Metal Hal vs T5HO

A

AdamC

Reefing newb
I'm looking into buying a metal HAL and someone is selling a coralife 2 bulb 150w- 15k fixture.

My question is, is my T5HO better? Its a 4 bulb- 2 day lights, and 2 acentric. THe daylights are 10k and I assume the other 2 would be too or am I wrong? If they are then my T5 would be producing 40K at once compared to 30k.

I'm not good with lighting, I just need to upgrade to support my reef tank better and that is my option.

Thanks!
 
The k value is not a measure of power, but a measure of color. It isn't addative. If you have 2 15000k lights, they are still 15000k not 30000k.

IMO, two MH over a 75 would be better than 4 t5. You will be able to keep higher light demanding corals. How old are the lamps in the fixture you are looking at?
If they are close to a year old, you will need to replace them right away.
 
Brand new. Right now my t5s aren't enough for my clam and I want to be able to support it and feed my corals better. 2 bulbs just don't seem that much.
 
I don't think a 4-bulb T5 fixture is strong enough for a 75. I would go with the metal halide light instead.

Like Beej said, the K value is simply indicative of the color. The lower the K value, the yellower/whiter the color, and as the number goes up, the light gets bluer. 10K is very white/yellow and 20K is very blue.
 
As far as light output goes, I think they would be about the same. My experience is in general lighting characteristics so I can't tell you which would give you the best light, only that 2 150 MH lights put out about the same amount of light as 4 t-5's.
 
Jahm said:
As far as light output goes, I think they would be about the same. My experience is in general lighting characteristics so I can't tell you which would give you the best light, only that 2 150 MH lights put out about the same amount of light as 4 t-5's.
Click to expand...

But no two kinds of artificial lihgt truly compare to each other. Watts, "power", luminous, PAR, none measure the total frequency ranges. So we aren't comparing apples to apples. For example, LEDs we are learning don't require nearly as much PAR as we once thought. Kevins, or frequency (or color) of light is VERY important. There is still much to light we still do not understand.

BTW.. rumor has it Creed is coming out with a new full spectrum LED which with blues may nail the grow and coral needs.. I can't wait for the testing results to prove it.
 
Alright so I went ahead and picked up the new light.

I need some help on how I should adjust my corals to it.

It has 2 ballasts- how often should I run one at a time, then both at once?
 
to be safe I would start it out being on just a few hours and increase it an hour a day till you get up to 6 hours on then slowly ramp it up to a full 8 hour day or whatever you want to get it up to.

Obviously your going to want both lights on at the same time to evenly distribute the light across the tank.
 
pretend like they were completely in the dark before and you want to slowly acclimate them to it so the don't get a sunburn =P
 
true- I didn't even think about that Ulta. Im use to my T5's being across the whole thing. Man I'm going to miss my color
 
You can get a higher Kalvin Rating bulb but you will sacrifice PAR (Coral growth) for Color. I just put 2x 20k bulbs in my 250w MHs that I have over my 75g tank in November and I like the look :)

I had 10k bulbs over them before.

Another option is to somehow rig up some T-5 Actinic bulbs to supplement the color.

Quite frankly the 20k bulbs are prolly going to be about the same PAR as your 15k bulbs were.

Can you buy a different bulb for one? And if you can is it common people mix their metal hals?
Click to expand...
That would prolly look silly XD
 
I now have a new question. I hooked these bad boys up and it seems the spectrum of the light is only hitting the main part of the tank. Tank just doesn't look as bright as it did with T5's and there def seems to be some dark spots in the 2 corners.

Right now I have the device sitting on top of my tank. I need to know if they sell mounting brackets for a 48in fixture or if there is a prettier way to elevate it then blocks of wood.

I am having trouble locating legs( if they exist)
 

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