Inexpensive MH bulbs

[EvilMel]

I started with M/H back in the early 80's along with T5HO in the recent past, I have never had any problems with those types of lighting other than the 350.00 electric bills
My current tank has a very wide range of high end SPS from Tyree, Sniper,ORA,1/2 of Dave's SPS that he sold when he took his tank down and I could go on but you get the Idea. I have the Original Purple Monster (Tyree) And the 500 Efflo The Tyree Ice Fire Echinata and some that have been passed to me from Angela Short Via Who knows where she got them but every color you can get i have and plenty of them at the moment as I am also holding coral for a friend. I am not very good at posting or taking pictures but anytime your in the Spring Hill Area come and see for your self. My tank will compare with any that i'm aware of in this Club or area that i know of even after battling AEFW for about a year and losing 1/2 of what i did have.
IME Led's are a learning curve that a lot of people have not figured out yet or are willing to spend the large amount of money required to do them right. Plus from reading a lot on this subject the corals first have to adapt to a unfamiliar light source but when they do they will thrive like under any other light source. I have seen all the nay sayers that IMO gave up too fast to have their coral adapt to the new lighting.
I'm also not trying to force anyone to do what i prefeer just inform them of my results along with several friends with the same results as me.
Bill

iiiiinteresting.

 

[poolkeeper1]

I'm curious, how do you keep the under sides of your SPS from going white? It happened to me when I switched from MH to LEDs, I can't stand looking at the white undersides. Don't get me wrong, the electricity saving are great, but after a year of LEDs and the white undersides, I'd rather pay a bit more.

Sorry for posting in your club thread, I'll get off of it.

Just flip them over ever one in a while! LOL I couldn't resist that one as you opened the door. As far as your statement goes I have seen some corals have this issue but overall i'm happy with the results in general, It seems to me that certain colors are more likely to see this happen and placement in the tank may be a common factor in avoiding this from occuring.
Led lighting IME does not bend around like M/H or T5, As an example if you turn on a set of T5HO it will light your tank as well as the room it's in but with Led's the light is directed down into your tank and you get very little light in the room. Unless you are not using Optics as most users do, This leads me to believe that the light is more directional and has less ability to spread like conventional lighting. But proper placement of your coral will go a long way in avoiding this issue JMO
Bill
PS, Your welcome to post here any time you like.

 

[pickupman66]

Andy... I used the plusrites for about a year. Got moderate growth and good color. One set did color shift quickly. Replace them often and only get the 20k ones. I got mine from 1000bulbs.com. great return policy if u need it. Good folks to deal with too.

 

[andywe]

Andy... I used the plusrites for about a year. Got moderate growth and good color. One set did color shift quickly. Replace them often and only get the 20k ones. I got mine from 1000bulbs.com. great return policy if u need it. Good folks to deal with too.

Thanks Lindsey!

 

[luisgo]

This thread started about the Plusrite metal halides and now we have two pages about the leds...

I have used the Plusrite 20K MH bulbs now for almost two years. I can say that they look great, very nice color and they last easily 9 months without loosing intensity. I supplement the MH with 2 UVL VHO's 454 and Superactinic and a Reefbrite led strip. Love my light combination!

Check my tank here https://www.reef2reef.com/forums/reef-aquarium-spotlight/68828-reef-spotlight-september-2011-a.html

 

[cee]

Andy... I used the plusrites for about a year. Got moderate growth and good color. One set did color shift quickly. Replace them often and only get the 20k ones. I got mine from 1000bulbs.com. great return policy if u need it. Good folks to deal with too.

My experience with them as well. Fast spectrum shift, start out very blue (20k), short lifetime unless you can tolerate a yellow tank after a few months. 14 k are worse. Stick with the Radiums if you're going to stick with MH.

 

[orthokardia]

My experience with them as well. Fast spectrum shift, start out very blue (20k), short lifetime unless you can tolerate a yellow tank after a few months. 14 k are worse. Stick with the Radiums if you're going to stick with MH.

I have to throw 2pennys in for reeflux 12k. I have been running 1-400w reeflux 12k and 1-400w radium for nine months as an experiment. I am getting ready to replace both with two reflux 12k's. Almost identical color with better par and $66 vs $80.

 

[gmoney243]

(chants) LEDs LEDs LEDS!!

 

[poolkeeper1]

(chants) LEDs LEDs LEDS!!

Do it on the Led Thread, How about a Diy thread of your recent build Mike?
Bill

 

[gmoney243]

Do it on the Led Thread, How about a Diy thread of your recent build Mike?
Bill

haha just saw the thread .. and i did a build thread of my LEDs ill post over there the link to it.

 

[andywe]

LED are great, but I want more history. Maturity does not mean the aren;t ready, and it isn;'t a stigma being cast. It is that they are still in infancy for aquatic use and something new and better comes out several times a year. I just want to let the dust settle a little more as my lights work fabulous and no reason or need for me to switch. So donut read anything more into it. All you pioneers are doing fabulous with them! I have been running LED's on one tank for almost 2 years now, and THAT technology was disappointing compared to what is available today.

