DavidinGA
Active member
Yeah but it's very hard to mess up with mh/t5 even with no instructions.
Anyone Thinking of Dumping LEDS and going back to Halides
- Thread starter Goldcoastreefs
- Start date
Wazzel
New member
Now it is, was not like that initially.
alton
Well-known member
You know Wazzel that is what is sad about our hobby, I see it in our local fish club also.
kenpau
New member
It's kind of understandable, anyone can see amazing reef tanks on tv or online and think 'I'd love that'. So they go and buy the basic equipment and quickly realise to get a tank to the standard they have seen requires a lot of time, money and patience. Unfortunately this must be one of the worst hobbies for people starting up ill prepared for what they are getting into.
alton
Well-known member
Ken Pau I use buildmyled on my wife's 20 gallon and it works, I am switching my 65 over next week. But when it comes to my 300 I just can't see spending the amount of money to go to full LED. Too many have gotten burned on buying what the manufacture recommended, only to find out it doesn't work. I always had fun with my local reef club with these arguments because they where always following the AI upgrade every year spending much more than my lamps replacements. My biggest issue with AI and Ecotech is the 1 year warranty and yes I have several friends who lost half there leds in two years, only to pay $200 for an upgrade.
kenpau
New member
Thats completely your call to make, it's your reef tank and you run it how you want to. I am happy to spend the $3000 on LEDs because I like the look and it enhances my reef keeping experience.
I would never sit here and tell someone not to buy MH, infact if someone is running a larger tank on a budget I'd recommend it. There just seems to be a lot of people on here trying to talk others out of trying LED's, or even worse telling them to dump them before they've even got going with them.
I had my AI Sols for 3 years and upgraded them to Hydra52s 6 months ago, I've never had any issues with any of the units at all.
DavidinGA
Active member
Have you ever ran mh before?
Radiums are about $70.00 each. You can get about a year and a half out of them.
DavidinGA
Active member
Based on how many "on" hours per day is that?
Last I heard 8. I ran mine for 8 and with my par meter at a year and a half I could still use them but was worried about spectrum shift (none I could tell with my eye or coral growth) so i replaced them.
d2mini
Premium Member
Yep, i just changed mine after running for 15 months, 7 hours per day.
I don't have a par meter so when to change was just a guess, but I didn't see any real change in my coral either way. I have three radium bulbs.
The T5 I change every 10 months if I can, 12 at the most. And they run longer per day. 9-11 hours I believe. I have 4 80w T5 which run around $25 each.
And all these bulbs go on sale at times, so if you are lucky you can save a few bucks.
For instance, I've seen various MH down to $50-60.
I don't have a par meter so when to change was just a guess, but I didn't see any real change in my coral either way. I have three radium bulbs.
The T5 I change every 10 months if I can, 12 at the most. And they run longer per day. 9-11 hours I believe. I have 4 80w T5 which run around $25 each.
And all these bulbs go on sale at times, so if you are lucky you can save a few bucks.
For instance, I've seen various MH down to $50-60.
kenpau
New member
Of course! I've been reef keeping for 12 years. I started with T8s and softies, then T5s, then MH/T5 combos. I had excellent results with MH which is why I'd never talk them down. But with advances in technology I wanted to give LEDs a go, I started with AI Sols and wasn't blown away by the results but instead of just ditching them I did a lot of reading. People have had good SPS results with AI Sols by running a lot of fixtures, the power is there but I believe that the advances through the Vega and Hydra into the Hydra52 have seen LEDs that can definitely rival MH. It is still true that you need more fixtures at a greater cost but the results are there for everyone to see. Add in the advantages of being sleeker, modern looking, and allowing programs to enhance the reef keeping experience means I will never go back to MH. Having said that, I would never tell anyone to dump MH for LEDs either....
power boat jim
Well-known member
I doubt the spectrum shift would even matter especially if you were running an led or t5 combo. I wonder if you could just run the MH bulbs untill they wont start up given the redundency in spectrum in the lighting systems.
DavidinGA
Active member
Then an interesting question would be at what point does the par drop off so far that you're just wasting electricity running the bulb....
power boat jim
Well-known member
I dont know for sure but would they ever get that dim and be still able to light?
muttley101
Never go full retard!
Switched back to halides 6 months ago and all is well... Chiming in to see how things are going with the others who switched... Waiting for a "Anyone Thinking of Dumping Halides and going back to LED's" thread. Shenanigans!
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