Back to halides?

[rtparty]

Happy to see this old post pop up.

I went back to halides 16 months ago and don't miss LEDs for a second.

 

[wrassie86]

No more blue haze for me either! :)

 

[Superlightman]

When I used metal halide bulbs, I needed to get an aquarium chiller.

If you put 250w no,it not changed a lot,with 400w probably but not sur,I had no chiller with my 400w even in summer when it was very hot and nothing died.Maybe I was lucky the 15 years I had them? Corals were much less sensitive under hqi than now under my leds. You can also out aircon in your room so no need for a chiller and all family is happy with it;-)

 

[Dr. Jim]

Are there any SE bulbs available other than Hamilton and Radium? (I really miss the Reeflux 12K !)

Are there any SE fixtures still being made other than Hamilton and Reef Brite?

 

[rtparty]

Are there any SE bulbs available other than Hamilton and Radium? (I really miss the Reeflux 12K !)

Are there any SE fixtures still being made other than Hamilton and Reef Brite?

Reef Brite has SE bulbs galore. Their 14k is very white

 

[wrassie86]

looks like

Are there any SE bulbs available other than Hamilton and Radium? (I really miss the Reeflux 12K !)

Are there any SE fixtures still being made other than Hamilton and Reef Brite?

looks like coralvue markets the mega chrome line of bulbs now. or at least that what's listed on there website along with Giesemann Infinity fixtures.

 

[131696]

Only thing wrong with halides is electric bill and heat in a room and that's needs to be vented or keep ac on 65 or lower for that room, that's it ,turn it on and forget it, with leds have to set a schedule a big headache to me ,halides are the best just leave ac on 65 might need a chiller also with halides if you cant keep room that cold. It does make a lot of heat.

 

[PeterErc]

Dug an old sunlight supply blue wave m80 and phoenix 250w bulb out of the attic and slapped it over a 60g cube frag tank. Now I have the itch to put the three pendants back over the 150 and ditch the T5 and repurpose the LED. I thought colors were pretty good but the halide corals are looking better. . Looking forward to seeing what the frags look like under the vendors windex. Hell brown frags look good under blue led

 

[Dr. Jim]

Can anyone comment on the Megachrome halides (SE)? Trying to get an idea how they look compared to Radiums or Hamiltons.
Thank you.

 

[jda]

I have not personally used any of the megachromes, but I have seen them in person. They tend to have a bit of a purple tint and are very crisp and sharp. I know that is not very helpful since words don't matter much here. My friend who uses them said that they output was what you might expect from another HQI bulb - more in line with Radiums over Hamiltons since the HQI Radium uses more wattage.

If fPhoenix 14k ever disappeared, Megachrome 17.5 would be on my list. They look different, but I like it the few times a year that I see them. I also have a ton of m80 ballasts.

The megachromes used to be HQI only and I have no idea if that changed, or not.

For those who have not used Halides in a while, the heat is not what it used to be. Radiums still get pretty hot. 14k Phoenix never really did. The new hamiltons, giesemann and RB bulbs have been made in the last half-dozen years to keep IR heat lower. Plus, nobody uses grow bulbs anymore, except for maybe Adam at BC, and most reef bulbs are not as hot as those were. I had a 250w HQI Phoenix 14k over a 60g cube in my office and the tank would not even heat up a degree with a simple fan in the summer months... and we do not even use the AC. There is a link to this tank in my signature.

This whole heat argument kinda reminds me of the people who think that carburetors are somehow just nasty and full of polution. I have a 1972 big block olds and I tuned a carburetor to have emissions simialr to a brand new Toyota Camry (and less than a new v8 SUV) even though I have no cat converter. Sure, it took work and would need new jets, rods and timing at different elevations, but here at 5200 feet, it gets 20+ MPG and is low emissions. Sometimes the old thoughts are just not right anymore, especially when you know what you are doing.

Edit: 15:00 here on a Wednesday. 7 MH on over my main display - 5x 250w HQI and 2x 150w HQI. 6x 300w Eheim heaters are on too... so I guess that my MH are not putting out enough heat.

 

[rtparty]

My 250w ReefBrite ballasts pull 250-255w and the pendants are warm to the touch after a few hours. A Radion XR30 at 100% pulls like 215-220w. So barely any difference there. The heat from the LEDs mostly goes into the heatsink and the fans radiate it away into the room.

If my halides are heating up my water or basement I don't see it. I track my tank and room temp 24/7. There is no difference with halides on or off. I am running 750w of halides and 2 XHO bars that total like 120w combined.

