Switching to MH on 6' 125 Gallon

[Hokie125]

I'm thinking of switching out my Radion XR30 Gen 2's to MH. I'm currently running them at 70% on the AB+ schedule along with a 61'' Aquatic Life Hybrid running 2 blue+, 1 coral+, and
1 actinic. PAR is around 450 at the top of the rockwork. Id like to keep the Aquatic Life fixture and use 3 reefbrite 15" MH Pendants in place of the Radions as they will fit in the Aquatic Life fixture since they are only 8.75" deep. It is an in wall setup and I am thinking of removing the front bulb closest to the wall and adding a Orphek Light Bar to the front angled back to the center for more of a dusk and dawn effect.

I plan on using 250W 14k Ushios but am unsure of which ballast would be the best option?

Are the Reef Brite Ballast that BRS sells any good?

Also what would be the best way to acclimate my tank to these new fixtures?

I'm sure there will be a significant increase in PAR so I am thinking maybe start out running the MH for 3 or 4 hours a day then work towards 6 or 7 over a few months?

I have attached a picture of the current setup if that helps.

 

[leepink23]

Good idea starting low on time and increase the time. @jda can probably tell you which ballast is best

 

[A. grandis]

I would keep the 2 Blue Plus, Coral Plus and the True actinic. There is no need to add the Orphek bar there, unless you really like. The Blue Plus T5s can be used for that "dusk and down effect".

Unfortunately the Ushio 250w 14K is currently out of production. Good luck finding one. It was a great bulb!! The recommended ballast is M58.

The ReefBrite system is "designed to be used together": ballasts, fixtures and bulbs. They claim the best results comes from doing that. The fixture has the cooling design, the ballast was made to run at lower wattage still promessing to offer similar PAR of most "regular" 250W lamps. Because bulbs should follow the recommended ballasts, technically speaking the ReefBrite ballast should be used with the ReefBrite lamps.
If you want to use the Ushio 250W 14K with the M58 and the ReefBrite fixture you can. Remember... when you cut the cord to addapt the ReefBrite fixture to other ballasts you loose the warranty though. ReefBrite does not recommend to do that. Could the gauge of the wire be a problem (?). You need to investigate that part! They say their fixtures and ballasts can be used with most lamps though. Every time you choose a bulb you should make sure to use the ballast recommended for that bulb IMO. Although electronic ballasts will widely be used with many different bulbs for aquariums without much trouble, most bulb manufacturers often don't recommend them.
I use electronic selectable ballasts without major problems.

Best way to acclimate the halides to your system will depend on what bulb you will run and the ballast. Basically less hours and increasing slowly is what you need to do. Not a big deal. You will absolutely love halides!

 

[Hokie125]

Thanks for the detailed reply. I was unaware they were no longer in production. I was assuming since BRS was carrying them they were still readily available. Good thing I asked! Any experience with the 14k ReefBrite twin arc bulbs? Looks like using their entire setup may be the safest bet here.

 

[A. grandis]

I've never used any of their bulbs yet, but if you do a search you will find only happy ReefBrite users.
I think one day I'll eventually try them out.

 

[X-37B]

Take a look at lumen bright de 250 watt mini fixtures and run 14k phoenix bulbs on m80 ballasts.
You wont need and suplemental lighting.
Use your T5's if you have them.
I am hanging a OR3 blue plus light bar as soon as the hardware arrives on my 120.
I will be using it for day night startup and finish.
It will give great pop if you already have the colors.
I hung these 3 months ago and growth/color is already incredible.
I ran 8T5's 4" off the surface and run the halides 14" off the surface.
I hung them and run 8hrs from the start just like the T5's.

 

[Bpb]

If you’re considering an led strip I’d recommend the reef brite over the Orphek. The Orphek are like lasers and the reef brites spread much more gentle and wide. You’ll get better performance from a single strip that way. If I were you I’d be looking into those reef brite twin arc bulbs to make the system match.

 

[X-37B]

If you’re considering an led strip I’d recommend the reef brite over the Orphek. The Orphek are like lasers and the reef brites spread much more gentle and wide. You’ll get better performance from a single strip that way. If I were you I’d be looking into those reef brite twin arc bulbs to make the system match.

