Halide Q & A

[camaroguy]

Originally Posted by sirreal63

If you are going 150's, it will be DE. The reflector is important, and the G-man is a good one. The T5's will add a lot of par as well so you can go with a weaker halide if you want, but I wouldn't. I have a soft spot for the classic 125, my old one was one of my favorite tanks. Back when I had this one running, conventional wisdom was you couldn't keep SPS growing and happy under 150's, obviously that was wrong. No T5's on this but it did have a single 160 watt VHO.

Sorry, the statement is a little bit ambiguous. "When you said with T5's you could go with weaker Halides but you wouldn't personally", did you mean you could get away with less than 150W Halides, or did you mean that you would stick to the 250W Halides rather than 150W?

Its just that I'm looking at doing a bunch of work on the system, and possibly spending a bunch of money to make this happen. I don't want to do it in such a way that would cost me even more money/work to fix it later

[sirreal63]

By weaker I mean lower par 150's, like 20k instead of 10 or 14k bulbs. 150's are more than adequate on a standard 125. I would still stick with 10 or 14k bulbs, the T5's are helping greatly with the par but having the most you can get from the 150's is still needed.

[camaroguy]

Makes sense. Thanks! Now if I were to upgrade the tank in the future, I can just swap the bulbs/balasts to move to 250W correct?

I don't see anything about the wattage on the fixtures, which leads me to believe the reflectors and fixtures don't really care.

[sirreal63]

The sockets are different between 150's and 250's.

[camaroguy]

Bah. Ok so I guess the upgrade would have to remain the same depth and only change width front to back in this case. Ok, thanks for all the info.

Now to decide between this and straight T5.

Edit: I guess the G-Mans only come in 250W for the longer units. So they would likely be fine with a slightly large 150/180 in the future. I would have to go with Hamiltons if I wanted a 150W setup it seems.

[reefanatik]

I am about to order a custom 48x36x24 planet aquarium tank next week. I currently have a 93 cube with radion XR30w led. I am very happy with coloration but i do have shadowing...... Growth is what I am the least happiest with. I was going to buy another radion and supplement with either 4 or 6 retrofit T5s but I am really interested in MH. My question is on my upgrade what would u recommend for a MH fixture. I'm not sure if I would need the 250 or 400W MH. I am planning on mixed reef but deff mainly SPS. So please help on brand, Watt, ballast and bulb that you think would b best. Thank u in advance for your help. I hope I am in the right thread.

[DavidinGA]

Originally Posted by reefanatik

I am about to order a custom 48x36x24 planet aquarium tank next week. I currently have a 93 cube with radion XR30w led. I am very happy with coloration but i do have shadowing...... Growth is what I am the least happiest with. I was going to buy another radion and supplement with either 4 or 6 retrofit T5s but I am really interested in MH. My question is on my upgrade what would u recommend for a MH fixture. I'm not sure if I would need the 250 or 400W MH. I am planning on mixed reef but deff mainly SPS. So please help on brand, Watt, ballast and bulb that you think would b best. Thank u in advance for your help. I hope I am in the right thread.

I'd go with 250w mh plus supplemental T5's.

[rtague]

Hi all I'm picking up a Hamilton Cebu sun 2 x 250w soon and am torn between the Hamilton 14000k on electronic ballast or the radium 20000k on the m80 ballast.I know this is a personal choice but what do you like about one over the other? In terms of growth ,color and energy use,thanks.

[ormet]

Hello! I am planning to use mh for my new build, 72x36x26.

Focus will be Acropora.

I am thinking 2x400w ushio or radiums in lumenarc or similar reflectors. Should be golden for this tank right?

I have never used mh before and feel somewhat lost in the talk of ballast and such. Is there a good beginners guide somewhere?

[DavidinGA]

Originally Posted by ormet

Hello! I am planning to use mh for my new build, 72x36x26.

Focus will be Acropora.

I am thinking 2x400w ushio or radiums in lumenarc or similar reflectors. Should be golden for this tank right?

I have never used mh before and feel somewhat lost in the talk of ballast and such. Is there a good beginners guide somewhere?

I would run 3 250w's instead. With the right ballast and bulb combo that will be plenty for an sps tank.

[AZRippster]

I would think for coverage wise you may want to consider 3 MH fixtures. If your depth is 26", 3 - 250W would likely work well for you, especially if you did a combo MH/T5 solution. Consider the multi-watt ballasts such as the LuXcore that does 250, 250 HQI, 400, and 400 Super Lumens. That way if you want to go up to 400W lamps, you just have to change the lamps and setting on your ballasts.

This is a nice and short article that is informative on the Radium lamps and associated compatible ballasts:

https://premiumaquatics.com/articles/radium

[ormet]

Thank you both for quick replies. Will for sure think about a 3x250w.

