Are MH lights going extinct?

[greg1786]

Ive been out of the hobby for 3 years roughly. I recently set my 125 back up and have always ran sps dominated mixed reefs which I plan to do again. I have a beast of a MH fixture. 72" 3x250 watt DE and 2x150watt DE old school aquamedic ocean light. I need to change all 5 bulbs so I drove an hr and half to a massive fish store that I used to buy most of my equipment from. They always had a nice selection to mh bulbs and in general a very large selection of just about every type of equipment you could imagine. Think of a large chain pet store for everything fish tank related.

Anyhow I went to the lighting section and was unable to find anything MH. No fixtures, no bulbs, nothing. The store had been changed a bit since I last had been so I figured I was overlooking them. I got an employee and asked if he could show me to the MH bulbs and he laughed, no joke, he literally laughed. He said when is the last time youve been here sir, to which I replied been a few years. He then told me they no longer carry anything metal halide. He said we have a limited t5 selection and when it sells out we wont have that either . he proceeded to tell me if it isn't LED they wont be carrying it pretty soon. In short he was trying to tell me I'm old and out dated and need to switch to LEDS.

I have ZERO plans to switch to anything. I could never imagine my tank without my beautiful halide shimmer. I suppose ill be relegated to buying them online going forward. I am curious though, has the hobby changed that much in the past 3 years I've been absent? I know LEDS have become very popular but are people not using mh anymore...or much of t5s? Man sorry for the long winded post I am just a bit tweaked about this situation lol. Anyhow thanks for any responses take care folks
Greg

 

[rtparty]

Depends.

Are they far less common than they used to be? Yep, by a LONG shot to.

They are definitely "extinct" to new hobbyists. For those of us that "know", we still use them.

 

[greg1786]

I am very glad to see at least someone still uses them lol. I know the led conversation has been exhausted to no end so I don't mean to not want to open that ball of wax. I do remember back a few years ago before I took hiatus, that MH had become at that point less common as LEDS had began to take over the hobby, but I got to say I never imagined MH would have gotten this "sparsely used" or "outdated". I suppose I assumed because they were so true and true proven commodities that they'd always have their place on the shelves in LFS by I suppose not. I completely understand the price argument, no bulbs to change on LEDS and the savings in electricity pays for them in the long run. However speaking from a pure hobby standpoint, IMHO there is zero substitute for the beauty of a reef tank, especially an sps reef tank lit up by a metal halide light.

 

[greg1786]

Tride and true **

 

[Nburg's Reef]

Yeah it sucks that there's not much in the way of new equipment on the market, but hamilton make nice fixtures. Bulbs aren't going anywhere tho.

 

[skiergd011013]

Lighting has changed so fast over the last 10 years. Me personally, i hate leds for reefs. I just cannot get a look i like with them. T5s are my favorite. At work, our reef used to be lit with 3x 250w 20k metal halides. Tank looked great. We have since switched to hydra leds and i am 100% disappointed in them. Glad i didnt pay for them.

 

[Yuki Rihwa]

Adapt and move on, after I switched to LED and never look back and I love it.

 

[reefwiser]

The issue you will find is that the internet has really hit LFS hard as to stocking equipment and bulbs. Most shops just carry the bare minimum. This hobby also has a lot of equipment manufactures an they want the NEW and there is a LARGE faction of hobbyist that want the new stuff. In a mistaken hope that getting a certain light or filter that some Hobbyist of Coral vendor uses.( companies give high profile hobbyist and companies product.)
LED's companies are constantly trying to get their lights to equal MH the issue is that the light is a totally different source it is a straight down pin of light so hot spots are an issue. So you are seeing vendors put diffusers on their lights add lenses to their lights. All in a effort to try and make the pin of light wide as MH and T5.

 

[Slicktop]

T-5's and MH ... Perfect combo!

 

[Adam G]

I am and LED guy myself these days. Metal halide were my go to for years but for multiple reasons I switch to LED’s early on. I think you will see metal halide stick around for a while to come. It is a great lighting option and other than a couple of drawback such as heat and power consumption the best lighting in my opinion. I for one refuse to run a chiller and can’t have the heat on my system so LEDs fit my needs better.

 

[Robsk]

I have ZERO plans to switch to anything. I could never imagine my tank without my beautiful halide shimmer. I suppose ill be relegated to buying them online going forward. I am curious though, has the hobby changed that much in the past 3 years I've been absent? I know LEDS have become very popular but are people not using mh anymore...or much of t5s? Man sorry for the long winded post I am just a bit tweaked about this situation lol. Anyhow thanks for any responses take care folks
Greg

I think the list of mh users is getting much shorter, but its still a tried and true option. T5s are still getting used a lot. In fact, now its a hybrid solution of LEDs and T5s. The trends are interesting...just look at the "for sale" section. A lot of bouncing around, but not much mh action.

 

[Nburg's Reef]

Adapt and move on, after I switched to LED and never look back and I love it.