They are only like lasers if you mount them to close to the water.
14" or higher and they have quite a good spread from my reefing buddies experience.
One OR3 at 14" on my 120 lights the entire tank quite well.

 

[Bpb]

They are only like lasers if you mount them to close to the water.
14" or higher and they have quite a good spread from my reefing buddies experience.
One OR3 at 14" on my 120 lights the entire tank quite well.

Speaking comparatively between the two.

 

[jda]

For 250w over a 125g tank, 20k Hamilton was reformulated to look like 20k Radium, but use regular 250w ballast (electronic or magnetic). I would just get a 250w Select a Watt (IceCap, RB, Hydroponics, etc.).. whatever you feel quality and cost is good - do not rule out hydroponics stuff since some of it is high quality, cheaper and designed to be used in humid places.

You can still find some Ushio, XM and other SE bulbs every once in a while. You might not be able to find them the next time, though, since people are usually just cleaning out a fish room or dusty box at a LFS.

If you are going to full-time supplement with T5s or LEDs, then 175w MH might be more than enough. If you do use the 250w, then turn the other stuff off and save the electricity and bulb live - no need to run T5s or LED strips when the MH are on.

 

[X-37B]

I finally got my OR3 hung.
I only run them for 4 hours.
1hr before lights on + 1hr after on and 1 hr before lights off + 1hr after.
They are just for viewing as the halides do all the work.
You can tell they are on by the blue hue on the wall.
They do throw alot of blue light and remind me of the old true purple actinics back in the day.
The second pic is with the OR3 but is not the greatest pic, lol.

 

[Hokie125]

Thanks for the help, its greatly appreciated. Having never owned MH and coming into the reefing scene in 2016 at the height of LED marketing, it seems like its tougher to figure out what components work together due to the lack of stock and information. I have thought over the past few years that MH was on its way out but lately think its becoming more popular again. There is no denying the results that they provide.

I'm almost to the point where I believe the Aquatic Life fixture may be too limiting on my reflector choice and may very well do away with it entirely. I would love to do the Orphek OR3 150 just for dusk and dawn. I'm a sucker for a shaggy A. Tenuis under some heavy blue lighting in the evenings while enjoying a glass or two of my favorite Kentucky Bourbon!

So a few more questions:

Which MH reflectors allow the highest mounting height and best coverage on a 18" wide tank?

If I am only using MH and an Orphek light bar what are the recommended running times? I am running a 12 hour schedule now with the Radions on the standard AB+ schedule from 10am to 10pm. The Aquatic Life fixture comes on at 1:00pm and cuts off at 7:00pm

Which Orphek Bar would you recommend for best evening viewing? Blue Plus or UV/Violet? Maybe one of both?

 

[X-37B]

I run 1 blue plus for viewing.
I run my halides 8 hrs.
I prefer lumen bright minis.
They would work for an 18" tank.
Optimum height is 14" above the water.
I have no issues with heat and do not run a chiller.
Here is a good article on the reflectors and mounting height.

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2008-06/review/index.php

 

[Hokie125]

I think those would work perfect in my situation. I'm not overly concerned with heat. I installed a 1 ton mini split system in the fish/laundry room last year to help with the humidity. Very doubtful I would need a chiller. I figure I may have to install a fan over the tank to run while the halides are on. My only concern now would be whether or not I would run into any issues if I mounted the light bar on the wall angled toward the back of the tank. They would be directly under the halides. Is there any reason to be concerned with the heat or UV damaging the LED light bar?

 

[X-37B]

The OR3 light bars have better spread if they are 12"+ above the water.
Mine are angled in and give pretty good coverage at 12".
Mount them on the wall even with the halides, like mine if you can.

 

[Bpb]

I know @90's reefer is a fan of the lumen bright minis. I do believe they are well made and employ a similar construction as the reef brite units which feature a double layer metal setup, allowing the exterior of them to remain cool to the touch.

I would just strongly suggest using a par meter to dial in your height. At 12” off the tank rim mine were extremely hot spotty. 400-500 par on the sandbed 36” away from the reflectors but it would drop off to 100 or less once you get even an inch outside the footprint of the units. They’re very focused. I think it is due to them being deep relative to their width. I think if you can stomach them 18-20” off the water the spread will be far more even and you can run a higher par lower kelvin bulb if you wish (my preference anyway). I ultimately had to switch to 20,000k bulbs and turn off supplemental leds because I was roasting some lps I had on the sandbed and needed to reduce par. It worked well...but I was unhappy with the excessively blue tank.

