led's vs. mh's

dadonoflaw

New member
i have a 180 gal. it has 3x150mh's. obviously its too low for that size. so i am thinking about led's for the bulb life and less heat but i have read a few threads on here that suggest the technology isnt there yet. so its between the led lights and 2x400 watt 20k bulbs with actinics. but with the halides i will also need a chiller.
 
You wont necessarily need a chiller. I would say at least 50% of the people I know that run halides, DONT use a chiller.

That was one thing that bugged me about LED advertising "No chiller" BS. They made it seem that if you ran halides instead of LEDs you would have to fork over cash for a chiller. Not always the case at all.

You can always suspend the lights to cut down on heat transfer. You can also run fans over the water surface.

I would go with halides instead. It will cost you a lot less and it is much better light IMO - better for SPS, better for light spred and better shimmer effect.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14484088#post14484088 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by noboddi
if PFO loses its lawsuit, LEDs could be off the market. Bit risky to get onto that technology right now IMO

its over PFO is gone.
 
dang ok that was an easy choice. well the reason for the chiller was for just in case in a way. my central air died on me last summer with those crappy lights so i figured with that kind of wattage it would be pretty necessary. although if i run them at night and raise them like you said. i may try this. it would be nice to save 1200 especially now
 
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