Metal Halides are the bomb

[A. grandis]

A little change of gears but , isn’t it cool that so many people are buying LEDs and literally dumping metal halides for cheap or next to nothing. Lol .
Go ahead peps spend enough money to buy a good used car on some big money LEDs , then sell those perfectly good lights for peanuts. Just to find out in 3-5 years they are spent and buy again.

I've been telling people here for so many years about the huge amount of money wasted getting so many of those LEDs to play with. Truth is that they paid big money to actually test them for the manufacturers. When they spend that much money with their systems they get upset when someone tells them it was a waste and they actually could do better with less investments in the long run. But they needed to believe at all costs that their money was wisely invested. After a while they saw the "need for the upgrades" and such, with the smart marketing strategies, and thought about it... I think some of them finally realized what is happening in this hobby. We see people getting their halide systems very often nowadays. I was heavily criticized in the beginning when I said LEDs shouldn't be used as a primary source of light for optimal results, but so many reefers actually thanked me for what I've published in the past. Other old timer halide users here are also responsible for this help! They laughed at me when I told them one day people would get back those halides over their systems. I'm very happy to see how many reefers are seeing the amazing benefits of metal halides lately and growing their corals the way it should! Results don't lie! Yes, "Metal Halide are the bomb!"
Pretty soon you won't be able to find halides for peanuts anymore.

 

[X-37B]

I've been telling people here for so many years about the huge amount of money wasted getting so many of those LEDs to play with. Truth is that they paid big money to actually test them for the manufacturers. When they spend that much money with their systems they get upset when someone tells them it was a waste and they actually could do better with less investments in the long run. But they needed to believe at all costs that their money was wisely invested. After a while they saw the "need for the upgrades" and such, with the smart marketing strategies, and thought about it... I think some of them finally realized what is happening in this hobby. We see people getting their halide systems very often nowadays. I was heavily criticized in the beginning when I said LEDs shouldn't be used as a primary source of light for prime results, but so many reefers actually thanked me for what I've published in the past. Other old timer halide users here are also responsible for this help! They laughed at me when I told them one day people would get back those halides over their systems. I'm very happy to see how many reefers are seeing the amazing benefits of metal halides lately and growing their corals the way it should! Results don't lie! Yes, "Metal Halide are the bomb!"
Pretty soon you won't be able to find halides for peanuts anymore.

Well said.
My halides are like steriods for my corals, lol.
But remember steriods dont work!
This is a wild acro.
Growth from the 3 months the halides have been on.
All corals have shown this type of growth in that time period.

 

[mitch91175]

I stopped maintaining my system for a bit and still not like I used to. Running MH on the system as well. Nutrients got way out of control. PO4 was up to 0.8. Yeah I lost some color and a few pieces, but coral still going strong. Coralline algae seemed to speed up growth somehow as well. Yeah my system has been running for a while, but overall I attribute majority of my SPS staying alive due to my lighting. Could totally be wrong, but I feel I have more major of error now running MH than when I was running LED.

 

[A. grandis]

Metal halide has qualities very close to what the sun offers. There is no other artificial lighting system that will provide those qualities the same way halides provide for the corals.
4 basic vital things in your system: lighting, water temperature, water movement and nutrient control.
When you offer optimal lighting, temperature and water movement you already have 85% of the those vital requirements in check.
Remember: back in the 90's we didn't have test kits and didn't know how much phosphates were in our tanks and the reef tanks were kept under halides! They were the best example of a living art there was!
Now we can control phosphates better testing and with many options of removal. That shouldn't be an excuse to use less than optimal lighting.

 

[WvAquatics]

Yea reading this make me decide to get 3 halides for my future 300g build. Maybe a couple of led bars to give a pop. But for the price of one decent led for a 300g 3 halides will be cheaper.

