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which ballast operates the halides?I want to give a big shout out to @ScottW for helping me with my purchases! My fixture arrived today so I got to get my have dirty when I got home, I cleaned up my hybrid fixture and removed the radions. I adjusted my brackets to better fit the new fixture. While trying to adjust my DIY brackets ft or my xho units I broke a bracket, oops. I'll go to home depot tonight.
Old setup
New setup minus xho blue
Anyone care to share their light schedule with MH, T5, & LED??
3 hr minimum if you have other lighting in lineHow long do you think you can run halides at a minimum? I want to try it. Would 15 mins per day be beneficial? 30 mins?
How long do you think you can run halides at a minimum? I want to try it. Would 15 mins per day be beneficial? 30 mins?
How long do you think you can run halides at a minimum? I want to try it. Would 15 mins per day be beneficial? 30 mins?
generally, yes.so , 5-6 hours per day is more then enough?
Heck yeah. Hang them high too so you can really get some great spread. The ballast, bulb and reflector combinations really matter as well.so , 5-6 hours per day is more then enough?
it will be 2 × 400w bulbs with Bali Sun reflectors , operated by Lumatek electronic ballastHeck yeah. Hang them high too so you can really get some great spread. The ballast, bulb and reflector combinations really matter as well.
I have the Lumatek ballasts. Don’t know much about the Bali Sun reflector but I believe it’s much like the Reefbrite reflector if I’m not mistaken. The Lumatek is a good ballast. I do get much more par and a brighter crisp white out of my Radium 400 watt bulbs on a frag tank with my older Galaxy ballasts though. My guess is that the Galaxy ballast overdrives the bulb a bit...even past the Super Lumen option on the Lumatek.it will be 2 × 400w bulbs with Bali Sun reflectors , operated by Lumatek electronic ballast
it will be 2 × 400w bulbs with Bali Sun reflectors , operated by Lumatek electronic ballast
Thank you !I have the Lumatek ballasts. Don’t know much about the Bali Sun reflector but I believe it’s much like the Reefbrite reflector if I’m not mistaken. The Lumatek is a good ballast. I do get much more par and a brighter crisp white out of my Radium 400 watt bulbs on a frag tank with my older Galaxy ballasts though. My guess is that the Galaxy ballast overdrives the bulb a bit...even past the Super Lumen option on the Lumatek.
Either way you’re good to go and can grow any sticks you want under that setup.
Well, now I can officially say growth is better with 3x250w pheonix, galaxy electronic, and reef optix iii. Then it was with 4x80w T5. Everything else stayed them same. Plus my wife has not said anything other than the tank looks good. When the blue wave 7 ballasts were on the dining room floor next to the tank, she wasn’t thrilled. I was able to hide the electronics on the back of the canopy.PETER ERC - notice any growth differences
Electricity is cheap in US, 0,18€ in France and it should increase 45% the next years (hope not) and Germany already is at more than 0,37€.Ok. I’ve listened to a lot of talk over the years regarding LEDs saving money over time in heat, no bulb replacement, etc. I think too many times people parrot what they hear a lot of others say or like to listen to their favorite farming operations (which may be getting their LEDs at a deep, deep discount (or even for free) wink, wink. So, let’s do the math as comparative as possible. Let’s say we’re lighting a standard 6x2x2 180 gallon tank. Regarding halides we’d need 3 reflectors, 3 bulbs and 3 ballasts. Let’s say for supllental lighting we use 2 led bars...Orphek for arguments sake.
Bulb: Radium 250 watt @$80 x 3 bulbs = $240
Ballasts: @$150 x 3 = $450
Reflector: @ $150 x 3 = $450
Orphek Light Bars: @$325 x 2 $650
Total: $1,790 to have a wall to wall SPS tank
Using an average killowatt cost of .15 for comparison on a 10 hour day photoperiod:
Halide Power Usage for a 5 hour peak photoperiod = 750 watts x 5 hours = 3500 watts = 3.5 kilowatts @ .15 per kilowatt = @.53 per day x 365 days per year = $193.45 per year
Orphek Light Bar usage (70 watts each) for a 10 hour photoperiod = 70 watts x 2 strips = 140 watts x 10 hours = 1,400 watts = 1.4 kilowatts = @ .21 per day x 365 days per year = $76.65
Halide and Orphek Material Cost: $1,790
Power Consumption per year: $270.10 x 5 years = $1,350.50
4 more years of radium bulb replacements @ $240 per year = $960
Total: $4,100.50
Now, many may not realize the Radion G6 is a 215 watt led fixture. I’m not convinced you’ll only need 3 of these to cover a 6 foot SPS tank but let’s say you’re using 3. Regardless of your intensity setting, the fixture will always pull 215 watts at the wall. That said:
215 watts x 3 fixtures = 645 watts per hour x 10 hours = 6,450 watts = 6.45 kilowatts @ .15 per kilowatt = .97 per day x 365 days per year = $354.05 per year x 5 years = $1,770.25 electric usage.
$1,770.25 power consumption
$2,700 fixtures
Total: $4,470.25
Now, I know many want to add a bunch of other variables. No, I’ve never needed a chiller. With the right reflector (Lumenmax Elite) I can easily hang my halides 18” off the water and have never seen more than a 1.5 degree rise in temperature. However my LEDs have always kicked on my heater much more often because they run cool.
Even with bulb replacements, unless you’re a techy that needs the new bells and whistles, you’re paying more to run LEDs. Furthermore, how many people still have their led fixtures over their tanks from 5 years ago? Not many at all. So in year 6 halides beat the pants off led in both growth and cost. If you’re using t5, you’re saving even more money and growing and coloring up corals better.
IMHO, LED manufactures and the industry pushing everyone in that direction is trickling down to the final cost of what we pay for frags these days that grow slower as the farmers try to recuperate the cost of all their led fixtures
The math is there and hard to ignore once upon see it.