Moving to MH !
- Thread starter Yanir34
- Start date
- Tagged users None
A. grandis
2500 Club Member
- Joined
- Feb 15, 2012
- Messages
- 4,735
- Reaction score
- 3,412
"MH just wastes heat and light, which the world cannot afford right now."If you add 25 years ago to that sentence, I'd agree with you.
There is nothing MH can do that beats LED. Been there and done that.
MH just wastes heat and light, which the world cannot afford right now.
It looks better if you like stoned out coral
The same amazing results using halides is well achieved today. The best looking tanks in this world, any time in history, including the most healthier looking organisms, are under halides. And today we have even better halide systems in terms of technology.
"There is nothing MH can do that beats LED."
The 2 types of lights are totally different types of technology and light production, photons distribution and delivery, and will give you different results in many aspects. So to say that LED will offer the ANYTHING halides can is a wrong statement to say the least. No one can achieve the exact same results using either LEDs or halides. There will be always those signatures present in the results of each product.
"MH just wastes heat and light, which the world cannot afford right now."
MH uses energy to produce the most complete light, including IR, not wasted, but used by the reef system as well. IR is used in photosynthesis, for example.
The world can afford anything... by now we all should know that MOST "green ideas" are pure political and financial statements of interests. They change their rules as they play their game. We should be interested in offering the very best to captive reef organisms to achieve results similar to what we find in the ocean and IMHO halides are the very best for that purpose, not LEDs. If we can afford frags for ~$400 we should be able to afford MH lighting to keep those frag at their best.
I'm glad I'm not the only one that see such results!
To end this I just want to say that every time there is a nice thread with MH info there are those who come in to protect their LED investments and try to put MH down. It is so sad to have these "intrusions" with such behavior. Either MH, T5s or LEDs are just different ways to reef and should be the norm and seen as just personal preferences to achieve the results each person wishes. Each type has their signature, as I've said before, and reflects on the results.
Let's just respect each other and let the nice halide talk to flow. This life is too short!
I'm a halide/T5 guy. This is a halide thread and I love it!
Peace!
Not true. Thats a subjective statement. Maybe best for you but not others. It’s all personal preference.
OP
OP
Yanir34
Well-Known Member
So true !
I don't like all LED's addicted fans, that thinking the LED's is perfect . it is simply not true.
I'm in this hobby for 15 years , and the most beautiful, healthier ,thriving reef tank was with MH and T5. anyone can argue how LED's are better , more efficient and other exuces....eventually , MH is proven for the last 25 years of growing corals (especially SPS) with great success.
Once again personal opinion. I have MH and LED. The MH are currently stored in the garage. I bought my first SPS in 1998 and it grew under power compacts. MH may be your preference but you cannot say definitively it is the best way.
A. grandis
2500 Club Member
- Joined
- Feb 15, 2012
- Messages
- 4,735
- Reaction score
- 3,412
I hope LED users will eventually get the message!
Why do they get excited to flame (for a lack of a better word) halides in a thread like this, if it's a matter of choice or personal preference to use halides? As I've always said for the past decade + here: can you imagine if the majority of halides/T5 users would go to each LED thread to suggest to use what they choose? Haha!! Again, this is still a halide thread. It's not a crime to prefer/use halides anyway!
Personal preferences are related to the group of qualities of each type of lighting, including: quality and results of the actual light produced (which is the most important IMO), amount of electricity the fixture uses, heat emitted by the bulbs, size/mount of the fixture, and also design. We all get that. I personally prefer to have a bulky heavy hot Hamilton Cebu over a 75gallon tank with 2 X 250W 14K halides on magnetic ballasts and 4 X 54W T5s punching those wonderful glitter lines (man, that rocks!!!!), very similar to what I see in the ocean, than having ANY set of sleek lighter cooler LED, including Kessils, over that tank. That's my personal preference. Nothing wrong with that.
Unfortunately the attention of threads like this is mostly directed to this type of conversations. I do think halide users need to teach LED users to refrain such flames though. They already have enough threads to talk their LED language and feel good about the expensive investment, don't they?!
Why do they get excited to flame (for a lack of a better word) halides in a thread like this, if it's a matter of choice or personal preference to use halides? As I've always said for the past decade + here: can you imagine if the majority of halides/T5 users would go to each LED thread to suggest to use what they choose? Haha!! Again, this is still a halide thread. It's not a crime to prefer/use halides anyway!
