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What's people's views/experiences with metal halides.....

Alastair

Alastair

Member
Joined
27 Dec 2009
Messages
4,402
Location
Denton, Manchester
Just wondering what people think of using metal halides on their tanks and how good they are. Are there any recommended bulbs that you suggest?
The reason I'm asking is Ill shortly be able to get hold of a 4 foot Aquamedic ocean light 2x 150 watt very cheap for my 5ft and to be honest am fed up of the constant lifting off flaps and light ballasts just to get my hands in the tank and trim etc. It's a real PITA!
My tanks 118 gallons, and currently am running 2.8 watts per gallon now. So not much of an increase in light but I know the halides will penetrate slot deeper too which will help as it's a pretty deep tank. Unfortunately it doesn't come with t5 or t8s purely just the halides but am thinking I can just attach a strip of led's to pop on an hour or so before the halides come on so as to not scare the hell out the fish. I'd appreciate any feedback on them and ideas on how high above the tank it should be positioned too.
Lastly, how often will I expect my cat to have late midnight jumping treats on the carpet if I have it lidless.

Thanks everyone
 
Re: What's people's views/experiences with metal halides....

Hi Alistair,

Advantages with Halide - units look great, brightest lighting available, choice of Kelvin and spectrums, glitterlines, point source.
Disadvantages - Heavy to hang from ceiling, expensive to run, heat, glare, can be overkill for low light species.

Why is the person getting rid of the light in the first place? Any of the above?

I suppose it depends on condition of the unit and price you can buy it for, what you want to grow, if you really need it and if the advantages for you outweigh the disadvantages?

I love halides but in balance you may also want to look into LEDs if considering switching your lighting?
 
Re: What's people's views/experiences with metal halides....

Thanks for the reply Jeremy. It's actually coming off a marine set up you see, and it's only 150 squid which I thought was pretty good. I don't have any low light plants in my tank really apart from a bit of anubias nana shades in some wood. As you say I love the glittering effect too they give from the water ripples. Do they really use alot of energy?
My ceiling in my apartment is solid concrete too so would this be a problem?
Again I'd only have the unit on for 6 to 7 hours max and tank is very heavily planted with high co2 etc.
 
Re: What's people's views/experiences with metal halides....

If you get it you might want to get a PAR meter to help you hang it at the right level. It will need to be at least 20cm above the water surface anyway to avoid excess water heating and to ensure sufficient spread of light.

Do they use a lot of energy? Lets just say that a 2x150 watt halide will use significantly more energy than 300 watts.

I don't want to come across as anti halide, as I'm not. You can get one of those energy monitors but you will need to buy the light and run it first.

You can get wall mounting brackets or even tank mounting legs from Arcadia. I've fitted loads of halides to ceilings but all mine involved finding the wooden beams and fixing the wires to those.

Concrete would involve rawl plugs???

Lastly you will need to buy freshwater spectrum bulbs, which is an added cost to buying the unit.
 
Re: What's people's views/experiences with metal halides....

I guess I'd no How much juice it will sup as my place has a payment meter for electric. Always has so I'll know by how much quicker it goes down ha ha.

Rawl plugs? Maybe I'll go down the wall brackets or mounting legs. I dont fancy waking up to a tank with a halide underwater feature lol.

I've been having a quick look online at bulbs, would the 6500 be freshwater then? I like the colour the Ada ones give off but refuse to pay almost a hundred pound for a bulb.
 
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