Your light is going to taper off at either end no matter what you use. You fix this problem by buying a higher watt bulb and placing it higher above the tank, or by buying smaller multiple fixtures...
Metal halide lighting questions
- Thread starter jrflanagan
- Start date
If you got flourescents that go across the full length of the tank like you would normally get your not going to get any noticeable taper of light on each end. Now if the flourescent doesn't go all the way across the length of the tank. Then yes you will get light taper but not much unless you center a 24" flourescent on a 48" long tank! lol But that is part of my point you can get full coverage with less watts with flourescent then MH. But back to OP original question. I don't see any advantages for MH for a planted tank other then maybe visual effects MH has on water. I think MH is old school. Many of your older hobbiest that been doing planted tanks 30years ago ran MH when there wasn't much or any HO flourescent available back then. I know alot of people now run MH on planted tanks. My point is I see no advantages to grow lush planted tank with MH.
LOL i have seen no information suggesting what you are telling me so i simply won't beleive it.MyGiants;4249579; said:
You cannot run flourescents till they burn out after 6-12 months they are uselss to plants (seriously look this up it has been stated numerous times on these forums). Flourescents need to be replaced no later than 6 months for HO lamps and 9 months for NO lamps metal halides only need to be replaced every 12-18 months they burn out much slower.
you speak of MH like their the old outdated peice of technology when it is infact clearly the other way around and any planted tank or reef enthusiast would tell you that. Metal halides are the newer more efficient technology and will soon totaly replace flourescents until LED's finaly replace them (like they should).
a T5HO lamp does produce less lumens per watt than normal t5 the only difference is you can fit much higher wattages of t5HO in the same place.
and what your telling me is that metal halides only come in 175 watt sizes to get even light distribution you need to use multiple of them and therefore consume 525 watts ? No for me i'd much rather use 3 75 watt metal halides (total 225) than use 225 watts of flourescent. It's not fair to compare metal halides to flourescents unless they are of equal wattage so thats why i bumped it up from 175 to 225 just for comparisons sake either way the result is still the same Metal halides > Flourescents.
Both metal halides and flourescents can acheive even distribution on an aqaurium and both fill in different applications flourescents are great for targeting specific spectrums (like in saltwater for blue light) while metal halides produce the best "white" light around.
Are metal halides usualy overkill on a planted tank ? YES! are they more efficient than flourescents YES! is there a reason they are used alot on saltwater tanks ? Yes! they are used becuase the corals need the higher light intensity that a few metal halides can supply or that a ton of flourescents can supply.
Something that has not been considered is that flourescents because of their larger size contain much more mercury than halides and thereby are much more damaging to our environment.
Were talking about freshwater planted tanks not Reef tanks try to stay focused. Yes I would only recommend MH for a reef tank. Show me some sites that recommend MH for freshwater planted tanks over flourescents. Yes you can run MH on a planted tank but its not more efficient then flourescents. MH do degrade faster and yes you can run flourescents till they burn out. I don't care what others think and lead to think. Flourescents do degrade but negligible. If your replacing your flourescent every 6 months your just wasting money. MH have been around alot longer then HO or VHO flourescents. LED is a big fad right now. They are good for supplement lighting. Its never going to replace MH or flourescents. They do have excellent use for Nano and smaller planted tanks.
But lets just say we disagree. I have my experience with MH on reef tanks and know the kind of heat they produce and energy they consume. Yes I know there are smaller wattage MH bulbs. I just used 175W for your example.
But lets just say we disagree. I have my experience with MH on reef tanks and know the kind of heat they produce and energy they consume. Yes I know there are smaller wattage MH bulbs. I just used 175W for your example.
I am definately going to disagree with you on this one flourescents have been scientifically documented to wear out significantly after just 6 months of use. Metal halides typically last longer i don't know what you were doing on your reef tank but i simply do not use anecdotal evidence in my arguements i use actual facts not what if's, or But's.MyGiants;4250585; said:
Reef aqauriums and planted aquariums both require some of the same basic things, lighting being one of them for lighting what works for the higher end tank (reefs) will also work even better for the lower end ones (planted)
you are entitled to your own opinions not your own facts.
heres some sites that say outright that metal halides beat flourescents.
http://www.cichlid-forum.com/articles/lighting_planted_tank.php
http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=49718
http://badmanstropicalfish.com/basics/basics_lighting.html
it has also been stated numerous times on these boards that they are superior (in everything other than price). Those links i gathered randomly on google. i get my information mainly from here and other forums. And locating specific posts to prove myself is simply not worth my time.
Anyway a whole book could probably be written on this subject so i think we should stop this discussion here or make a new thread for it and allow more people to participate.
Have a nice day.
Those first two links give MH as a viable choice to use. It doesn't say anywhere its the best choice. I never said MH was not a choice. I don't think its the best choice over flourescent. The third link I wonder how old that info is. "Metal Halide the new kid on the block". That info has got to be really old! No mention of T5HO or T8 or compacts. Saying MH is the best choice for planted tanks. Maybe at the time 30 years ago when there was not much selection as available today in flourescents and compacts But I would never steer anyone just getting into planted tank to go MH with so much proven success with flourescents. The initial cost factor could be better spent on a pressurized co2 setup.