Personal preferences are related to the group of qualities of each type of lighting, including: quality and results of the actual light produced (which is the most important IMO), amount of electricity the fixture uses, heat emitted by the bulbs, size/mount of the fixture, and also design. We all get that. I personally prefer to have a bulky heavy hot Hamilton Cebu over a 75gallon tank with 2 X 250W 14K halides on magnetic ballasts and 4 X 54W T5s punching those wonderful glitter lines (man, that rocks!!!!), very similar to what I see in the ocean, than having ANY set of sleek lighter cooler LED, including Kessils, over that tank. That's my personal preference. Nothing wrong with that.
Unfortunately the attention of threads like this is mostly directed to this type of conversations. I do think halide users need to teach LED users to refrain such flames though. They already have enough threads to talk their LED language and feel good about the expensive investment, don't they?!
Semisonyx
Active Member
It’s a hobby, do what works and looks best for you! You’ll grow coral just fine with 2x250w halides running for 6-8hrs a day. Supplement with a couple of LED bars and/or t5 for a little extra pop and viewing when the halides are off.
The hate for an individual’s choice of lighting source is ridiculous. No different than trashing someone else’s sports team and just as scientifically unfounded. I ran halides for about 20 years and running LEDs now. I feel like I can grow and color coral equally fast with either; lighting is a small part of the whole equation. I’ve never been able to trace any issues I’ve ever had with coral back to lighting.
The hate for an individual’s choice of lighting source is ridiculous. No different than trashing someone else’s sports team and just as scientifically unfounded. I ran halides for about 20 years and running LEDs now. I feel like I can grow and color coral equally fast with either; lighting is a small part of the whole equation. I’ve never been able to trace any issues I’ve ever had with coral back to lighting.
Pico bam
Well-Known Member
Cancel culture tends to runs heavy in led users. it can be attributed to an overly high amount of propaganda, persuasive yet flawed teaching/logic and a lack of real world experience... years/decades of experience is not easily attainable. Why listen to experience knowledge and wisdom? Thats for suckers. I would countine this humorous rant further but I cannot get my wifi to connect to my lights so that I can constantly change the settings. BTW I run my alk at 13 and my ph at 9... and I must place the entire tank on feed mode before feeding the fish Im talking lights, skimmer, returns, circulation, heater and dosing pumps.
If you've taken this disheartening refer to sentence 2 of paragraph 1 and realize there's much more to the world than what you realize including the people in it. And heck if you liked this post hit the button thats what its there for. ((The older generation doesn't realize this)and they use mh lights)
Sorry for muddling this thread with excessive wording, bland humor, and non political statements about lights.
I'm a little bored today...
If you've taken this disheartening refer to sentence 2 of paragraph 1 and realize there's much more to the world than what you realize including the people in it. And heck if you liked this post hit the button thats what its there for. ((The older generation doesn't realize this)and they use mh lights)
Sorry for muddling this thread with excessive wording, bland humor, and non political statements about lights.
I'm a little bored today...
Alexraptor
Well-Known Member
I love LED for a few very simple reasons. They are energy efficient, don't need swapping out every 6-months, dimmable and for the most part plug and play.
However, as someone who has studied the three major sciences (physics, biology, chemistry), I think it would be arrogant to assert that LED can do everything MH lamps do. While both produce excellent results in growth and coloration, the reality is that LED's are a tailored light source, built to our specific needs and wants. In essence they are the reef-keeping equivalent of min-maxing. MH on the other hand is more akin to subjecting our reefs to a miniaturized sun, where light is produced by way of intense heat and pressure.
People are free to love their heavily blue-lit tanks, but I personally love the way my tanks look when direct sunlight falls upon them. If I could afford and justify the operating cost, I'd probably switch over to MH myself.
However, as someone who has studied the three major sciences (physics, biology, chemistry), I think it would be arrogant to assert that LED can do everything MH lamps do. While both produce excellent results in growth and coloration, the reality is that LED's are a tailored light source, built to our specific needs and wants. In essence they are the reef-keeping equivalent of min-maxing. MH on the other hand is more akin to subjecting our reefs to a miniaturized sun, where light is produced by way of intense heat and pressure.
People are free to love their heavily blue-lit tanks, but I personally love the way my tanks look when direct sunlight falls upon them. If I could afford and justify the operating cost, I'd probably switch over to MH myself.
Semisonyx
Active Member
Cancel culture isn’t limited to LED users. There are hundred page threads on another forum where MH users bash LEDs, and even T5 users if you go back farther in time. Lighting is a tool. Use the tool that works best for you and suits your needs. For OP, it’s halides and two will serve him well.
Pot calling the kettle black...
Anyways a relevant quote.
My opinion… I ran halides for many years in the past. I ran lots of different bulb/ballast combinations on various tanks. Some of them grew corals well, some of them not so much. My most successful bulbs actually didn’t resemble todays LEDs at all. For example, XM10k was pretty yellow, yet it grew acros MUCH better than the very blue Radium.
