Is metal halide dead?

Chibils

Chibils

halide loyalist
I've been out of the hobby for a few years now. When I left, LED was starting to look promising and it was unclear at the time whether it would be able to match other forms of lighting in the long run. MH and T5 were very popular and most people on here ran one or the other (or some combination of both).

I've been lurking here again for a few weeks and it seems that MH has almost been completely phased out in favor of LED. I can see why: they seem to work well, are fairly inexpensive with very low long-term costs (no $100+ bulb replacements every year with cheap power bills too) and don't really require much knowledge or work. They're pretty much plug 'n play.

I'm not really in a position to set up a reef in the very near future, but it's still on my mind. I've been reading here, as I mentioned, and it seems the kinks in LED still aren't completely ironed out. It's still a new tech for the reef aquarium world. Some people have said that their color and/or growth isn't as good as it used to be and have gone back to halides. However it's hard to find much info on them these days. This board used to be dominated with halide talk (for the lighting bits) and every online retailer carried a wide variety of lamps, fixtures, and ballasts. It seems manufacturers have felt the weight of the LED advance and moved on or crashed because no one carries much MH any more. MarineDepot has a very small selection of lamps from about half a dozen manufacturers and only a few ballasts or reflectors. Same goes for many other retailers. It seems many of the most talked-about bulbs from ye olden days aren't even available any more (looking at you Helios) or are hard to find.

I guess what I'm asking, if you boil this down, is whether it's even worth it go with MH any more since it's getting harder and harder to find any thing. It seems to be on its way out for good rather than just stepping aside for LEDs.
 
That is a whole lot of gross over dramatic extrapolations. MH is still a valid source of light for a reef tank. The lamps will be around long enough to out live that average hobby life of most people. LED is an adequate option, but not the game changer it was billed to be. Far from most people are changing to LED.
 
I just restarted a tank several months ago after a 5 yr break any didn't hesitate to go with MH. LED are good but MH works fine and you don't have to fiddle with the spectral settings like you do with LED's. You are actually seeing people move from LED back to MH. Both will work but I would say MH is more plug and play then LED IMO.
 
No problem getting MH and T5 fixtures or bulbs here.
In fact, the MH manufacturers will tell you there has been an increase in sales over the past year or so.
And you will see more and more "hybrid" fixtures popping up that use both LED and MH or T5, many where the LED is the supplemental lighting out of the two.

It will be quite some time before you have to worry about mh being phased out. ;)
 
2 175 m/h with 4 59 w t5 actinic and 3 small led moon lights..

Keep the led in there place.. To dimly light darkness to see night critters. NOT To grow a beautiful tank. I think with all the my led is dead post i have seen around then the people going back because of not good enough. A Combination is best. not to mention my m/h ballast are 20 plus years old.. and will likely make it another 20... NO Led will do that there bulb life numbers are flawed . those numbers are going by what small led lights for say on your toaster or fridge water selector .. NOT OVER Driving High power led..
my opinion of course.. BUT yes there is always a but.. If you have a small tank and only need 1 maybe two lights get a Kesssel light.. I Just cant see buying 8 of them to replace 3 m/h. bulbs.
 
I don't think LED v MH is a black and white question, there's a lot of different factors involved...

How much do you want to spend?.........The initial outlay of LEDs is far greater.

What do you want to achieve?.......Do you want rapid growth at the expense of customisation or are sunrise/sunsets/weather patterns important to you.

How patient are you?.......Probably the biggest question, LEDs can grow amazing reef tanks, however they take time to grow and take time to find the best lighting program, MH is plug and play. I'd say lack of patience is the single biggest reason people ditch LED and return to MH.

For me Hybrids are the go now, not MH/LED but T5/LED, the latest Giesemann and ATI Hybrids are getting fantastic reviews and producing amazing results.
 
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Man you just had to kick the hornet's nest didn't you.
Poking_Wasp_Nest.gif
 
175x250x175x250x175 SE here for a long, long time.
Don't see anything changing in the near future.
(Unless I throw some VHO Super Actinics in.) ;)
 
I think the reason why this question comes up so often is for years we have been told in general that it is a 1:1 switch, the equipment lasts longer, and people are excited with new technology.

Also when the limits are discussed one of the arguments is the next generation of technology will fix what is broken.

Much has been figured out but there is still more to understand and why this continues to be addressed.
 