I have switched and switched back. I like kessils because they look like MH, but LEDs make the tank look so dark. I love how bright the tank looks withMH. To get that with LEDs would surly pump out huge PAR numbers with lots of fixtures and likely toast coral. Radions sounded nice but also made the tank look dark and the flickery shimmer was annoying as i have lots of surface agitation.

 

[120reefkeeper]

I still use halide lighting and will continue to do so until I can't.

I look at it this way. What do folks always try to mimic with LED??

They are always being compared to MH / T5.

So why not just use them?

I look forward to the day that LED truly can match MH/T5 but I don't think we are there yet.

LED are continuously being refined so I believe one day they may take over completely.

I will remain MH/T5 until that day comes.

 

[teller]

If you want to blame LEDs for MH "extinction" you should blame T5.
Most people I know with successful SPS/Acro setup's use T5 only!
Nowadays MH people have to blame someone , so they choose the weakest link, the LEDs which are still in development.
To the OP, in 2014 the situation regarding MH was the same as today...most people who used MH moved to T5 only with great success.
Please stop blaming LEDs for MH fate.

 

[DSC reef]

If you want to blame LEDs for MH "extinction" you should blame T5.
Most people I know with successful SPS/Acro setup's use T5 only!
Nowadays MH people have to blame someone , so they choose the weakest link, the LEDs which are still in development.
To the OP, in 2014 the situation regarding MH was the same as today...most people who used MH moved to T5 only with great success.
Please stop blaming LEDs for MH fate.

I don't see any blaming here, just opinions of people who still prefer halide lighting, what's wrong with That? Maybe the same could be said that your an led guy hating on halides? Let's not turn this into another bash thread. If you like leds @teller then that's great, nothing wrong with any of the light choices. Personally I think the OP's LFS handled it wrong by laughing at him like it's terrible lighting. I've been thinking of the halide/led combo from reef brite.

 

[Abhishek]

If you want to blame LEDs for MH "extinction" you should blame T5.
Most people I know with successful SPS/Acro setup's use T5 only!
Nowadays MH people have to blame someone , so they choose the weakest link, the LEDs which are still in development.
To the OP, in 2014 the situation regarding MH was the same as today...most people who used MH moved to T5 only with great success.
Please stop blaming LEDs for MH fate.

Funny guy . You haven't seen some of the hardcore mh tanks . Shall I tag a few ?

@hybridazn , @jda , @aquavista99 - especially Tim(AV99) literally God of coloring up acros ..

Anyways to the op , NO mh is not going to extinction .. surely it's not as prevalent as it used to be but there are lots of hardcore mh guys including me .
Choices have become a little less mostly in the ballast and reflector but whatever are available are mostly the top of the line .

Regards,
ABHISHEK

 

[DeniseAndy]

I set my current large tank up over 10years ago and it is still running mh and t5s. Love them. Not sure I would ever change. On all my smaller systems, I use t5s only. Just for the traveling tank when at a school do I use a led lamp.

I am not against led at all, just not what I use and trust. Yes, evergy bill and lamp cost are high, but I know when the change is needed, I know the spectrum, I know I can trust the lights. I am just not there yet with LEDS. Me personally, not necessarily the leds. Just too old school still. Why change what is not broken is my philosophy.

 

[andrewkw]

I could be off, but at least to me it seems like they are getting (a little) more popular again. To be fair I switched from MH to T5 probably close to 10 years ago, and was a pretty early led adapter. I am still using my Kessil a350 for example (mixed reef not sps dominated). A few years ago you couldn't give away MH fixtures now there seems to be more discussion about them. I'm actually going to bust out a 250w mh I couldn't give away a while back for a frag tank. A new bulb is cheaper than even a black box led and maybe I'll see what I've been missing all these years.

 

[greg1786]

Wow, very stoked to see all the responses. For the couple ppl who think I or we are bashing LEDS that's not the case. I purposely wrote in my OP that I totally get why ppl use leds and I didn't want this thread to become and LED is to blame thread. Anyhow back to the point, I realize back in 2014 that MH were already no longer the popular choice but you could at least, or i could anyway, still drive to any of my LFS and pick up a bulb no problem. I was just a bit taken aback by the fact that there wasn't a single store within 50 miles of me that still carries them. I also think that the reason I was upset last night was not only was I surprised to drive so far to find zero MH selection but then on top of it this employee, and kid might I add, laughed at me as dsc reefer said.

All in all I am just old school and love my metal halides. I simply wish they were less dated in the hobby and more readily available locally. I don't mind leds or t5 in all honesty I ran a t5 8 bulb fixture years ago on a smaller tank, and I am currently looking for some blue supplements for my mh which I will prob end up going reefbrites or another all blue led strip. I appreciate the discussion guys feel free to keep it rolling

 

[120reefkeeper]

I've had the same issue with my LFS not carrying them anymore. I just order them online. BRS has a pretty good selection of them.