LED VS. Metal Halide

[SI-Reef]

I have a 29Gal bio cube and looking to upgrade the lighting
I have been looking at two fixtures
- EcoTech Radion XR30w G3 PRO
- Hamilton Cebu Sun 175W 14k Metal Halide with T5


The tank is split between LPS and SPS and i'm running a chiller.
Just trying to see what everyone's thoughts are.

 

[Shastri Sookraj]

If you have a chiller go MH and run a strip of royal blues and whites to get the shimmer effect aswell aswell as have them as moon lights

 

[Shastri Sookraj]

Also just my opinion......those are over kill for a biocube take a look at this

http://www.rapidled.com/oceanic-biocube-29-dimmable-retrofit-kit/

 

[fredro]

I would go the Ecotech xr15w. Great light, good price. Awesone features!

 

[viplok]

if u have:
high nutrient go with led.
low nutrient go MH.

if you want blue, pink, red, orange, red, color:

on sps go with MH
on fixture go with led

 

[nanoreefer22]

MH - 12 inches about the water line.

Put a fan to blow across the fixture and you'll never have to worry about heat transfer.

 

[Geraud]

I went from a 150W MH (Radium) + 2 strips of ReefBrite to the Ecotech XR15w and I could not be happier (on a 25 gallon cube). With some tweaking I managed to get the exact same color I was before, with a tiny bit more red to make the red/orange fish pop.

 

[Justcause0_1]

Go with MH with 5 but on a small tank your chiller is going to run "double time" to maintain temp

 

[Hamilton Technology]

We offer both LEDs and Metal Halides.

If you plan on keeping a mixed reef or an SPS dominated tank, definitely go metal halides.

You will have better success and much better coral growth under the metal halides.

 

[duke62]

That's like asking if you should get a Commodore 64 or a MacBook

 

[DRE2010]

That's like asking if you should get a Commodore 64 or a MacBook

Well, if the MacBook sucks at growing SPS, then I agree.


This is a no brainer. Go with the metal halides.


After using Radions for 12 months, they don't compare at all to metal halides especially for SPS.