 

[mitch91175]

Metal halide has qualities very close to what the sun offers. There is no other artificial lighting system that will provide those qualities the same way halides provide for the corals.
4 basic vital things in your system: lighting, water temperature, water movement and nutrient control.
When you offer optimal lighting, temperature and water movement you already have 85% of the those vital requirements in check.
Remember: back in the 90's we didn't have test kits and didn't know how much phosphates were in our tanks and the reef tanks were kept under halides! They were the best example of a living art there was!
Now we can control phosphates better testing and with many options of removal. That shouldn't be an excuse to use less than optimal lighting.

Oh yeah I ran MH back in the day too and had a beautiful system. Back then though prices for live stock were decent and fish didn't have all the diseases they come with these days.

 

[phillybean]

Hey everyone, looking for some advice.

Setting up a 220 gallon tank (30" depth), lighting is a bit "interesting".

I have two 24" Cebu Sun, 250 Watt Fixtures and one 24" 8 Bulb T5 fixture. There is a large (20" wide) center brace, so I have the two Cebu Sun's on the end, & T5 only fixture over the center brace. SPS will be on the ends, Zoa's & LPS in the middle.

I have upgraded Electronic ballasts for the M.H. fixtures, but I know I need new bulbs, likely both T5 & M.H.

What bulb combo would you all recommend? I'm leaning towards 14k Hamilton Bulbs with 4x Blue Plus in the Cebu Sun, and 3 Coral Plus/5 Blue Plus in the T5 only fixture. Could also go with 20k Hamilton or Radium's with 2 Coral Plus / 2 Blue Plus and then 2/6 in the T5 Fixture. Color and coral "pop" is obviously important, but I'm upgrading from a 90 gallon, so increased growth to fill the bigger space is the main priority right now.

 

[skip0211]

I run 2 blue plus and 2 coral plus t5’s in my Cebu 6” MH system.. I’ve run 400 watt Hamilton 20k and 400 watt Radiums (3) I prefer the Radiums as I feel they are crisper, but that’s just opinion. You can’t go wrong either way..

 

[A. grandis]

Hey everyone, looking for some advice.

Setting up a 220 gallon tank (30" depth), lighting is a bit "interesting".

I have two 24" Cebu Sun, 250 Watt Fixtures and one 24" 8 Bulb T5 fixture. There is a large (20" wide) center brace, so I have the two Cebu Sun's on the end, & T5 only fixture over the center brace. SPS will be on the ends, Zoa's & LPS in the middle.

I have upgraded Electronic ballasts for the M.H. fixtures, but I know I need new bulbs, likely both T5 & M.H.

What bulb combo would you all recommend? I'm leaning towards 14k Hamilton Bulbs with 4x Blue Plus in the Cebu Sun, and 3 Coral Plus/5 Blue Plus in the T5 only fixture. Could also go with 20k Hamilton or Radium's with 2 Coral Plus / 2 Blue Plus and then 2/6 in the T5 Fixture. Color and coral "pop" is obviously important, but I'm upgrading from a 90 gallon, so increased growth to fill the bigger space is the main priority right now.

Both choices will work.
Just choose the spectrum ("20K" or "14K") you want.
If you choose the 20K halides go with the Hamilton bulbs instead Radiums cause Hamilton 20K bulbs are designed to run with the electronic ballasts.

 

[brahm]

Woah good thread, but did I miss it, no mention of the holy grail setup..(or at least for me)?!

20k Radium + Bluewave ballast & luminarc reflectors, and ALWAYS SE (the DE bulbs were a nightmare broke so many putting them in and taking them out). Halides performed so differently between SE/DE and 250 vs 400, and each bulb would have different results with each ballasts, sanjay used to have a ton of write ups. The above setup even though a 20k always gave me amazing growth, great coverage, and awesome colour w/no supplementation, and wasn't "overly" blue, somehow it would make the fluorescents pop. On my 5x3x2 setup, I ran two full-size luminarcs 400w and on my 3x2x20 I ran two minis w/250w.

Never really did a great job capturing how much this tank popped in real life. I know it's not as saturated and neon as photos from LED tanks, but now that I'm back in the hobby and running LED, it's working and fun to play with things and when you're running more blue you get some wild colours but looking at things in person, hmm I can't say if I didn't happen to come across some luminarc mini's and a bluewave ballast for a good deal I wouldn't snatch it up for a little comparsion.

