Radium vs Hamilton 20k spectrum

[kevensquint]

Hi Dana and others,
So my tank was featured on a Hamilton web page which ended up giving me a chance to try out their 20k MH 250w bulbs.
I used the spectrometer that Dana had suggested to me, to compare the rightly famous Radium 250w and the Hamilton.
Using a hydroponic no-name electronic ballast and an aluminum German no-name hydroponic reflector I set up the sensor 12" below the bulbs.
The only "flaw" is the Radium has been in use for about 120hrs and the Hamilton about 4 hours.
I think the plot will show nevertheless you can save yourself $20/bulb and just buy the lesser known Hamilton over the Radium since even with a proper burn in I bet these bulbs will give similar results.

 

[DSC reef]

That's awesome, I use the Hamilton 150 watt 20DE and I'm more than satisfied with there product. I switched to Phoenix then XM after radium was no longer available and wasn't happy with the bulbs. I spoke with Dave at Hamilton and gave the there 20k bulbs a try and never looked back. The color and growth has been great. Hamilton has a great product and the customer service has been great too.

 

[aabjones888]

There real close in color, hamilton bulbs have always been good bulbs.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Wow. Those are almost spot on.

 

[kevensquint]

IME, Radium, Phoenix and more recently Hamilton 14k have given me stand alone results that make me wonder why there were so many other bulbs available a few years back with these ones already out there.
No tinkering either, on/off and grow

 

[mtraylor]

When I was using MH bulbs. I did a similar comparison with AquaMax 14K bulb to the Radium 20k bulb. They are also almost spot on. When the aquamax's are on sale....sometimes I could get them for like $34 bucks compared to the $80bucks for the radiums. However, I quickly found out that the AquaMax's did not last as long, but if you could get them on sale it was a better buy. Just FYI. When I say some times they didn't last as long, the not so good bulbs would last around 3 months and the longest around 5 to 6 months.....as to the Radiums around 8 months or so with more constant light spectrum.

Not sure about the Hamilton as I have never used them, but I hear they are as good as the Radiums from posts.

 

[Abhishek]

Do you have a M80 ballast to run them on ? I would be very interested to know if the spectrum varies with the right ballast that Radium 250 was intended to be used with .
Not that I do not like Hamilton as I ran the 14ks before I moved over to the radiums.

Regards,
Abhishek

 

[A. grandis]

That's awesome, I use the Hamilton 150 watt 20DE and I'm more than satisfied with there product. I switched to Phoenix then XM after radium was no longer available and wasn't happy with the bulbs. I spoke with Dave at Hamilton and gave the there 20k bulbs a try and never looked back. The color and growth has been great. Hamilton has a great product and the customer service has been great too.

Dave is the best!
Grandis.

 

[A. grandis]

Do you have a M80 ballast to run them on ? I would be very interested to know if the spectrum varies with the right ballast that Radium 250 was intended to be used with .
Not that I do not like Hamilton as I ran the 14ks before I moved over to the radiums.

Regards,
Abhishek

Yes, the Radium should run on the M80. Some say the electronic ballast won't drive the bulb properly. I'm not sure if the comparison was fair that way...
Would be good to publish the ballast's info also. That is a huge part of such project.
Very interesting..
Grandis.

 

[kevensquint]

I understand the Radiums are meant to be used on a HQI ballast. I don't have one. I had one 15 years ago, since then I switched to T5 then back to MH with electronic ballasts. My corals never noticed a difference between the HQI and the electronic ballasts. The longevity of the bulb or spectrum may be different due to that, but my corals still grow out of the tank regardless.
This plot was not scientific, but more along the lines of getting decent results with less money. I love Radium bulbs, however if I can get same results for less money, that is better for me and I imagine others.

 

[Big E]

Looking at those plots, you would think the Hamilton will look slightly bluer to our eyes.

It would be interesting to see both those bulbs on an M80.

Here is the 250w Radium for comparison. This was Sanjay's test back when he was doing them for AA.

The 400w Radium with the HQI was the actual bell cow.............add those VHO actinic bulbs and nothing was better for large acropora systems.

 

[kevensquint]

This is my tank with electronic ballasts. As you can see, I have no need to nit-pick over details like this ballast or that. The results are fine.

 

[kevensquint]

*I think we can debate all day about ballasts/ reflectors etc...and those are valid points. However, my graph shows (when using the same hardware). Because we don't want to buy new hardware to run a bulb, what the spectrum is. So in my case which is similar to many hobbyists, the ballast point cannot apply, since I won't buy an HQI ballast just to run a bulb that works fine on my current ballast

 

[A. grandis]

I understand your point and I'm not trying to make a mess here.
I just thought would be good to bring up the subject for a fair comparison.
There are many people that could just switch just because of this thread and not knowing about the full picture.
I've learned that ballasts are a very important factor for the bulbs in the long run.
We can't just ignore it.
Now we've got that part covered for the sake of this thread.
Your tank is very nice!!
Grandis.

 

[Reefanatik]

If anyone wants to buy and send me some 20k hamiltons I will test them and the radiums on the M80 ballast.

 

[A. grandis]

If anyone wants to buy and send me some 20k hamiltons I will test them and the radiums on the M80 ballast.

You can get the Hamilton bulbs here:
https://hamiltontechnology.com/index.php?route=product/product&path=24_89_97&product_id=118
Link for the Radiums:
https://hamiltontechnology.com/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=119&search=radium+
Grandis.

 

[Reefanatik]

You can get the Hamilton bulbs here:
https://hamiltontechnology.com/index.php?route=product/product&path=24_89_97&product_id=118
Link for the Radiums:
https://hamiltontechnology.com/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=119&search=radium+
Grandis.

Yes I know where to buy them. I was joking around about someone buying me a bulb to test out. Thanks for the link and now I know they are on sale.

 

[A. grandis]

Yes I know where to buy them. I was joking around about someone buying me a bulb to test out. Thanks for the link and now I know they are on sale.

Oh.. LOL!
Yes, they are on sale.
Maybe it will be even cheaper around black friday? Who knows...
Grandis.

 

[jda]

I agree that most folks have no intention of switching ballasts to try new bulbs. However, the spectrums do shift if you are using different ballasts and the output certainly is different. Depending how much people notice or care, this could be worthless or make all of the difference in the world.

 

[kevensquint]

For corals and a good bulb worthless.
(my pic is enough For me to not worry about it)
If you read Dana's research you will find corals do not need much PAR to do well. As for spectrum, the spectrum of a Radium on an electronic ballast is perfectly fine.
For life of a bulb probably better on bulb manufacturer ballast.
Btw, I'm a little surprised how a guy takes the time and money to buy a spectrometer, post the results with the intentions to show a cheaper bulb will do the trick. And the subsequently dismantled to instead focus on a ballast which is not applicable in this case.
It reminds me of why 99% of the time I just work with hobbyists hands on and not online. Tip of the hat to those patient enough to deal with this.