T5 metal halide combo... buy bulbs or upgrade to LED

[jtp79]

I have only had my tank for about a week. It has 2 250 watt metal halide lights that are due to be changed in a couple months. It also has 2 dual t5 setups without reflectors and the bulbs are ready to be changed now.

What would you guys suggest? Should I try to buy 2 retrofit t5 setups with reflectors? Is what I have ok? Or should I upgrade the entire system to LED. I have been looking at the DIY setup, especially the one from stevesled.

Am i better off to buy a DIY kit or to build the kit myself ordering the parts individually. I dont know much about the LED lights but I do work in the automotive industry and can basically do anything myself. But it might take a lil while.

The tank is a 90 gallon reef tank. I have 5 or 6 corals now that have opened up and are growing well and the color is good for only having the tank up and running for 5 days. It was a full setup that I traded for. I eventually want the tank to be FULL of corals and inverts.

Bring on the suggestions and thanks in advance.

 

[sirreal63]

To me, it would depend on what fixture you currently have, if it is a good quality fixture, I would run it, if it is an Odyssea, Current, AquaticLife or other lesser one it may be worth looking at other options.

 

[jtp79]

To me, it would depend on what fixture you currently have, if it is a good quality fixture, I would run it, if it is an Odyssea, Current, AquaticLife or other lesser one it may be worth looking at other options.

Im pretty sure the metal halides are a retrofit kit. One of the t5 setups was an original light for the freshwater aquarium setup and the other is just a put together kit with bulb ends screwed into the canopy. No reflectors on either t5 setup but there is reflectors on the metal halides.

 

[screamingibis]

In my opinion you can't beat metal halide T-5 combo. But like sirreal says, it depends on the brand of fixture.

 

[sirreal63]

It's up to you, most retro kits are sub par and though it will work, it isn't getting the most from the over 700 watts it is consuming. I prefer MH but what you are describing sounds like a mess, a mess over saltwater is not a good idea. Do you have a pic of the setup?

 

[jtp79]

I will try to take one tonight and post the picture.

Do most hobbyists still prefer metal halides over LED or the other way around?

Can the DIY led kits work just as well as a manufactured unit?

 

[sirreal63]

The DIY kit can be just as effective and a pre-made fixture, it is just a lot more work. I cannot say what is more preferred by the majority, but since when has the majority been right?

 

[jda]

Figure out what you actually have and then figure out what you want to keep. Get the numbers off of the ballasts and take some pictures of the reflectors and stuff.

Personally, I would trade neither T5 or MH for LED. Even I was to change that setup, I would just go with higher quality T5 of MH.

 

[jtp79]

Here are the pics of the setup. Sorry they are iphone pics.

1 t5 setup is the original that came with the aquarium. It has been moved to the front of the hood and has no reflectors.

the second t5 setup has no reflectors and is just a high output ballast wired on top of the canopy with nothing but t5 ends screwed to the canopy with the bulbs in them. Also no reflectors.

The metal halides are two 250 watt bulbs and these do have a full length reflector that runs the full width of the tank. only has one bend on each side and this has had holes drilled and bolted to the center of the canopy.

 

[jda]

If you can keep that thing cool, then I would just leave at either get good parabolic reflectors for the T5 or just take them out. There are lots of nice 250W MH bulbs that don't need any supplementation.

I see a fan in the 4th pic. Canopies are hot for any type of light, not just MH. If you have heat issues, then you can get a pendant which stay pretty cool.

What do you want to keep? You might not need this much light depending on what you are interested in. 1 250W MH might be more than enough for most tanks.

 

[Michigan Mike]

6x54w ATI SUNPOWER

Adding lumenmax elite reflectors (or something else that's good) to the halides and either LET or ICECAP reflectors to the T5

Change out the halides for LEDs of some kind, I don't run LEDs but I would add good reflectors to the T5 in combo with new LEDs.

 

[jtp79]

If you can keep that thing cool, then I would just leave at either get good parabolic reflectors for the T5 or just take them out. There are lots of nice 250W MH bulbs that don't need any supplementation.

I see a fan in the 4th pic. Canopies are hot for any type of light, not just MH. If you have heat issues, then you can get a pendant which stay pretty cool.

