Radium metal halide bulbs will not be produced anymore!

[jackson6745]

400w radium, 2 purple+, 2blue+, 2 blue reefbrites. Can’t beat this look IMO


You don’t get this with led. I ran radion g4 + g6. If I didn’t run elevated nutrients with led I burned corals with 350-400 par. The overall look is dim and blue in comparison. I’m not looking for a Disco tank. I do see the appeal for radions if you’re into tenuis and like to make corals really fluoresce for photos or selling. To each their own. Not for me for my displays. I’ll keep the radions to put over frags systems to appeal to newbs.

 

[jackson6745]

Btw this happened this morning with a new radium bulb

 

[Z Burn's Reefing]

Did you miss the part where they said , quote "Leds grow corals amasingly"
Anyone can cherry pick to prove a point..


AT LEAST they admit they don't know "stuff"..

No, I didn't miss that part...did I say somewhere that leds don't grow corals? Stop trying to create a debate when there isn't one. Did you just watch 5 minutes of the video and hear that information and immediately started typing on your keyboard? I simply said Polo reef added halides to help with missing spectrum. Particularly <400 and up higher in the 700 and 800s. Don't be so mean and angry my friend!

 

[Nonya]

I got one for fun! Halides is where it’s at! Those numbers are 12” down in the water column I hit over 1000 at the water line.

Unless you went "upscale" (i.e., $$$), your sensor also under-measures PAR in the blue-violet range, so your numbers could be even higher if you have heavy blue.

 

[jda]

The Hamilton 1000w bulbs are for public aquariums and stuff. There are many good farmers that use MH over their tanks - Adam at BS is one that has said many times that he is using 6500k halides until he cannot get them anymore. JF used them even when he talked about his T5s in the video that made people crazy (misunderstanding) with his "blue" bulbs that were more like daylight. Scripps is a large consumer of MH stuff, Denver aquarium still has a bunch - some of these places tried Exotica Cannons and got burned... bad spectrum and short lived. If you think that some Radions or Photon V2 can do what a wall of 1000w Mh can do, then think again. Research places use sunlight if they can or MH for the most part when it matters... some LEDs when it doesn't. When you are trying to see about saving A. Palmatta, you don't want some cut-spectrum light over them and they don't fall for the BS that hobbyists do that LED manufacturers tell them. If you are ever in San Diego, go to Scripps... they are wonderful, trying to do good things and they are some of the few that don't just discount hobbyists en masse with their questions and stuff. For most other researchers, you almost have to meet them at a show, in the wild, donate a ton of money or be referred by somebody that they know before they will even write or call you back.

I made the mistake of posting a photo of all of my m80 ballasts on my build thread. This is not a huge thing and mostly anecdotal, but if you all saw the amount of messages that I got from people to buy these (after I said that I was not selling them), you would be amazed. Most of these folks do not post and have thread counts in the 20s, but they all want to get into MH, want to expand or some to have backups too. If I posted a photos of my MH bulbs stash, more craziness would ensue - I have XM 20k bulbs still... a holy grail.

 

[Nonya]

Btw this happened this morning with a new radium bulb

Any idea what caused it? A drop of water, skin touched it?

 

[Thales]

The Hamilton 1000w bulbs are for public aquariums and stuff. There are many good farmers that use MH over their tanks - Adam at BS is one that has said many times that he is using 6500k halides until he cannot get them anymore. JF used them even when he talked about his T5s in the video that made people crazy (misunderstanding) with his "blue" bulbs that were more like daylight. Scripps is a large consumer of MH stuff, Denver aquarium still has a bunch - some of these places tried Exotica Cannons and got burned... bad spectrum and short lived. If you think that some Radions or Photon V2 can do what a wall of 1000w Mh can do, then think again. Research places use sunlight if they can or MH for the most part when it matters... some LEDs when it doesn't. When you are trying to see about saving A. Palmatta, you don't want some cut-spectrum light over them and they don't fall for the BS that hobbyists do that LED manufacturers tell them. If you are ever in San Diego, go to Scripps... they are wonderful, trying to do good things and they are some of the few that don't just discount hobbyists en masse with their questions and stuff. For most other researchers, you almost have to meet them at a show, in the wild, donate a ton of money or be referred by somebody that they know before they will even write or call you back.

I made the mistake of posting a photo of all of my m80 ballasts on my build thread. This is not a huge thing and mostly anecdotal, but if you all saw the amount of messages that I got from people to buy these (after I said that I was not selling them), you would be amazed. Most of these folks do not post and have thread counts in the 20s, but they all want to get into MH, want to expand or some to have backups too. If I posted a photos of my MH bulbs stash, more craziness would ensue - I have XM 20k bulbs still... a holy grail.

I am waiting till the fever pitch maximizes then I am selling my ballasts, bulbs and fixtures. I call my stash "Halide coin"

 

[jda]

They break sometimes. Occasionally one will not fire. It happens. Just like I try and tell people not to judge ATI, EcoTech, Kessil, etc. if one in a thousand of their units does not work, but rather how the respond to it. Most will replace them without questions.

I try and at least fire all of mine for a minute or two before I put them into storage. I don't always do it, though.

 

[Nonya]

The newer fixtures do a better job of now providing a blanket of light (I.e. ati straton). Things are improving.