Thanks for the Input Cee, Bart, and Luisgo..I use Radiums now and actually moving from 20k to 14k because I tweak my blue with a T5 mod I did...the plus rites I bought the 20k counting on them stabilizing around the visual eye color of 14k..I have seen 20k bulbs that look try different from each other with name brand as well. XM vs Ushio Vs Radium all different hues to the human eye.

 

[mixer911]

Stick with radiums or switch to phoenix 14k DE. Reeflux 12k would be a 3rd option. In my experience cheap bulbs are just that, cheap. In essence you are going into the same relm using a unknown MH bulb as you would be going LED. With so many mixed responses about the pulserite bulbs I don't think its worth the few bucks saved. I have used almost every name brand MH bulb out there in 250w and 400w and can say that not all are created equal. I also have tried a few cheap chinese 20k bulbs and they sucked.

 

[andywe]

Stick with radiums or switch to phoenix 14k DE. Reeflux 12k would be a 3rd option. In my experience cheap bulbs are just that, cheap. In essence you are going into the same relm using a unknown MH bulb as you would be going LED. With so many mixed responses about the pulserite bulbs I don't think its worth the few bucks saved. I have used almost every name brand MH bulb out there in 250w and 400w and can say that not all are created equal. I also have tried a few cheap chinese 20k bulbs and they sucked.

Yeah it's a risk...I just thought it interesting that these got pretty good reviews, even from Sanjay....I am putting a set over my FOWLR setup just to see what they look like. Not going to trust corals to them but it's a cheap experiment that will if nothing else amuse me LOL.

 

[cee]

I started with M/H back in the early 80's along with T5HO in the recent past, I have never had any problems with those types of lighting other than the 350.00 electric bills
My current tank has a very wide range of high end SPS from Tyree, Sniper,ORA,1/2 of Dave's SPS that he sold when he took his tank down and I could go on but you get the Idea. I have the Original Purple Monster (Tyree) And the 500 Efflo The Tyree Ice Fire Echinata and some that have been passed to me from Angela Short Via Who knows where she got them but every color you can get i have and plenty of them at the moment as I am also holding coral for a friend. I am not very good at posting or taking pictures but anytime your in the Spring Hill Area come and see for your self. My tank will compare with any that i'm aware of in this Club or area that i know of even after battling AEFW for about a year and losing 1/2 of what i did have.
IME Led's are a learning curve that a lot of people have not figured out yet or are willing to spend the large amount of money required to do them right. Plus from reading a lot on this subject the corals first have to adapt to a unfamiliar light source but when they do they will thrive like under any other light source. I have seen all the nay sayers that IMO gave up too fast to have their coral adapt to the new lighting.
I'm also not trying to force anyone to do what i prefeer just inform them of my results along with several friends with the same results as me.
Bill

My little SPS nubs (PM, OT, red/blue mille and DW Aussie highlighter yellow) are doing quite well under LEDs as well. Growth is hard to assess; they're all slow growers (the way I like it). Compared to a 250W Radium driven by an HQI ballast I notice virtually no difference between the 2 lighting setups, but a Radium driven by an HQI ballast was quite intense to begin with. I can now run a cooler tank w/o any supplemental cooling and the electric bill is lower. 20 Royal blue / 12 cool white / 5 UV is my mix over a Solana, all with 60 and 70 degree optics run full blast at 700 mA. About $200 invested is all, so in about 2 years I break even not counting the electricity savings.

 

[poolkeeper1]

My little SPS nubs (PM, OT, red/blue mille and DW Aussie highlighter yellow) are doing quite well under LEDs as well. Growth is hard to assess; they're all slow growers (the way I like it). Compared to a 250W Radium driven by an HQI ballast I notice virtually no difference between the 2 lighting setups, but a Radium driven by an HQI ballast was quite intense to begin with. I can now run a cooler tank w/o any supplemental cooling and the electric bill is lower. 20 Royal blue / 12 cool white / 5 UV is my mix over a Solana, all with 60 and 70 degree optics run full blast at 700 mA. About $200 invested is all, so in about 2 years I break even not counting the electricity savings.

Dave are you running XRE or XPG or some other type?? Just curious as to how you did yours. The XPG that I used from Cree i found that setting the driver at 1.2 if I run them at 100% it's way too much PAR or intensity and did burn some of my coral. Now set at around 50% on the Whites and 85% on the Blues seems to be the sweet spot for me. I used Royal Blue, Cool White and High Noon White @ 2 to 1 Ratio including the HN's The 500 Efflo from Copps is now turning all purple for the first time since i have it.
Bill

 

[cee]

They're all XREs, except the UV lamps. I read all about the XPGs and coral burning so I didn't want to risk it nor did I want another power supply to adjust power levels. Just trying to keep the cost as low as possible. Haven't burned a thing or experienced any of the other problems other had.

 

[poolkeeper1]

They're all XREs, except the UV lamps. I read all about the XPGs and coral burning so I didn't want to risk it nor did I want another power supply to adjust power levels. Just trying to keep the cost as low as possible. Haven't burned a thing or experienced any of the other problems other had.

I understand, Thanks and good luck with your set up.
Bill