What do you want to keep? You might not need this much light depending on what you are interested in. 1 250W MH might be more than enough for most tanks.

Im not sure what I want to keep. I have a feeling that I am going to go coral crazy once I get into it. I put the fan on there, its just a lil cheap fan from walmart but the metal halides run for 7 hrs a day and the t5 bulbs run for 9 hrs and the temp only increases from 77 to like 78.5 during the time frame.

 

[Epicreefer]

Most DIY led kits are pretty simple. I think I put mine together for a 60g, 36x3w, in about two hours of collecting parts and three hours of drilling and sodering. It's a good idea to get disable ballasts and build a simple potentiometer dimmer as well as many times the LEDs are too much for the corals and bleach them out a bit. It also makes color very adjustable. As far as what's better that's up for debate, LEDs have advantages in power and adjustability, t5 and MH are reliable and harder to screw up but that may just be because your basically stuck with what you bought, LEDs need some knowledge of coral husbandry and if they are ok with the light. I used to be die hard MH t5 and have warmed up to LEDs in recent months, but like I said they have a host of problems mostly associated with adjusting intensity.

 

[jtp79]

There are lots of options for the LED lights. I hear cree talked about here as being top of the line. I aslo read of a few here using Stevesled diy kit and liking it. On that website it says the LED lights they use are better light output and more efficient. Does anyone know if this is true?

 

[frostyjay1]

I am a big fan of LED myself. it costs less in keeping the tank cool, and also on the electric bill. Plus you don't have to buy bulbs all the time to keep everything happy. But that's just my 2 cents

 

[sirreal63]

Jay, why would you be buying bulbs "all the time"?

 

[jtp79]

Also the MH bulbs the previous owner had been using are cheap,,15 bucks each online. They say they are aquarium bulbs but they do say unprotected arc tube on them. Does this make a difference? The ones I have seen from marine suppliers look identical.

 

[sirreal63]

I don't believe in cheap bulbs though there are people who use them. If you can think of how a mfg would be able to reduce the cost of a bulb and where they were able to make it cheaper, it is a cause for concern. These bulbs are over your aquarium that is housing living creatures, it just doesn't make sense to use a bulb that may be compromised by either design, materials or quality control. I change my bulbs at 14-16 months and some people go longer. If you are running the correct ballast for the bulb, the bulb will usually last longer.

Most bulbs have an unprotected arc tube, which in simple terms means that if the bulb should rupture there is nothing to contain the ruptured arc tube and a protected tube is designed to contain the arc tube in the rare case of a rupture.

 

[dkeller_nc]

As someone that started the hobby with MH & T12 VHO in the 1990's and currently has a power compact fluorescent setup and separate tank run with high intensity LEDs, this is what I'd suggest:

LEDs are much better developed than they were even 2 years ago, but it's only recently that higher-end manufacturers like Ecotech, Aqua Illumination, Pacific Sun, etc... have put out models that are more than just blue and white LEDs.

The trend towards full-spectrum will likely continue, with more LED options available that put out shorter-wavelength UV. One could also reasonably anticipate LED chips that have much broader visible light spectrum by using combination phosphors.

But - it will cost you quite a lot to adequately light a 90 gallon tank with LEDs of sufficient intensity to allow you to keep whatever you want, not just low to medium-light corals. If I were to light my spare 90 gallon tank with the same intensity as the 50 gallon cube with LEDs, it would take 4 Aqua Illumination Vegas or Hydras. That's a good chunk of change - $1600 - $2000. 3 Ecotech Radion Pro lights would probably be close to equivalent in coverage, and that would cost $2700.

My experience so far suggests that high intensity, full-spectrum LED lighting can effectively grow the more difficult to keep Acroporas and other SPS corals, but not at the same growth rates as MH fixtures with fluorescent supplementation. That's OK in my case - I went with LEDs to avoid the heat and power consumption issues associated with metal halides, and fast coral growth is a secondary consideration.

I don't know if this is your first tank, or your first tank intended for corals, but if it is, I would replace your MH bulb with a 10000K Radium, and replace your T5s with broad-spectrum blue bulbs, and go with that for at least a year. There's a ton of things to learn to successfully keep hard corals, and eliminating a variable such as new lighting technology may help with your success.