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Giesemann Metal Halides

Hello,
I want to upgrade my current light situation and wanted to try Metal Halides. I would like to use the Giesemann megachrome Crystal 17,500k Single Ended bulb with the Lumen Bright Mini Metal Halide Reflector. I am unsure what ballast to use. i understand that radium bulbs really require the m135. Does the same apply to giesemann? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Also would I need two 400 Watts over a 36" L x 18.5" D by 30" H tank? I plan to utilize them 16" from the surface of the water.
 
Any electronic ballast should work for them, Giesemann used electronic ballasts in all their fixtures if memory serves so there's no reason to think the bulbs they put out would require more over pushing of current like with Radion bulbs.
 
Out of curiosity what is your current lighting over that tank? Metal Halide is largely seen as a downgrade these days, as people go towards LEDs.

That said I think even 1 400W bulb over that tank would be overkill, emphasis on the kill part as it very well may bleach out any corals you have. On my 180 gallon tank way back when, I used 2 - 250W bulbs in lumenarc refectors (similar to lumenbright) and that was good brightness. Honestly if you're going to use 2 I would do 150W bulbs at most, then you can use a PAR meter to see how close you need them to the surface. You could use a single 400W and make it higher but you're going to have a hot spot, and a ton of light bleeding out. Personally the only time I would use a metal halide is if I have a very large open space to light up (I used a single 250W over a 6 foot by 5 foot tub to keep anemones alive).

Is this used equipment you had or picked up? Is there a reason why you immediately went to 400W?
 
I am using two Philzon 165watt leds and two 3' T5 actinic bulbs. I would purchase all the equipment. I simply thought from my horticulture growing days that the 400 watt would best cover the tank. I was thinking of building a triangle A frame canopy to hang the 400 watt, 16 to 18 inches above the surface and then use reflux on the sides to direct light downwards. I would also incorporate two computers fans and a vent on either side to exhaust the fixture since they do get hot. I also looked at melvs reef and he is using a 400 watt metal halide in addition to two 250 watts and the approximate area covered by the 400 watt seemed appropriate to cover my tank.
 
Well if you had the equipment, I would say fine give it a try, the cost of the bulbs is really all you're putting out there, but I wouldn't buy MH equipment for the aquarium today. Hell if you want I have 2 x 250W electronic ballast, and a number of reflectors that you can have. And sure Marc does still use metal halides, but he's definitely old school and does have some of that old school stubbornness there in the way he goes about things, not saying it doesn't work but lets just say it wasn't that long ago that someone turned him on to using a gate valve on his return to make the tank super quiet and while he was quite happy with it he definitely was behind the curve for that :) Also he mentioned what he pays for electricity at one point, and it was WAY less than what we pay for in California, and lastly, he has a 400 gallon tank that's as wide as your tank is long, and his tank length would be about 5 of your tanks in width.

So I would say do a bit more research as far as lighting, LEDs will absolutely cost more in the initial cost, but in the long term LEDs will be cheaper I think and probably a lot nicer for your tank. You currently have what's referred to as the "Chinese black box" LED, which is fine I'm sure, but I would say an upgrade could be something like a couple Kessil 360x lights maybe with the focusing collar that @The_Lazy_Reefer got with his. Or i would say why do you think you need to upgrade? And what do you feel would make it an upgrade?
But in the mean time if you want to try 250 watt metal halides, I live in San Franciso, so at most bridge toll and gas is the cost, just let me know when you would want to come by and I can put it outside in a garbage bag or something for pickup.
 
Yeah they are definitely cheap LEDs, I have much more expensive ones in my grow tent, however I just find myself not as satisfied with the switch as I was with the metal halides and high pressure sodium lights. Not sure if I am comparing apples to oranges with horticulture and aquarium lights, but I believe I could improve my current light set up for my aquarium. I think I would see better growth in my SPS with different and more powerful lights. I feel like I am doing everything else right in my tank, especially considering my religious 30% weekly water changes. Fortunately I live in Santa Clara and I am only paying 12 cents a kilowatt compared to 32 in San Jose and probably across the bay area. Makes it much more palatable.

I will be coming up to SF on Friday to pick up corals from Coral Reefer, could I swing by on Friday and pick up the two ballasts and reflectors to give it a try? Is two, 250 watts too much though? Its 500 total watts, compared to 400, although less intense. Are these ballast rated for radium or should I order giesemann bulbs?
 
