LED or Metal Halide?

Hi all. I'm currently upgrading my 29 gallon no sump system to a 30 gallon breeder drilled with a 20 long sump.

I am having a hard time deciding what type of lighting to buy. I currently run a Coralife 2 bulb T5HO on my 29... I haven't been impressed.

I'm thinking a 150watt Hamilton Cayman hung over the tank... Or maybe two or three of those new BoostLED bulbs. I'm looking to keep Softies and LPS however don't want to limit myself in case I someday feel the urge to get into SPS...

Any help, recommendations would be great. My budget is in the area of $300.

 

MH will warm the waters.

for me, I am actually considering a longer photo period so My heaters dont have to work as hard cause it is a whopping 18 degrees here.

 

First place a 2 bulb light IMO isn't enough even for a 29 gallon and on a 30 breeder it would definitely not be enough especially with the width of that tank.

And a metal Halide on a tank that shallow would heat up the tank and again IMO would be to much. And getting enough spread to cover that tank I really don't think would be good enough with one bulb.

And there just isnt enough information out there on the LED's and their performance otherwise I would be changing to them myself. I just bought a boost LED bulbs and I am working on a small tank to test it out.

I am currently running a 6 bulb DIY T5 fixture on my 30 breeder frag tank and I am very happy with it. For a display tank a 4 bulb fixture most likely be enough.

 

i recently upgraded to the boost leds on a 75 after having 2 150 metal halides and t5s, they heated up the tank way too much, and like gazog said it is gnna heat up a 30 breeder very quickly, And you said your budget was $300 with is not enought for a metal halide and a chiller. I would get 3 or 4 par 30s they have been working great for me and my corals absolutely love them

 

With those dimensions (36" x 18" x 12") you would be well advised to try to start with 3 BoostLED's 60 Degree optics. I personally like the 14K-16K look of the 3RB/2CW lamps. If you want a 10K or 20K look they have that too.

You can mount these lamps using simple Wallyworld automotive clamp on lamp holders. They only draw 10W each and add no heat to your tank. Require not bulb or ballast replacement and can be turned on and off at will - try doing that with a metal halide!!!

With the BOOSTLED you can certainly keep LPS with the 3 lamps. That may well be plenty if you place the SPS high in the tank and directly under the middle of the lamps. I personally can only attest to LPS doing well under these lights as I have not gotten into SPS with them yet.

The two pics you see are from the 30 gallon and 120 gallon tank respectively.

You can see that even for the 120 - these two lamps mounted (not even in center!!!) do a decent job of illuminating the tank with minimal spotlighting (60 degree optics are good for this depth - for deeper tanks or more concentrated light go with 40 degree optics!)

This shimmer and color rendition are wonderful!

 

hey whats up, do you have a link to a website where i can get those clamp on lamps

 

Here is your link for the LED's Boostled.com The clamps you can get from Lowes, Home Depot or any hardware store.

How long have you had those on your tanks? I am really quite interested in them and would like to know how you growth is? I bought one but most likely will purchase at least 2 or 3 more for my 75 but I would really like to see some information on growth before I do.

 

those clamp on lamps can be bought at walmart, menards, lowes, home depot....really just about anywhere. they're cheap too.

 

Go metal halide.

 

I could not be happier.

They were economical, they are bright as hell and give the same shimmer and seemingly same polyp extension as a metal halide.

I have had them on there for about six weeks now and have already seen zoas that were near death in my 14BC are now open wide/coloring up/and spreading. These are even 16-20" from the bottom of the LED's too!!! For the small colony of really nice bright green zoas I have higher in the tank they have already started to frag onto the next rock and that colony has only been in the tank for about three weeks so I am def. seeing excellent growth of softies.

I only have one LPS for stony corals - a pretty good sized torch coral. It has also shown really good polyp extension and I have noticed an extra mouth and signs of splitting when there was no sign of either three weeks ago.

I would say that at the very least, the LED's way outperform CF which might not be saying much. To say that the GROWTH is better than T5's or MH's - I will not offer an opinion on the matter as I am no expert.

But what I would offer is that from what I am seeing so far, it is feasible that the LED's can compete with halides/t5's for growth. But there is more tipping the scale than growth when growth is equal. The cost of the LEDs is waaaaaaay lower. For just a few dollars more than a good replacement bulbs for a two (2) 250 watt halide system, I got two whole LED lamps with no worries of ballasts, replacement bulbs or wiring, no unwanted heat buildup, no heavy light/pendant to mount, and the lamps can be turned on/off at will with no stress about ruing the bulb life, and finally I am sure that if you did the math, these little BoostLED beauties will pay for themselves within a short order of time in the almost-non-existent 10W power draw versus nearly 300 watts powerdraw for a 250W MH.

I will continue to update on the progress of this LED build as I will soon be adding one ALL ROYAL BLUE BoostLED lamp to this tank and I will be purchasing one of the BoostLED new fixtures for $300.00 for my 120 Reef tank.

Hope this helps shed some light/dispel some confusion.

Let me know if you have more questions.