The ATI Straton Pro is listed at nearly $2,000. That's just insane for a 215 watt fixture. There aren't enough bells and whistles in the world to make it worth buying. If it wasn't for DIY I might have to switch to MH.

 

[Z Burn's Reefing]

I just took PAR on my new build the other day...figured I would share in case this is helpful to those wanting to run radiums still, but can't track down any M80 ballasts...I am using reefbrite's eballasts to fire them. Yes, not ideal, but plenty of PAR. We'll see how it goes over the next couple of years (in terms of PAR decline on e-ballasts)...I do have a fair amount of wiggle room to lower the light as the bulbs age.

 

[jda]

Also, for those wondering about high wattage MH at public aquariums, they just don't plug a 110v ballast from BRS into the wall. They usually use 240 or 480v services and ballasts that match. For those who do not know, the cost of electrical on these higher voltage services is a lot cheaper than what comes into a home.

Again, this stuff is easy to learn if you go to shows, talk to folks, etc. Most aquariums that use 1000w MH still will not save any money by going to LED. Even those that do (over smaller and shallower tanks) are usually not willing to suffer even the slightest spectrum loss.

 

[Fishy888]

The hobby is in decline?

I have to agree with you on this issue. It’s not like people don’t want to be reefers.
Many people started tanks when Covid happened and they handed out all that stimulus money. But then prices doubled and in some cases tripled for everything, not just reefing.

Far too many new hobbyists spend tons of money on what the LFS tells them to buy without reading the forums to find out that pulsing Xenia shouldn’t cost $100 per polyp and that canister filters. are best left to freshwater. This causes their frustration levels to rise when they still have tons of algae a year later, nor does it help when their tanks crash.

Events like this caused the levels of hobbyists post Covid correct back to the mean. By this metric perhaps the number of reefers has declined but had Covid not happened, the number of reefers would have stayed fairly steady state, even with the price increases.

 

[oreo54]

I simply said Polo reef added halides to help with missing spectrum.

So what was your motivation for posting that?
The statement is too open to a broad range of interpretation.
Missing and poor can carry 2 very different meanings..


Angry, no, anal maybe..

Polo Reef just added halides to help with poor spectrum...

 

[Z Burn's Reefing]

So what was your motivation for posting that?
The statement is too open to a broad range of interpretation.
Missing and poor can carry 2 very different meanings..

Someone simply asked if there were any larger public aquariums still running halides...the 17,000 gallon polo reef came to mind, as I remembered Tullio did some work there and they added halides.

 

[jackson6745]

Any idea what caused it? A drop of water, skin touched it?

It was an old bulb (unused) purchased with several others from a hobbyist that had them in storage. It happened as I was screwing it in the fixture. Never even got a chance to fire it up.

 

[oreo54]

Also, for those wondering about high wattage MH at public aquariums, they just don't plug a 110v ballast from BRS into the wall. They usually use 240 or 480v services and ballasts that match. For those who do not know, the cost of electrical on these higher voltage services is a lot cheaper than what comes into a home.

Again, this stuff is easy to learn if you go to shows, talk to folks, etc. Most aquariums that use 1000w MH still will not save any money by going to LED. Even those that do (over smaller and shallower tanks) are usually not willing to suffer even the slightest spectrum loss.

Don't forget the penguins and turtles..
Sorry can't resist.
Yea I don't (didn't) see public aquariums having any motivation to go led. Then again who's a public aquarium.

The example used on both sides is pointless.
Even going from 1000gal tank to 50 shifts the playing field.

 

[oreo54]

Someone simply asked if there were any larger public aquariums still running halides...the 17,000 gallon polo reef came to mind, as I remembered Tullio did some work there and they added halides.

Tuillo sells mh bulbs and led supplements for metal halide bulbs. Did I mention the mh fixtures? He is open to the same criticisms as some direct at BRS.

 

[jackson6745]

The ATI Straton Pro is listed at nearly $2,000. That's just insane for a 215 watt fixture. There aren't enough bells and whistles in the world to make it worth buying. If it wasn't for DIY I might have to switch to MH.

What’s Amazing is I just bought a brand new 6’ ati sunpower for $629. 6k in stratons to light a 6’ tank, or $800 (with bulbs) to light a 6 ft tank. It’s not like you’re selling yourself short with t5 either lol. Lighting costs with led got crazy. Until
You setup large systems, you don’t realize how absurd it is.

 

[jda]

Come on man, think about this from all angles. Don't just try and nit, be contrarian or argumentative. Think of it like somebody who uses MH does... if institutions use MH (and they use a lot of them), then availability for hobbyists is boosted by this. Yeah? It is important. You seem smart enough to be able to get here, but I also know that you like to just jab knives in people's sides just to do it - this is the lack of self awareness that I was talking about earlier. For the purposes this thread, this is a big deal.

 

[Nonya]

I have to agree with you on this issue. It’s not like people don’t want to be reefers.
Many people started tanks when Covid happened and they handed out all that stimulus money. But then prices doubled and in some cases tripled for everything, not just reefing.

I wasn't aware of any real decline (maybe a temporary slump), but I would agree that too many people got into the hobby thinking it was as easy as Wayde and Brett would have led you to believe (e.g., Just add this one product and your tank is instantly cycled). When the reality of the knowledge, time and cash necessary to succeed sank in, I'm guessing that most gave up--but that has always been the case.