MH hybrid

[Smite]

Wow, beautiful daylight color. Just my style. Did the RB’s and the Hamilton 14K grow those colonies without the help of any other MH bulbs? This was grown from frags or this was a transfer to this tank?

I’m asking because I want to know for sure if RB’s and that Hamilton can grow coral as well or close to some of the old school bulbs, reflectors, ballasts, etc.

A mix, some were grown from frags in that system (only up a little over a year) but some were transferred. The tank started with g5 blues for the first few months. The tank before that was mh/t5/led with radiums towards the end, g3 prior. I've tried going back to LED a few times but always find more success with MH personally.

Here is that tank (edit; is said a few but it was more like) 5 months later before I transferred to my current tank. The overflow side is a radium the front a 14k for comparison. No doubt the hamilton lamps grow acro like crazy. MH/LED is my favorite but MH is doing the heavy lifting for me and the blues are more for viewing purposes before and after. You can see I went t5 in the backround. I ran that for the last year, I've recently gone back to the RB mh hybrid that was over my last tank and its going very well.

Oh and when comparing to a old school lamp, specifically the 20k radium for look and growth, you have to account for the specific ballast it was being ran on overdriving it. I think the M80 designed for the radium ran that 250w 20k lamp closer to 330w making it whiter and more crisp than you'll get out of the same lamp ran on a electronic ballast, even on HQI for 250w.

 

[Reefahholic]

MH/LED is my favorite but MH is doing the heavy lifting for me and the blues are more for viewing purposes before and after.

That’s exactly my plan.

You can see I went t5 in the backround.

Nothing wrong with that. Definitely more available.

The overflow side is a radium the front a 14k for comparison.

Is it just me or is the Radium side growing Much better?

No doubt the hamilton lamps grow acro like crazy.

This was in the RB’s? What ballast would you drive them with if you didn’t have the RB’s?

I've recently gone back to the RB mh hybrid that was over my last tank and its going very well.

So you feel like they’re pretty close to the old school equipment? I guess the RB’s will run most bulbs including 250w Hamilton 14K and 250w Radium 20K?

Oh and when comparing to a old school lamp, specifically the 20k radium for look and growth, you have to account for the specific ballast it was being ran on overdriving it.

So the RB’s are under-driving the Radium by how much?

 

[Smite]

That’s exactly my plan.


Nothing wrong with that. Definitely more available.


Is it just me or is the Radium side growing Much better?


This was in the RB’s? What ballast would you drive them with if you didn’t have the RB’s?


So you feel like they’re pretty close to the old school equipment? I guess the RB’s will run most bulbs including 250w Hamilton 14K and 250w Radium 20K?


So the RB’s are under-driving the Radium by how much?

The Radium lamp wasn't in there for long. That rear structure towards the overflow came from my 180g breakdown, so those acros had a decent head start over the front section's on that side.

The hamilton lamps are meant to be driven at a normal 250w range. So they were fine on the RB ballasts. Other ballasts you'll be running them around 250-275w. I'd probably be looking at icecap if I wasn't running RB but I don't see a reason or benefit of doing that.

I can't recall if I plugged my RB ballasts into a watt meter at any point so I can't tell you by how far they would underdrive Radium, but that would I'm sure. I'd guess the RB ballast draws about 260w. That goes for any other electronic ballast even if selectable for 250w/250wHQI. HQI setting (can be used for overdriving a normal mogul 250w lamp) would still only be in the 275-280w range I believe. I know the original Radium 250w were meant to be driven on the magnetic M80 ballasts that are hard to come by now, that drove them at 330w. I'm not sure if that's still the case for Radium lamps or not? I'd be interested to know for sure. Hopefully someone will chime in.

But I do feel like most old school MH guys talk about how the Radium lamp was a nice crisp white at 330v and I don't feel that is still the case with Radiums at 250-275w. They are nice but blue.

 

[Reefahholic]

The Radium lamp wasn't in there for long. That rear structure towards the overflow came from my 180g breakdown, so those acros had a decent head start over the front section's on that side.

The hamilton lamps are meant to be driven at a normal 250w range. So they were fine on the RB ballasts. Other ballasts you'll be running them around 250-275w. I'd probably be looking at icecap if I wasn't running RB but I don't see a reason or benefit of doing that.

I can't recall if I plugged my RB ballasts into a watt meter at any point so I can't tell you by how far they would underdrive Radium, but that would I'm sure. I'd guess the RB ballast draws about 260w. That goes for any other electronic ballast even if selectable for 250w/250wHQI. HQI setting (can be used for overdriving a normal mogul 250w lamp) would still only be in the 275-280w range I believe. I know the original Radium 250w were meant to be driven on the magnetic M80 ballasts that are hard to come by now, that drove them at 330w. I'm not sure if that's still the case for Radium lamps or not? I'd be interested to know for sure. Hopefully someone will chime in.

But I do feel like most old school MH guys talk about how the Radium lamp was a nice crisp white at 330v and I don't feel that is still the case with Radiums at 250-275w. They are nice but blue.

So is it OK to drive the 250w Radium’s in the RB’s. Is anybody doing it? Maybe Hamilton bulbs are better choice like you said, but I really want to go with the radium’s. That color on the right was looking really nice. It’s blue, but nice.

 

[Smite]

So is it OK to drive the 250w Radium’s in the RB’s. Is anybody doing it? Maybe Hamilton bulbs are better choice like you said, but I really want to go with the radium’s. That color on the right was looking really nice. It’s blue, but nice.

Nothing wrong with that at all. They fire fine. If you like blue they blend in well with the XHO too.

 

[Reefahholic]

Nothing wrong with that at all. They fire fine. If you like blue they blend in well with the XHO too.

Ok great. Maybe I can try. I just hope it will be ok. If anybody is doing this please chime in.

 

[rtparty]

Major disclaimer: I don’t put a ton of validity behind these pics since they are different tanks, different phones used, white balances, your screen vs my screen, blah blah blah

Radium on Giesemann electronic ballast pic tanker in 2017:

Hamilton 20k on ReefBrite ballast. Pic taken end of 2021:

ReefBrite 14k bulbs on ReefBrite ballasts. Pic taken in early 2021:

My opinion is the ReefBrite14k and Hamilton 20k pics look too blue/cool compared to real life. But might give a decent idea

I am ordering Radiums to put on my current tank in the next day or two.

 

[Reefahholic]

@Reefahholic not the best pictures but my last system had so much white in and around it, it's pretty accurate as far as color goes. 250w 14k hamiltons on reefbrite ballasts

Was this with or without supplements?!