Going back to halide after 4+ years with LED

cilyjr

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I have 3 fixtures shipping right now. From a member of this forum.,,thanks again dan. It's 2 Lumatek adjustable ballasts and a sunlight supply adjustable (all are 250 to 400w) with lumen max elite reflectors.

Bet you are gonna ask why? Well here goes (This is NOT meant to be an anti LED thread)

1. my lights are getting older and I'm going to need to replace them (or the led pucks at least) in the next 2 years. And I don't have 3 grand to buy the lights I would need. Yes I'd rather buy 3 new bulbs a year

2. I didn't save any money on electricity! I replaced my 3 halides(750w@7hrs) with 4 sol blues(120w@10hrs counting ramp times). But without the heat from the lights my heaters are now working 24 hours a day that's an extra 800 watts banging away.

3. I don't care about the heat they add. My tank is in a finished basement and I have central air. My house is never above 77. It only helps the heaters run less

4. My tank was always at its best when I ran MH so I'm going back.

I do get concerned that they will stop making the MH bulb I want (this happened with the Phoenix 14k se) but that's a bridge I can cross later.

I am going to run either radium 20k or hamilton 14k suggestions?
 
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cilyjr

cilyjr

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Ok I bought 3 250w radium lamps. Fixtures here by Wed, lamps and vent fan by thurs. I'm glad I left the 4 inch duct above the tank so all I need to do is wire in the fan.

I had to send 1 of my eb8 bars to apex to get 3 recepticles fixed as they had broken over the years. I have no idea when they will be done. I won't be installing until that happens.
 

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I have 3 fixtures shipping right now. From a member of this forum.,,thanks again dan. It's 2 Lumatek adjustable ballasts and a sunlight supply adjustable (all are 250 to 400w) with lumen max elite reflectors.

Bet you are gonna ask why? Well here goes (This is NOT meant to be an anti LED thread)

1. my lights are getting older and I'm going to need to replace them (or the led pucks at least) in the next 2 years. And I don't have 3 grand to buy the lights I would need. Yes I'd rather buy 3 new bulbs a year

2. I didn't save any money on electricity! I replaced my 3 halides(750w@7hrs) with 4 sol blues(120w@10hrs counting ramp times). But without the heat from the lights my heaters are now working 24 hours a day that's an extra 800 watts banging away.

3. I don't care about the heat they add. My tank is in a finished basement and I have central air. My house is never above 77. It only helps the heaters run less

4. My tank was always at its best when I ran MH so I'm going back.

I do get concerned that they will stop making the MH bulb I want (this happened with the Phoenix 14k se) but that's a bridge I can cross later.

I am going to run either radium 20k or hamilton 14k suggestions?


I'm so happy to see people going back to Halides!! And I'm not bashing LEDs, just trying to get an understanding of the claims now that many people have had LEDs for years now.

1. Wait a minute, I thought LEDs lasted a bazillion years?

2. I've said this for years! What's the difference in energy used from heaters compared to lighting? Most people can use the heat from Halides 8 months out of the year.

3. I would also rather run Halides than a heater.

4. You can't beat the quality and color that Halides offer. I've seen so many people going back. We are one of the highest volume online coral suppliers and never have issues from customers that have Halides or T5.

I would recommend Radium 20k. The color can't be beat.
 
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twiddledog

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I was running my radiums for 14 years with a break in the middle with LEDs. I never saw any savings as well. Nothing beats metal halides for color and shimmer. You might want to supplement with some T5s. Your tank will look great
 

maroun.c

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Isn't Phoenix back in production?
I bought 2 sets las t year wish I got me some more to be safe for coming g 4-5 years. I run Halides and LED and must admit when Halie's come on the tank has a nicer look. Still getting good results with LEDs only on frag tanks...
I have my filtration in an non heated basement so running 1800w of heaters non stop for 4-5 months a year .
 

