allot of them, you need to light more than just the tops of corals.
We mainly view corals from the front. I am now looking at hybrids or just back to t-5.

They need to find away of spreading out the light of leds. Most people do not run leds at 100 percent anyway so who cares if there is a little lost light.

this seems to be my experience as well. I need almost the same wattage and massive coverage with leds before i was accepting of the tech.

i went with some other leds that would have supposedly worked, but they were awful. very little growth over a year of use.

i run my blues 100% and whites 75% with my black boxes and obtain 1175 par (from the meter). i do miss the shimmer effect of halides though.

its interesting that black boxes seem to be a common success with hobbiests. although, ive heard the mars aquas are hit and miss.