Wow 12 cents per kWh? Is that a local co-op power source? I think if I had electricity that cheap I would have opted for a much larger aquarium setup (which is currently 200g + 40g). That said, yeah I think you are comparing apples to oranges with growing plants versus corals. With plants you want them to grow as fast as possible and plants are plants, they'll be green with whatever fruit/flower color, with corals you also care about what they look like. But again, I'll let you have these and you can figure out if you think it's better or not and go from there.

And yeah I think 500 watts is super overkill, like I said I had that over a 180g tank, but you can still use the 2-250W ballast just fine, as long as there's no lamp plugged into the second plug it won't put out electricity so works as a single bulb ballast in that regard. And you can always see if 2 - 250W bulbs are too much, I think I may have an old bulb or two that you can just play around with and see. Send me a message and I'll give you my contact info. And I live a handful of blocks away from Coral Reefer, so he's on the way.
 
Two reflectors and 250w bulbs will be more than good for that footprint
BTW, the correct magnetic ballast for Radium bulbs is M80 but electronic ballasts will light them up.
Some newer electronic ballasts have the Select-a-Watt feature where you “overdrive a bulb” specially if you run Radium 250 they have the little extra output comparable to the M80 ballast
 
City of Santa Clara has its own electrical company. They use offsets from all the businesses and chemical energy plants, which helps create way lower energy costs. When I was in San Jose with PG&E the 33 cents killed me.
 
I recently hung my old halides over my tank again (supplemented with a kessil) as an experiment to try to make up for some terrible aquascaping causing a lot of shading. My tank is 36x24x20 and I’m running a pair of Phoenix 250 watt bulbs at 150watts each and I’m getting higher par and better coverage than with my t5-ap700 combo. if you do go down this road, curious to hear how you like the Giessmann 17.5k bulbs, I think they make those as de too. Like @xcaret says, i think most electronic ballasts should work, and in my case I dial them down to keep from cooking stuff, but my lights are only about 7” above the water surface. I did splurge on a kessil 360x in the middle mostly for evening viewing. If money were less of an object, I would figure out a way to use a few of those as the sole light source, I like them a lot more than the older 360 series.
Terrible iPhone pic with lots of room reflection, but when the halides are on, it’s really nice and bright
27FC32FE-9C0D-4E90-9EEC-F978B583B386.jpeg
 
Summer is coming... In addition to the cost to operate (which might not be near as much with your rates), I do not miss the heat of MH lamps. I can't argue against how well they work at growing a reef though.
 
I’m running a pair of Phoenix 250 watt bulbs at 150watts each
I didn't think you could run 250W bulbs at 150W. I mean I know you can hook it up, but I didn't think it would work basically at all. Granted I often ran 175W bulbs with a 150W PFO ballast but that was because it was overdriving anyways so figured it was closer to 175W


Summer is coming... In addition to the cost to operate (which might not be near as much with your rates), I do not miss the heat of MH lamps. I can't argue against how well they work at growing a reef though.
Where my tank was downstairs, in San Francisco metal halide bulbs only meant my heaters didn't need to work as hard, it NEVER overheated the tank.
 
Thanks! I do like those Elos fixtures. I bought my tank used, and they were part of the setup.
But, yeah, they do double as heaters... my apex will shut them off if gets too warm.
 
Hello,
I want to upgrade my current light situation and wanted to try Metal Halides. I would like to use the Giesemann megachrome Crystal 17,500k Single Ended bulb with the Lumen Bright Mini Metal Halide Reflector. I am unsure what ballast to use. i understand that radium bulbs really require the m135. Does the same apply to giesemann? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Also would I need two 400 Watts over a 36" L x 18.5" D by 30" H tank? I plan to utilize them 16" from the surface of the water.
@RFURBP Do I have an opportunity for you...! how about a 48" dual 175W Hamilton Cebu Sun with HO T5 for the price of FREE since you are a supporting member? :)

I snagged this unit from @Vincerama2 but don't think I will get around to putting it up with the build I had in mind. So, if you want it, it's yours!
 
That is an incredibly generous offer. It would be a whole foot though bigger than my current tank. I could build a housing frame to go on the outside with reflux, but would this be okay for light to reflect from the sides into the tank from the outside?
 
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