Metal halide Vs Radion Vs Ati
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As with everything in this hobby, there is no one perfect way, method or piece of equipment that solves every problem. Look at the other side of it, there also some amazing tanks under LED's and some not so great one's under MH. For those of us that still like MH change is uncomfortable so we tend to prefer what we're more familiar with.
Lance,
Swing my hood to check out my dominantly sps tank and see what the LED light does, when you have a chance.
You will hear all opinions from MH to T5 and LED. I have never tried MH myself for the reasons of heat and the energy efficiency, b4 I have my green energy. I also have had my ATI Sunpower 48" 6x54 with Reefbrite at some point in this hobby, but just could not see my sps were doing that well in the area of growth. I'm just speaking in my case only, because every single tank is different. Until I made a switched to try out the LED and be pleased with the growth, but still working on color of some sps.
Good luck with ur final decision and have fun!
Swing my hood to check out my dominantly sps tank and see what the LED light does, when you have a chance.
You will hear all opinions from MH to T5 and LED. I have never tried MH myself for the reasons of heat and the energy efficiency, b4 I have my green energy. I also have had my ATI Sunpower 48" 6x54 with Reefbrite at some point in this hobby, but just could not see my sps were doing that well in the area of growth. I'm just speaking in my case only, because every single tank is different. Until I made a switched to try out the LED and be pleased with the growth, but still working on color of some sps.
Good luck with ur final decision and have fun!
I'm gonna run the halides and keep the ceiling fan on and the window open 
. The growth and color is awesome and I'm afraid that if I try something else I will be greatly disappointed the energy cost is not bad at all I also run dual halides (Radiums) on my shop tank
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. The growth and color is awesome and I'm afraid that if I try something else I will be greatly disappointed the energy cost is not bad at all I also run dual halides (Radiums) on my shop tankSent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I'm gonna run the halides and keep the ceiling fan on and the window open . The growth and color is awesome and I'm afraid that if I try something else I will be greatly disappointed the energy cost is not bad at all I also run dual halides (Radiums) on my shop tank
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
. The growth and color is awesome and I'm afraid that if I try something else I will be greatly disappointed the energy cost is not bad at all I also run dual halides (Radiums) on my shop tankSent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
In the grand scheme of things photons are photons. That being said, any of the three lighting types can yield excellent results, provided that you are ensuring that the tank is getting an even spread of light.
Metal halide systems are half point source (the light coming directly off of the bulb), and half diffused source (the light coming off the back of the bulb and reflected off of the reflector and back into the tank). This gives both high intensity and and excellent "diffused spread" if large reflectors are employed.
T5HOs by their linear geometry provide excellent spread over the entire area beneath the fixture, similar to the metal halide you get somewhat of a linear source coming off the bottom of the bulb, and a diffused source being reflected down into the tank off the top of the bulb.
LEDs are strictly point source and can be found in either groups (helping to blend colors together like in the case of a Radion, Kessil, or similar), or in a spread out array (like a Reefbreeders Photon) to help increase spread at the expense of eliciting somewhat of a "disco" effect. When used in either groups or arrays, as long as there are sufficient groups or a large enough array to cover the top of the tank, you will have good results.
I'll give an example of possible systems for the last tank I set up, a 32x24x20h. I wanted "high" light for this tank because my intent was to do a mixed reef and then transition into a SPS dominant setup after the tank matured.
To do a metal halide setup on this tank I was looking a running a pair of 250w bulbs.
To do a T5HO setup I was looking at a 8x24w ATI fixture.
To do LEDs I was looking at running either two Radions or three A360we Kessils.
Any of the scenarios above would give excellent spread on a 32x24 footprint, but I chose the ATI because for me it was the most cost effective. The halides were a close second, and the LED systems were just prohibitively expensive for my budget.
Metal halide systems are half point source (the light coming directly off of the bulb), and half diffused source (the light coming off the back of the bulb and reflected off of the reflector and back into the tank). This gives both high intensity and and excellent "diffused spread" if large reflectors are employed.
T5HOs by their linear geometry provide excellent spread over the entire area beneath the fixture, similar to the metal halide you get somewhat of a linear source coming off the bottom of the bulb, and a diffused source being reflected down into the tank off the top of the bulb.
LEDs are strictly point source and can be found in either groups (helping to blend colors together like in the case of a Radion, Kessil, or similar), or in a spread out array (like a Reefbreeders Photon) to help increase spread at the expense of eliciting somewhat of a "disco" effect. When used in either groups or arrays, as long as there are sufficient groups or a large enough array to cover the top of the tank, you will have good results.
I'll give an example of possible systems for the last tank I set up, a 32x24x20h. I wanted "high" light for this tank because my intent was to do a mixed reef and then transition into a SPS dominant setup after the tank matured.
To do a metal halide setup on this tank I was looking a running a pair of 250w bulbs.
To do a T5HO setup I was looking at a 8x24w ATI fixture.
To do LEDs I was looking at running either two Radions or three A360we Kessils.
Any of the scenarios above would give excellent spread on a 32x24 footprint, but I chose the ATI because for me it was the most cost effective. The halides were a close second, and the LED systems were just prohibitively expensive for my budget.
Most of the tanks I have seen that have been successful with solely LED on SPS tanks run 2 or 3x the number of fixtures that the manufacturers recommend. Dave's tank, Sanjay's tank, RacinJason's tank to name a few.
I also think that water quality has a lot more to do with coral color.
That being said I'm a fan of T5 with led supplementation.
I also think that water quality has a lot more to do with coral color.
That being said I'm a fan of T5 with led supplementation.
I can tell you though, I have an acro in my small frag tank that is lit by a Kessil a150 within 8 inches of the water surface (pretty shallow tank), and its dog shiet brown. While all my acros in my main display under T5 with Led all look very colorful. Both tanks share the same water / parameters.
But my mushrooms, zoas, favias, and chalices all do great under the Kessil a150.
But my mushrooms, zoas, favias, and chalices all do great under the Kessil a150.