Fast forward - I bought some off the shelf LEDs, and they were pretty crap at growing corals. No matter which I tried, they were either not providing enough PAR, or burning the SPS (sometimes BOTH at the same time).
Being a DIY guy, I decided to experiment with DIY LED fixtures. This was like 10 years ago. I tried different combinations of LEDs at different strengths and different optics. And lo and behold, some of these combos were just as good, if not better than Halides at growing corals. The ones that worked the best for me were large arrays without optics (wide angle). Without optics, you actually have to use a larger number of LEDs to deliver the proper PAR. But interestingly, I could deliver 500+ PAR to the corals without them being aggravated or burned to death. BTW these DIY arrays would end up costing about the same as commercial fixtures would.
My conclusion is that it’s not really that LEDs are inferior to halides, it’s that commercial implementations of LEDs are crap.
Mike Paletta finally recognizes some of the superior qualities of METAL HALIDES over LEDs...
So lets get this straight he had one or 2 out of dozens of coral species change to a "bad" color? Diverging from unliked coloration to different coloration who exactly decides on what the " real" color should be. Color shifts under different spectrum are a given regardless of tech. Dana has a...
www.reef2reef.com
Well 30+ year halide user here who recently, 6 months, switched all 4 tanks, 3 total systems to led.
Halides are a great way to light reef tanks and always will be.
After many years of reading the same debate, mines better than yours, I have come to the conclusion that all current light systems will grow corals fast and with good color and health.
I will keep my halides in a box with many bulbs probably forever.
At this point I do not see myself going back to halides ever.
Growth, color, and health of my current led systems proves lighting is just one part of the equation.
Leds use less power because you can run less watts versus halide to achieve the same goal.
I run 16hds on 4 tanks with one system running 2 gen5 xr15 blues together with 2 16hds.
When setting up my 80g that replaced the 120 halide system I have noted that led coralline growth is on par with the old 120 halides.
Todays leds, imo, are easily equal to halides in terms of color, growth, and health.
This is all from my point of view and from fellow reefers who have never ran halide but have amazing tanks none the less.
For your system 2 250 watt 14k phoenix bulbs 14" from the waters surface, should do the trick easily, with no need to supplement blue except for maybe day/night viewing.
Halides are a great way to light reef tanks and always will be.
After many years of reading the same debate, mines better than yours, I have come to the conclusion that all current light systems will grow corals fast and with good color and health.
I will keep my halides in a box with many bulbs probably forever.
At this point I do not see myself going back to halides ever.
Growth, color, and health of my current led systems proves lighting is just one part of the equation.
Leds use less power because you can run less watts versus halide to achieve the same goal.
I run 16hds on 4 tanks with one system running 2 gen5 xr15 blues together with 2 16hds.
When setting up my 80g that replaced the 120 halide system I have noted that led coralline growth is on par with the old 120 halides.
Todays leds, imo, are easily equal to halides in terms of color, growth, and health.
This is all from my point of view and from fellow reefers who have never ran halide but have amazing tanks none the less.
For your system 2 250 watt 14k phoenix bulbs 14" from the waters surface, should do the trick easily, with no need to supplement blue except for maybe day/night viewing.
Last edited:
I have both. Don't like either enough to pony up the cost to change the other tank.
OP
OP
Yanir34
Well-Known Member
So , is it ok to operate E39 bulb with E40 reflector ?
but not opposite, right ?
AFAICT e39 is the same as e40.
Ex39 is an issue. E39 in an ex39 socket won' t contact the center so no light.
Ex39 in an e39 base will but may extend out more. There are other differences apparently.
What is the difference between E39 and EX39 base?
EX39 Mogul Base The EX39 base has a longer tip base. EX39 based bulbs can be used in fixtures with standard E39 or EX39 sockets. Bulbs with EX39 bases have protective shields so can be used in either open or closed fixtures. SHOP FOR EX39 BULBS E39 Mogul Base Bulbs with E39 base will only...
www.bulbamerica.com
A. grandis
2500 Club Member
- Joined
- Feb 15, 2012
- Messages
- 4,735
- Reaction score
- 3,412
They are different sizes. The E40 bulb will work fine on E39 sockets, but E39 bulbs won't always work perfectly on E40 sockets. I changed my E40 socket on my Giesemann Spectra and now I use either types of bulbs (E39 or E40) with the E39 socket. Please contact Dave at Hamilton. That's where I've got my E39 from and it's relatively easy to change them.
Similar threads
-
- Question
