Going back to halide after 4+ years with LED

[AllSignsPointToFish]

I used to run 175W mogul base halides on my old 90 gallon tank. The new tank was started up with LEDs. I've been thinking about the switch to halides as well at some point, but I'm curious how you will acclimate your corals to the new halide lamps. Do you have an acclimation schedule you'd share?

Also, I'm pretty clumsy, so the LEDs don't burn like the halides do when you accidentally touch them :/

 

[cilyjr]

I have noo real plans as of yet. My Sol blues are running at 95% so I'm not too worried. If something starts to bleach out I'll move it lower.

I wonder if the whole idea of acclimating coral to lighting might be unnecessary. I mean might it be possible to cause the animal more stress? You put it in the tank low. It's stressed wait a week it's starting to be happy then you move it up 6 inches now it's stressed again.
It's possible to cive coral too much light certainly but I say put it where you think it should go and if in 3 weeks to a month it seems unhappy move it. I never understood the coral acclimation feature of my lights.

Also, I'm pretty clumsy, so the LEDs don't burn like the halides do when you accidentally touch them :/

Lol. Sorry to hear that. Oven mits?

Mine are on rails so they can be moved out of the way.

 

[AllSignsPointToFish]

I have noo real plans as of yet. My Sol blues are running at 95% so I'm not too worried. If something starts to bleach out I'll move it lower.

I wonder if the whole idea of acclimating coral to lighting might be unnecessary. I mean might it be possible to cause the animal more stress? You put it in the tank low. It's stressed wait a week it's starting to be happy then you move it up 6 inches now it's stressed again.
It's possible to cive coral too much light certainly but I say put it where you think it should go and if in 3 weeks to a month it seems unhappy move it. I never understood the coral acclimation feature of my lights.



Lol. Sorry to hear that. Oven mits?

Mine are on rails so they can be moved out of the way.

I was usually my elbows or forearms that grazed the hot lamps. I had DIY fixtures.

 

[twiddledog]

Hey twiddledog. I don't see you much on the Boston site anymore

I sold my entire tank and everything in it due to selling my house... I am getting the itch for a another tank.

 

[cilyjr]

Cool. Going big?

 

[cilyjr]

The actual set up arrived today. I bought used here from Dan McNertney. Everything arrived on time and in good working order. Tomorrow the vent fan and Friday the 250w bulbs. Still no word from neptune systems on my eb8 (not entirely true. I heard from tech support when i told them i was sending it in but not that they've received it) but I will likely hear from them today.

 

[cilyjr]

So here's my system. It's a standard 180. Which is 72x24x24. Built into the wall.

There is frontal access and a fish room behind the tank. Here's a finished room side (this picture is very old but it's still pretty much the same)

I built a rail system to be able to Slide the lights are there forward into the finished area or back behind the tank depending on how I wanted to work on it. Raising them was not an option as the load-bearing Beam for my house runs right above the tank.
Here's it is currently with the 4 sol blues and 2 t5

Here it is when I mounted the first mh years ago. It can fully extend into either direction away from the tank. Making it easier for me to get in there if I need to

I imagine I will Mount the new mh exactly how the old ones were.

 

[BluewaterLa]

Interested to see how the transition goes from current LEDs back to halides for the corals.
I've been in the led scene for about three years or so now and not sold on them, heck my wife keeps telling me to go back to halides so the tank looks better again.
She says the LEDs make the tank look fake, not natural.
Contemplating switching back myself on a larger build.

 

[aabjones888]

I believe when I went back to halides from leds I started out at 6 hours a day for the first week. The next week I went up to 7 hours and just kept going up an hour a week. I don't know if I had to do that but to be on the safe side for my corals that's what I did. I am using 2 250w halides and 4 54w t-5's from leds on a 80gallon.

 

[cilyjr]

@aabjones888 Is that a 24 inch deep tank?

 

[Breadman03]

Interested to see how the transition goes from current LEDs back to halides for the corals.
I've been in the led scene for about three years or so now and not sold on them, heck my wife keeps telling me to go back to halides so the tank looks better again.
She says the LEDs make the tank look fake, not natural.
Contemplating switching back myself on a larger build.

My wife recently asked me to run my halide instead of my Radions. Apparently, she didn't really mean it when she said she wanted the sleek look of LED fixtures.

 

[aabjones888]

@aabjones888 Is that a 24 inch deep tank?

Its a deep blue 80 rimless, it is 48Lx24Wx16H

 

[cilyjr]

Thanks I was just curious

 

[cilyjr]

Got the fan the bulbs and neptune systems told me the eb8 wasn't cost effective to fix so I grabbed one off of a member of my local Club. Getting ready to install tomorrow evening. I got the fan installed it's a 100 CFM at .7 sones. It's real quiet. It will be hooked to the Apex and go on if the heat gets to be too much. But it's so quiet I might just have it turn on whenever the halide to running

 

[cilyjr]

Excuse all the exposed wiring it's all getting pulled out tomorrow. Also I pulled down on the T5 today so the tank has just sol blues until tomorrow

 

[Fritzhamer]

I went back to t5 from led. I LOVED my halides but personally had better results with t5. For me as well, led wasn't all that it was cracked up to be. Glad to see people coming back to halides. Hopefully the bulb production and fixtures will go back to where they were years ago.

 

[gfox]

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?

Been tempted to do the same thing.Used to run a 250 Phoenix with PC actinic.Been running LEDS for about 5 years.

 

[cilyjr]

Been tempted to do the same thing.Used to run a 250 Phoenix with PC actinic.Been running LEDS for about 5 years.

DO IT!!! Lol. Do whatever is best for you. I have a similar thread running on my local Club forum and I'm hearing a lot of the same there too

 

[gfox]

My biggest concern is the heat.I have my tank in a room that is about 8x10 with a computer in it.Before with just one 250 halide and PC actinic the room heated up big time.Had to run a fan over the sump to cool down the water.Now i have a basement sump that should help the water not sure about the room.

 

[reefwiser]

What I love about switching back is I don't have to think about the lighting being the problem with my tank. I can concentrate on water quality and not searching for that perfect lighting schedule that works with my corals.