 

[A. grandis]

Lumenarcs were just amazing!!!
Cozumel Sun is a similar pendant.
https://hamiltontechnology.com/index.php?route=product/product&path=17_85&product_id=95Please feel free to post some pics of your Lumenarc reflectors over that tank.

 

[brahm]

Don’t have many the first 2 tanks was rimless/hoodless lumenarc worked but were pretty industrial looking, so I always cropped them out or the photos would be blown out trying to get the exposure. Here they are in the hood of the 3rd setup. Oof, 400 a pendant don’t think I paid that much for my complete 2x ballast/pendant combo back in the days

 

[A. grandis]

They look amazing! I'm hoping this market would get back to normal and start to produce some more halide goodies like that! Hamilton has been doing a great job! Back in the day many of us took for granted and now we appreciate so much what we had! Gotta love Acros!!!

 

[Backreefing]

Woah good thread, but did I miss it, no mention of the holy grail setup..(or at least for me)?!

20k Radium + Bluewave ballast & luminarc reflectors, and ALWAYS SE (the DE bulbs were a nightmare broke so many putting them in and taking them out). Halides performed so differently between SE/DE and 250 vs 400, and each bulb would have different results with each ballasts, sanjay used to have a ton of write ups. The above setup even though a 20k always gave me amazing growth, great coverage, and awesome colour w/no supplementation, and wasn't "overly" blue, somehow it would make the fluorescents pop. On my 5x3x2 setup, I ran two full-size luminarcs 400w and on my 3x2x20 I ran two minis w/250w.

Never really did a great job capturing how much this tank popped in real life. I know it's not as saturated and neon as photos from LED tanks, but now that I'm back in the hobby and running LED, it's working and fun to play with things and when you're running more blue you get some wild colours but looking at things in person, hmm I can't say if I didn't happen to come across some luminarc mini's and a bluewave ballast for a good deal I wouldn't snatch it up for a little comparsion.

Awesome tank but I found a easy way to change double end bulbs . I simply rock the bulb back and forth and it settles in the ceramic mounts easy peasy.

 

[phillybean]

That look's amazing, that is the look I am after, great color but more importantly, big colonies. I'd take a great reef with big "normal" SPS colonies over a tank full of designer 3-5" frags all day.

 

[phillybean]

Both choices will work.
Just choose the spectrum ("20K" or "14K") you want.
If you choose the 20K halides go with the Hamilton bulbs instead Radiums cause Hamilton 20K bulbs are designed to run with the electronic ballasts.

Thanks, I'm thinking of going 14k to start, just to maximize growth

 

[Snowman82]

I just started back in the reefing last year with a 60 cube and a black box, never could get over the disco effect and found a used Giesemann Infiniti for 200 bucks with good bulbs still.....I had to grab it. all i had ever used was halides before and loved how it looked. now that i'm moving over to a 120 I found myself a Giesemann Spectra 2-250w with T5.....was going to switch to LED and T5 but it would cost the same as the spectra....and if a bulb burns out in it....I can replace....unlike a LED system

Plus Giesemann's are just sexy....

 

[A. grandis]

I just started back in the reefing last year with a 60 cube and a black box, never could get over the disco effect and found a used Giesemann Infiniti for 200 bucks with good bulbs still.....I had to grab it. all i had ever used was halides before and loved how it looked. now that i'm moving over to a 120 I found myself a Giesemann Spectra 2-250w with T5.....was going to switch to LED and T5 but it would cost the same as the spectra....and if a bulb burns out in it....I can replace....unlike a LED system

Plus Giesemann's are just sexy....

Love my Spectra! It has a very nice coverage and looks great!!! Best solution if the system fits it well. You are on the right path! Enjoy the ride!

 

[Snowman82]

Love my Spectra! It has a very nice coverage and looks great!!! Best solution if the system fits it well. You are on the right path! Enjoy the ride!

my only worry is they stop producing bulbs....our options are limited as is haha

 

[Backreefing]

That’s not going to happen unless , the government outlaws halide bulbs