 

[Dr. Jim]

I have not personally used any of the megachromes, but I have seen them in person. They tend to have a bit of a purple tint and are very crisp and sharp. I know that is not very helpful since words don't matter much here. My friend who uses them said that they output was what you might expect from another HQI bulb - more in line with Radiums over Hamiltons since the HQI Radium uses more wattage.

If fPhoenix 14k ever disappeared, Megachrome 17.5 would be on my list. They look different, but I like it the few times a year that I see them. I also have a ton of m80 ballasts.

The megachromes used to be HQI only and I have no idea if that changed, or not.

Hey Doug,

Thanks for that good info. I know you like Phoenix and I'm tempted to give them a shot, but I haven't used DE bulbs in about 20 years. I didn't really like them at the time but that may have been because all we had available were Ushio back then (and/or, maybe the IceCap fixtures were part of the problem).
But now that my favorite SE bulbs are gone and I'm not thrilled with Radiums or Hamilton SE bulbs, I may be ready to give the Phoenix DE a try. May I ask what is your favorite DE pendant?

I just bought 10 XR15 G6's. I'm trying to like LED's but am having a hard time, especially since I'm not excited about the G6's. But I'll try combining them with halides.....maybe use them to color-up frags (if that is even a "thing".)

Thanks for helping.

 

[jda]

For DE, I mostly use AquaMedic Ocean Lights. They have pretty small reflectors which kinda limits my usage to 24x24x30, or so. On the good side, they get a LOT of light in the tank. I have a Spectra, as well. I like the pendants that I can hang and have open tops.

On my larger tank with a hood, which needs 30x30x30, or so, coverage I have SE Radiums on LumenBrite III with SE bulbs.

 

[PeterErc]

So what’s the catch, HQI on electronic ballasts? You can cook an egg on sunlight supply reef optics with 250w phoenix with m80

 

[jda]

Fans. I have a 6' AquaMedic light and a 3' Giesemann with a fan on one side of the tank blowing across the top. The vent over the closest 250w Phoenix 14k is 85 degrees. The furthest one is 114 degrees - 6 foot for one fixture and 3 feet for the next. None of these will burn you and the room does not heat up. The AquaMedic m80s that I use are in vented boxes with fans, but most of my fans broke a long time ago and have not been replaced.

For reference, the back of my iMac Pro is 142 degrees right now with a lot of air pumping through it. I am using all 16 cores at 80+ percent right now.

Edit: used a Ryobi laser temp gun for this just now... kinda fun. Also the fan is a 3 speed Vornado or Honeywell.

 

[PeterErc]

Nubee temp gun 6” away
Hqi reflector 225•
hqi ballast case 98
Ceiling fan 3’ away

Sunlight supply 24” 4 banger 104•

diy led heat sinks no fan 136•
80w t5 x4 open top canopy depends where you shoot it 130•

ac is set 75 almost year round 73 at night

tv cable box 97

kitchen light bulbsx4 194

fat fluffy cat 77

wife when I put the ballast back in the dining room, hot as hell

 

[HuduVudu]

@jda I know I have complained about heat on MHs but when I was looking at them it was 2001. Can't really relate that in a post.

That said the heat off of my Radions is pretty serious. I can't wait to get my MH fixture done so that I can set them up. There will be a side to side period so I will be able to truly see the difference in the MH and the Radion. I am very curious, and after you saying that things have changed for the better I am REALLY interested.

 

[jda]

Nubee temp gun 6” away
Hqi reflector 225•
hqi ballast case 98
Ceiling fan 3’ away

Sunlight supply 24” 4 banger 104•

diy led heat sinks no fan 136•
80w t5 x4 open top canopy depends where you shoot it 130•

ac is set 75 almost year round 73 at night

tv cable box 97

kitchen light bulbsx4 194

fat fluffy cat 77

wife when I put the ballast back in the dining room, hot as hell

...so we are saying that the fat fluffy cat is the problem? Well done. :)

 

[nat1881]

I mixed radion G5 pro with 250w 20K corals look amazing

Halide to me still the best light for Sps. Beside par the spectrum of halide bulb fit best for Sps. My tank start out with halide then the Corals grow too fast so I switch to orphek

 

[Superlightman]

Can anyone comment on the Megachrome halides (SE)? Trying to get an idea how they look compared to Radiums or Hamiltons.
Thank you.

I bought last year a used giesmann infinity because I wanted to go back to halides .I wanted to try different hqi bulbs, unfortunately this fixture seemed not to be huge quality as when you try to change the bulb you have 80% chance to broke them . The insertion off one broke too ,so I could never use them ,maybe I should repair them?
But one off the bulb I tried was the megachrome 17,5 ,I just have them15min over my tank, but they looked very yellow!but maybe in addition with blue bulb they could be ok? But I was not very amazed by the color