Nope. A lot of people are still utilizing them and/or switching back. The selection aren't quite what they were, but that's irrelevant and typical after over saturation of products. Like with T-5, there are select companies focusing on them (ATI/Giesman), so companies like Hamilton will become the overwhelming metal halide lighting option going forward and we will benefit from it.
 
kevin_e said:
Nope. A lot of people are still utilizing them and/or switching back. The selection aren't quite what they were, but that's irrelevant and typical after over saturation of products. Like with T-5, there are select companies focusing on them (ATI/Giesman), so companies like Hamilton will become the overwhelming metal halide lighting option going forward and we will benefit from it.
Click to expand...

I wouldn't say companies are focussing on certain products in particular. Oviously AI and Ecotech Marine focus on LEDs but Giesemann offer MH, T5 and LED options across the range.
 
kenpau said:
I wouldn't say companies are focussing on certain products in particular. Oviously AI and Ecotech Marine focus on LEDs but Giesemann offer MH, T5 and LED options across the range.
Click to expand...

Thier primary focus in T5 and has been. They are incorporating supplemental lighting to expand their market, just like Hamilton has added moon lights to their fixtures.
 
It's the 'myth of obsolescence'. Something is obsolete when it is no longer useful - either because it fails to perform a stated function or components are no longer available. Metal halide lighting falls into neither category. OK, metal halide is older tech; LED newer tech - at least where reef tanks are concerned - so there's more R&D and noise around the latter, but the former remains alive and well. Perhaps someday, it will become obsolete as more folks switch to alternatives (I've gone 100% LED); but that day is quite a ways off.
 
I love LEDs as supplements. They are cool: programmable, dimmable, customizable, etc.

For an SPS reef, I would stick with MH or t5 for primary lighting though.
 
kevin_e said:
Thier primary focus in T5 and has been. They are incorporating supplemental lighting to expand their market, just like Hamilton has added moon lights to their fixtures.
Click to expand...

This may have been the case in the past but the new Futura, which is 100% LED is being touted by Giesemann as their flagship model. The new Aurora Hybrid is also showing that they are moving towards LED technology and using T5 as supplemental lighting in the Hybrid.
 
Chibils said:
I've been out of the hobby for a few years now. When I left, LED was starting to look promising and it was unclear at the time whether it would be able to match other forms of lighting in the long run. MH and T5 were very popular and most people on here ran one or the other (or some combination of both).

I've been lurking here again for a few weeks and it seems that MH has almost been completely phased out in favor of LED. I can see why: they seem to work well, are fairly inexpensive with very low long-term costs (no $100+ bulb replacements every year with cheap power bills too) and don't really require much knowledge or work. They're pretty much plug 'n play.

I'm not really in a position to set up a reef in the very near future, but it's still on my mind. I've been reading here, as I mentioned, and it seems the kinks in LED still aren't completely ironed out. It's still a new tech for the reef aquarium world. Some people have said that their color and/or growth isn't as good as it used to be and have gone back to halides. However it's hard to find much info on them these days. This board used to be dominated with halide talk (for the lighting bits) and every online retailer carried a wide variety of lamps, fixtures, and ballasts. It seems manufacturers have felt the weight of the LED advance and moved on or crashed because no one carries much MH any more. MarineDepot has a very small selection of lamps from about half a dozen manufacturers and only a few ballasts or reflectors. Same goes for many other retailers. It seems many of the most talked-about bulbs from ye olden days aren't even available any more (looking at you Helios) or are hard to find.

I guess what I'm asking, if you boil this down, is whether it's even worth it go with MH any more since it's getting harder and harder to find any thing. It seems to be on its way out for good rather than just stepping aside for LEDs.
Click to expand...

Hey, I know a lot of people gave you a hard time for this question, but I am in the same boat and was wondering the same thing. Despite being out of the hobby for ~8 years, I expected roughly similar technology from pretty much every aspect besides lighting and cheap monitoring systems; two techs that were just starting to really pick up steam and show major promise when I stopped paying attention to the hobby.

Seems like it's still MH in a lot of houses, and that does make sense to me.
 
reefwiser said:
Man you just had to kick the hornet's nest didn't you.
Poking_Wasp_Nest.gif
Click to expand...
[emoji1] [emoji1] [emoji1] [emoji1]

Good to see a lot of people still use halide. I guess there's a lot of buzz around LEDs drowning out talk of them. I'm curious though what bulbs y'all are running, since some bulbs like Helios are gone and others are harder to find,
 
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