Merck

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Like my papa said ,stand next to a tank and get warm, better than a old brick fireplace.;) i'll stick to my t5s, even if redsea don't sale them.:rolleyes:
 

NakiFantaki

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Can I ask a question? I started with LEDs and I never really knew much about halides... I just have a little Nuvo 20 gallon and I have an AI Prime HD running now..
What is the cost of these type of bulbs? I know you need to replace them a couple times a year... I was just wondering the cost difference.
 

themcnertney

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I would recommend Radium 20k. The color can't be beat.
I would recommend this bulb as well. When I ran MH, I had no extra supplemental lighing.
I just have a little Nuvo 20 gallon and I have an AI Prime HD running now..
I'd stay with the lighting you have, MH don't make sense on small tanks IMO. They are designed for large deep tanks.
 

ludnix

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I don't really follow the logic of the heating argument. Whether you pay for the electricity on your heater or MH, the efficiency should be similar. As I understand it since heat loss is how electrical efficiency is calculated, an electric heater is necessarily 100% efficient. If you prefer MH to LED that's fair, but electricity from the heater isn't less efficient than from you MH so there's no loss by switching your heat sources in your home. I think if you leave your thermostat at the same temperature it's at now and switch to MH the heater will be on less, but the electric bill the same.
 

jmp21677

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I recently switched back from Radion Pros to a t5 led combo. Couldn't be happier! I have better polyp extension on my sps then I ever got with just the LEDs. I just never had very good luck with one led fixture over a tank.
 

lsingh

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I bought the radium. Hoping they aren't more blue then the old phoenix 14k se bulb was. I used to run it without supplementation
Funny part I went to back to halide also yesterday and saw this thread just right now .. radium is great bulb and not so blue when u use em on hqi ballast . Coralvue new electronic hqi works great and gives similar color as magnetic
 
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cilyjr

cilyjr

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Isn't Phoenix back in production?
I bought 2 sets las t year wish I got me some more to be safe for coming g 4-5 years. I run Halides and LED and must admit when Halie's come on the tank has a nicer look. Still getting good results with LEDs only on frag tanks...
I have my filtration in an non heated basement so running 1800w of heaters non stop for 4-5 months a year .

The DE bulb is being made by hexarc not the SE bulb

Can I ask a question? I started with LEDs and I never really knew much about halides... I just have a little Nuvo 20 gallon and I have an AI Prime HD running now..
What is the cost of these type of bulbs? I know you need to replace them a couple times a year... I was just wondering the cost difference.

You replace them yearly. And dan is right even a 150 might be a lot of light go a 20g tank

I don't really follow the logic of the heating argument. Whether you pay for the electricity on your heater or MH, the efficiency should be similar. As I understand it since heat loss is how electrical efficiency is calculated, an electric heater is necessarily 100% efficient. If you prefer MH to LED that's fair, but electricity from the heater isn't less efficient than from you MH so there's no loss by switching your heat sources in your home. I think if you leave your thermostat at the same temperature it's at now and switch to MH the heater will be on less, but the electric bill the same.

I'm not saying 1 is more efficient. I'm saying my heaters ran for less time when I had halide. With led the heaters have to come on during the lighting cycle as well. My house stays at about 68 in the winter and 75 in the summer. With central air. The caveat is the tank is in a finished basement room that stays pretty close to 69/70 all the time.

To answer the last sentence. Yes my electric bill never changed between mh an halides.
 
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cilyjr

cilyjr

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Cannot beat halides. I used all different kinds of leds and something just never was right.

This is how I feel. I had a tank with great growth color ect. In a few years with coral mostly from frags. I switched to my leds, then killed everything with a broken heater incident. Now 4 years later the tank with led is just ok. I do want to say to led advocates that I had older gen led so maybe my experience would be different if they were more up to date versions.

I do think few of us are using enough fixtures with led and that might be the big issue. I think 6 should be over a 6 foot tank (4 with t5) to cover the area properly. As led spread is minimal.
 
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cilyjr

cilyjr

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Funny part I went to back to halide also yesterday and saw this thread just right now .. radium is great bulb and not so blue when u use em on hqi ballast . Coralvue new electronic hqi works great and gives similar color as magnetic

The ballasts I'm getting are 2 lumentek and 1 sunlight supply galaxy all are 250 to 400OD settings. So I will run on the 250 hqi setting
 

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