SE bulbs are easier to find now and allows us to just swap the bulb to change wattage in any fixture. Electronic selectable ballasts will make it a breeze during the hard to find gear times that we are in. We should think about a wider angle of options and to choose SE bulbs now is certainly an advantage.
To change DE bulb wattages will need also to change the sockets!
I hope the
market to get better soon! The main problem now is to find raw materials to produce metal halide gear, as per Hamilton. Demand is still significant for bulbs, ballasts and fixtures, they still say. They are trying their best and they didn't give up as far as I know. A recycle program incorporated in the
market of bulbs would be a very intelligent move today. To advertise is the key, if the shelves become full again! The hope is the last to die!
In regards to Radium... I've already mentioned, and many of the halide users on this forum know, that the 250W Hamilton 20K has a very similar spectrum to 250W 20K Radium. See chart bellow.
I would go with a 175W-250W 14K lamps for such a shallow grow out tank. Perhaps would be a good idea to start with 20K bulbs, because the corals are coming from LEDs. Much smoother adaptation using 20Ks. Then change later to 14K lamps. It would be great to start with 175W and then, if so, later try to advance to the 250W. Adaptation is so important IMO! The longer the corals are under LEDs, the longer the adaptation needs to be, technically/generally speaking. Now... I know we will hear some friends chiming in saying they have changed from LEDs to halides and you don't need to worry much about adaptation cause they didn't have much problems, and it was fine...halides are indeed much more forgiving than LEDs to adapt to a higher intensity! Again... the pigment formation and adaptation from LEDs to halide will be much faster in the long run if it is done slowly in the beginning. It could take a year or more in some cases to fully appreciate the changes in pigment production with light changes. What happens is that when people change they are fast as notify their friends how amazing the halides are... later, after a year, sometimes they will go even crazier with the colors... Try not to add too much additives to pull out those colors, cause you won't need. Halides are already able to give you the colors when you feed the fish and do water changes with proper params!!! Make sure you have fish in the system to help the coral's adaptation. Bring down the hours to 1 or 2 a day and slowly increase the photoperiod to what you need. Go back if you notice bleaching! It will take much longer to heal from bleaching in a low nutrient system. If you go slow you won't have any bleaching!!! You can have halides on for 1 hours for 2 or 3 days... then 2 hours for 3 to 4 days... then 3 hours for 3 days, 4 hours for 5 days... something like that.
The LED X halide arguments in regards to electricity is already set and we know it was one of the marketing strategies that LED manufacturers used to "replace" metal halides with their LEDs. I've been saying that since 2010 or so... Those who are still trying to use that argument, please go do your search and spend time learning about that. It has it's variables, but in the end it's just an excuse in the great majority of the cases! This is a halide thread. I think it's time to show the respect halide users have not going to every and each LED thread trying to show LEDs users how halides are "much better for their application".
So we have different personal preferences and priorities.
Everyone needs their space to talk bout their personal preferences and I'm so happy that now we see metal halide users discussing their interesting without 30+ LED users coming to close a halide thread! Thanks!
I talked about that and other metal halide subjects last week on ReefBum.
Halides are so great that it is almost impossible to get it wrong, when you take your time to adapt the system to them. You won't believe in the results of pigmentation, colony structure, natural growth rates and how health the coral tissue will be in the end of the story!!! The corals will love you forever!!!!!!!! I'm happy to see so many friends giving so many great tips in this thread!!! Halide rules in so many aspects! It's a great choice among the other technologies!!!
Gotta love ACROS!!!