[Jeremy257]

Still planning my tank build. Tank will be 72x30x24.

Can I use Lumen Brite III reflectors (3) with 250w bulbs to cover? If so, minis or normal and how high above the water would they need to be?

Or would Cozumel Suns be a better reflector for the application?

Wanted to go with the LBs to get the light higher and reduce water heating.

[sirreal63]

If you want a more even spread of light, skip the LumenBrites, they are more of a spotlight whereas the Cozumel Sun is more of a floodlight. If you mount the LB's high enough to spread the light out, you will lose some light to the inside of the canopy, and that is light not getting to the corals directly. It will all depend on your goals but remember there are tradeoffs either way you go. FWIW the heat is easily managed by your setup, heat rises so take advantage of that.

[Jeremy257]

Thanks Jack. The Cabo unit tested nicely on BRS for sure

[Jeremy257]

I meant Cozumel

[telathas]

So I saw this metal halide for around $25 at my LFS today and was wondering if anyone had any experience with them. It's used from what I can see, and there was one next to it that was out of box but the same price. Is this thing worth the money? How long do the bulbs usually last on these guys? Would I need more than one for a 30g (roughly 36x13x19)? I've been trying to figure out for a while now whether I wanted LEDs or MH for my tank and I've read a lot of conflicting opinions. I'd love to hear your thoughts on this.

[biglurr54]

I am looking to get some advice from the halide gurus of RC. I am building a 60 Gallon Cube mixed reef. It will have sps, lps and a clam in the sand bed. The lps and sps can be placed depending on their light requirements. The clam will need to be happy in the sand though. My plan is to merge the benefits of halides with the benefits of LEDs. I plan on doing an actinic LED supplement to a metal halide. I am looking to have the halide deliver the visible light and provide good coral growth. I am looking for the LEDs to assist with giving the corals good color, provide actinic pop, provide dusk and dawn lighting, and drive the par numbers up at the bottom of the tank.

The LED channel will be 16 royal blue luxeon leds with 4 Stevesleds UVs.

The halide is where I need the assistance. Could I get away with a properly set up 150 watt halide with the LEDs running? I have noticed most people run 250w over the 60 cubes but that’s all they run. I’m wondering if the LEDs could provide the extra punch the 150 lacks.

I like a crisp look to the tank. Not blued out or hyper white. I am considering going with phoenix 14k on a proper ballast and a good reflector.

What are your recommendations for halide wattage, reflector, bulb-ballast combo for this set up that will play nice with the Actinic LEDs?

[BfishLpond78]

Picked up an older PFO Acrolight fixture for $30 bucks, the ballast on both MH and VHO's work intermittently so I need to get new ballasts.

I was thinking M80 ballast for the 2x250 radiums and have been looking for something for the VHO's. It will be going over an 80 gallon DB tank, probably a little overkill but I couldn't pass it up...

Thoughts?

[Remmers]

If dual 250 MH fixture is over a 90 gallon tank, how long can they run if only 4-5" above the water level?

I just can't get the eye for leds and this fixture has dual t-5's dual 250 watt mh

[biecacka]

Jack, I'm coming back to halides I think. I was running a 250wt radium on my tank,then switched to LEDs. I'm considering the switch back, I am looking for a bulb recommendation. I use the lumenarc reflector 22/22/9 I think is its dimension. I'm not opposed to the radium again o maybe the 10k or 14k. This time I want to add led strips to the fixture as well. Rune them for an hour or so before and after the halide. Then the halide about 5-6 hours. I also might want a new balance as the one I have and used to run would occasionally cut off for no reason I could think of.

Corey

[sirreal63]

It is always hard to recommend a bulb, I like more of a 10-12k look and others want a 20k look. I would say pic the bulb you want to run, then make sure the ballast is correct for it.

[biecacka]

I'm thinking the Ushio 14k with supplements. I've always used radiums 20k in the past and liked them. However, the 10-14k and that aspect of growth is very intriguing to me.

Corey

[jda]

Here is my standard reply...

SE:
Not supplemented, use 20K radiums on M80. 20K Radiums on Magnetic or Electronic ballasts are too blue for me and many. Any other bulbs are for you - the Radium alone provides great color and growth and needs nothing else.

With supplement, 10K Hamilton and 4 T5 or 2 VHO tubes of blue is a great look with very outstanding growth. 10K Hamilton is much whiter with a bit of blue than a XM 10K which is more yellow. XM 10K has a bit more output, though.

14K Hamilton, Ushio, XM, etc with 2 T5s or 1 VHO tubes is a good luck, but the growth won't be much more than a 20K radium, so I don't recommend it much.

DE:
Stick with Phoenix 14K on the M80 or M81, respectively. I don't like too many other DE bulbs.

[biecacka]

I would supplement the radium only to lengthen the viewing time for me!


Corey