# Metal Halide



## Martin in Holland (10 Aug 2017)

Are there still some of you that is using metal Halide lamps?
 I have used all types of lights over the years and recently dusted off my old ADA (copy) metal Halides, purchased new bulbs for them and I must say, the light is still better (in my eyes) than any other so far....


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## foxfish (10 Aug 2017)

I used to use one over my planted tank, it is a 250w model with a 6500k bulb, it now lives over my workbench in my shed. It produces huge amounts of heat as well as light and make a horrible noise when it starts up but must be 25years old now.


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## zozo (10 Aug 2017)

I think all high end rather large tanks with difficult planting can't run without metal halide, so i guess there still be a small scapers community depending on it..

It also needs a pretty high budget to keep it running optimal.. Metal halide is know to produce enormous amounts of light up to 25000 lumen per 250 watt bulb. Tho gradualy lose 50% output over 50% from it's life span. Makes it actualy a pretty unstable light source on the long run and need to take this loss into account during the life span of the aquarium. You would need to over calculate it and hang the lights higher above the tank and over time slowly lower the light setup down accordingly.


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## Franks (10 Aug 2017)

Seems a world away from my high tech Dutch using a £5 11w 6500k LED floodlight. IP water rated and bulb life of 10,000 hours and pennies to run.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## Martin in Holland (11 Aug 2017)

I know they use more power than any other type of lights, but the light they produce is really nice and close to what the sunlight does when it hits the water. Probably after some time I will pack them up again and safe up for some good LED (Kessil or other), for now though I am going to give my old halides a go.


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## zozo (11 Aug 2017)

Martin in China said:


> I know they use more power than any other type of lights, but the light they produce is really nice and close to what the sunlight does when it hits the water. Probably after some time I will pack them up again and safe up for some good LED (Kessil or other), for now though I am going to give my old halides a go.



The certainly do.. If it was more affordable i would love to experiment with HPI lights above a tank. They seem to be a tad stronger than HID.. But than in combination with a led setup. because HPI or HID can be dimmed but can't be started up dimmed.. So starting HID will always be from zip to a shocking full blast. Tho i noticed the HPI iner tube comes on slowly and takes a few minutes before at full power, but still  is a pretty strong light at startup. So having some LED running before the beast starts would be less shocking experience.

The lamps are not realy that expensive, but a dimmable ballast is. And since they actualy should be replaced preferably at around 5000 hours. I thought of a dimmable ballast and double the lamp power. But the startup spoils this, since it can't be started dimmed as far as i know. So only a led combination solves this. Consumption can also be limited with a led combination, we wont need a full blast for the whole periode and only create a few hour peak in the day. Since i'm a 12 hour periode fan a 5 or 6 hour mid day blast would be fine and leave the rest of the period to the leds.


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## ceg4048 (11 Sep 2017)

Martin in China said:


> Are there still some of you that is using metal Halide lamps?
> I have used all types of lights over the years and recently dusted off my old ADA (copy) metal Halides, purchased new bulbs for them and I must say, the light is still better (in my eyes) than any other so far....


Yes definitely, I agree that they produce the most beautiful light. Mark Evans used to run his tanks exclusively using Halide. His tanks were some of the prettiest Ive seen.

Cheers,


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## Martin in Holland (14 Sep 2017)

We missed you Clive.


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## ceg4048 (14 Sep 2017)

Martin in China said:


> We missed you Clive.



Cheers mate. A really long road...


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## AverageWhiteBloke (14 Sep 2017)

Martin in China said:


> We missed you Clive.



Yeah, I was posting about my test kits results and nitrate poisoning of my fish just to try and draw him out from the shadows


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