 

[Braver69]

I dont know if I would invest in Metal Halide at this point as it's on it's way out the door. You will find getting the bulbs you want harder and ballasts becoming more difficult to find that are reliable. I would pick a T-5 fixture and run that, they will grow anything you want on that tank since you want to move away from led's.

 

[Hokie125]

Thanks for the the info @Bpb. I got in touch with Tullio at ReefBrite today and he did a very good job at convincing me to pull the trigger on 3 of his 15" pendants! I really like the idea of them running much cooler than traditional pendants and with the twinarc bulbs it seems that you are basically getting two bulbs in one since they alternate firing. As far as the color and spectrum goes compared to an Ushio, that I will have to find out! He still insisted that they be changed out roughly once a year but with the design he chose they have very minimal loss of efficiency as they age. I'm going to pair them up with the ReefBrite 250W Ballast and their 14K/14K twinarc bulbs. He also informed me that a 12" mounting height should be optimal but did recommend starting them higher and working them down to that.

@Braver69. I'm willing to bet that halides will be around for much longer than we think. There is still a huge market for them and after talking to Tullio and Luke at Premium Aquatics the sales for halides have went up recently. I personally think reefers are starting to realize that LED's alone just not enough to grow a wall to wall Acro tank without some form of supplement, or have way more than the recommended amount of LED's mounting them higher than recommended as well. I absolutely love t5's as I am running them now in the Aquatic Life fixture but hate the static look of them when I run them by themselves. I need some sort of shimmer even if its the disco balling of the Radions

Sorry to be so long winded! I haven't been this excited about my tank in a while. One last question though? I'm still having a hard time picking which light bars I want. I'm thinking with the mounting height of 12'' the Orphek OR3's may be the best bet since they have narrower lenses than the ReefBrite XHO's. I like the mounting hardware better on them as well. Kind of bummed that they don't have a dimmer option yet but that appears to be coming soon. What do you guys think? Even better if you have some pictures!

 

[X-37B]

Thanks for the the info @Bpb. I got in touch with Tullio at ReefBrite today and he did a very good job at convincing me to pull the trigger on 3 of his 15" pendants! I really like the idea of them running much cooler than traditional pendants and with the twinarc bulbs it seems that you are basically getting two bulbs in one since they alternate firing. As far as the color and spectrum goes compared to an Ushio, that I will have to find out! He still insisted that they be changed out roughly once a year but with the design he chose they have very minimal loss of efficiency as they age. I'm going to pair them up with the ReefBrite 250W Ballast and their 14K/14K twinarc bulbs. He also informed me that a 12" mounting height should be optimal but did recommend starting them higher and working them down to that.

@Braver69. I'm willing to bet that halides will be around for much longer than we think. There is still a huge market for them and after talking to Tullio and Luke at Premium Aquatics the sales for halides have went up recently. I personally think reefers are starting to realize that LED's alone just not enough to grow a wall to wall Acro tank without some form of supplement, or have way more than the recommended amount of LED's mounting them higher than recommended as well. I absolutely love t5's as I am running them now in the Aquatic Life fixture but hate the static look of them when I run them by themselves. I need some sort of shimmer even if its the disco balling of the Radions

Sorry to be so long winded! I haven't been this excited about my tank in a while. One last question though? I'm still having a hard time picking which light bars I want. I'm thinking with the mounting height of 12'' the Orphek OR3's may be the best bet since they have narrower lenses than the ReefBrite XHO's. I like the mounting hardware better on them as well. Kind of bummed that they don't have a dimmer option yet but that appears to be coming soon. What do you guys think? Even better if you have some pictures!

Cant wait to see those up!
I must be behind the times as I have never heard of the twin arc bulbs.
So much for halides on the out, lol.
I mounted the one OR3 blue plus and it lights my tank well.
You can see it in the photo prior.
Mine is 12" off the water.

 

[Hokie125]

Im going to mount 2 of them on opposite sides of the halides angled inward. I think the only reason I am hesitant is due to some of the reviews on this forum stating that they are like spotlights. My rockwork is closer to 2/3's of the way up the tank.