bigmike015 Posted April 18, 2013 Share Posted April 18, 2013 looking to get new lights on my tank, I currently have 36x25x15 tank with a 175 metal halide. its an old bulb, tank just doesent seem bright enough. I am wondering which is better, metal halide or LED???? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bogdan Posted April 18, 2013 Share Posted April 18, 2013 Sorry, but there is no simple answer to that question. To make it even more complicated as far as the coral colors are concerned I would pick CF over MH and LEDs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigmike015 Posted April 18, 2013 Author Share Posted April 18, 2013 i just want to make sure that all my corals have enough light. I just got a marineland 36-48 reef ready led but it is not wide enough for my tank and the front and back are dark from the spotlight. I know CF will give the best color, but prob gonna stick with MH or LED. just need to know what LEDs are good and if i have to have alot of them to make up for the loss of light Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Timfish Posted April 18, 2013 Share Posted April 18, 2013 The Marineland fixtures are not very bright fixtures. I personally am a big fan of BuildMyLED.com but there are other manufacturers who have better fixtures than the Reef Ready. As far as spectrum the expanded blue wavelengths of BMLs fixture is what really sold me. I've seen brighter colors and in a few cases new colors from the 400nm LEDs used in thier fixtures that were not seen under fluorescent or MH. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigmike015 Posted April 18, 2013 Author Share Posted April 18, 2013 well thats good to know, How many Led lights would i need for the tank and how high off the water shoud they be? How about ecoxotic led lights? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigmike015 Posted April 18, 2013 Author Share Posted April 18, 2013 Im trying not to spend an arm and leg, but so far i have a 175 Icecap MH 20k, 2 Ecoxotic stunners, 1 36-48 marineland led and of all of them the MH is my favorite. How high should i have these off the water? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ckyuv Posted April 18, 2013 Share Posted April 18, 2013 I would sell everything you have and buy two kessil a350w fixtures :-) if that s not an option you might consider other led fixtures. As you know with your mh, if you don't replace your bulbs every year they loose intensity and grow algae. Led is nice because its bright, cold, never need replacing and you don't hear noisy fans lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigmike015 Posted April 18, 2013 Author Share Posted April 18, 2013 how high off the water should my light be? I would love to have a kessil, cant afford it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+dapettit Posted April 18, 2013 Share Posted April 18, 2013 how high off the water should my light be? I would love to have a kessil, cant afford it MH, 6 to 12" off the water is the norm. You also might consider a differejt reflector or up the wattage on your power supply. Just a thought. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigmike015 Posted April 18, 2013 Author Share Posted April 18, 2013 well Thanks for the info, guess its time to get rid of some of these lights! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kingjames Posted April 18, 2013 Share Posted April 18, 2013 halides all the way, but seen some of the most stunning tanks and sps growing under leds also, but then you have guys like roland( Rchavez) who has some show size sps,an awsome color under t5, they r all good, but from what i heard if ur gonna go led DO NOT CHEAP OUT, but im not an expert either, and i think thats why i dont have full led, cause they are not cheap, i have 300w of halide and 98w pc on my 55 and i can grow anything my little heart desires, actually sometimes i think its too much light, they are also about 7-8 inches from water, if that helped any Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigmike015 Posted April 18, 2013 Author Share Posted April 18, 2013 halides all the way, but seen some of the most stunning tanks and sps growing under leds also, but then you have guys like roland( Rchavez) who has some show size sps,an awsome color under t5, they r all good, but from what i heard if ur gonna go led DO NOT CHEAP OUT, but im not an expert either, and i think thats why i dont have full led, cause they are not cheap, i have 300w of halide and 98w pc on my 55 and i can grow anything my little heart desires, actually sometimes i think its too much light, they are also about 7-8 inches from water, if that helped any Yep that helped, I love the blue tint my MH gives off. I think i am going to get another 150MH and run them both. Then i will have a 175MH and a 150MH. I aslo have a led actinic light from aquadome that is great. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
madsalt Posted April 19, 2013 Share Posted April 19, 2013 I just switched from 4 T5's to one 48" 14k reef LED from BuildMyLED and I couldn't be happier. I have a 90 gallon bow front and it is tall, I have light penetration all the way down. I am going to add another 48" though with a different spectrum to add even more pop and light to the tank. If you watch the video on the BuildMyLEDs website from the test they did at Aqua Dome it is crazy. I was there the day they did the video and I was blown away, that is what sold me on them. If you want to see 4 different spectrums go to AquaTek they have them setup over their coral tanks. At 300.00 a pop for the 48's that really isn't bad at all and you are looking at 36" fixtures so you will be cheaper. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FarmerTy Posted April 19, 2013 Share Posted April 19, 2013 I prefer MH/T5 combo for an SPS-heavy tank. For LPS/softies... I have no preference and would probably do LEDs if I was setting up another tank and going with no SPS. JMHO. -Ty Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.