LED Switch moving away from Orphek

One thought I had with reading this is that the Radion fixture may make it easier to get good photos of one's tank in that you can bump up the red's and greens so the actinic doesn't mess with the camera, thereby making it easier to get true to life coloring in the photo.

Just a thought, plus of course there is the fact that is has more power.

 

Evolved, here is my experience with the unit, I dont want to bash them or discourage other people since I know they are a sponsor in our forum. So take it all with a grain of salt.
The unit I bought was the new PR156W with the UV lights. It came packaged great and I was excited with it, it provided a hanging kit and a built in timer to control the daylights and the moonlights. The unit is built well and looks good, the timers are flimsy and low quality the lil buttons that they come in to program are not of a great material and they tend to get stuck or move around the slotting resulting in them getting stuck, no big deal but when buying something that expensive you expect everything to be good right?
I hung the unit and programmed everything was working well for the first week or so, my LPS were loving the new light polyps were extended like I hadnt seen before and my zoas went on a good stretch of fast grow, my montipora and digitata ( sorry for the spelling) also took off, other sps took a bit longer but they got used to it. Then one day i come back from work only to find the fixture blink on and off like a xmas tree light!
I got in contact with the person that helped me with the purchase, told him what the issue was and he immediately said it was a driver problem and he will have a new one shipped. The new piece came in fairly quickly and I had to open up the unit and disconnect the defective piece and plug the new one, at this point I didnt mind going through this small hiccup. A month goes by and I come home from work ( why does stuff always happens when one is at work is beyond me) and I noticed some of my individual light emitters were turned off, I couldnt believe it, after spending all this money still having issues with the unit. So I contact the person again and he told me to take a picture of the issue and send it to him. Of course when i went to take the picture the next day it was back to normal, a week went by and I felt like an A$$ for complaining but then it happened again so i took a picture sent it out. I got an email back within a day (customer support has been great) and he said it might be the driver again or the timer, he wants me to open the unit and change the way the units are wired in order to have the daylights plugged to the other timer and see if the problem happens again..Long story short I am still trying to determine if the driver is bad or not.

The unit itself when is not malfunctioning works well, but I am not in love with it, it does make the color of my corals pop out a lot more but you can see that beam of light reflecting on your sand bend, in order to get rid of this problem i kept running my T5 fixture and the orphek at the same time.

I dont have a way to measure the par so I cant give you insight on that, but if there is anything else u might want to know or you want to see pictures or something like it just let me know!

 

I would love to see pics. I have been very curious of the spread from the PR-156W. I have experienced the PR-156 and while impressed with peak PAR, I was disappointed with the spread.

The orphek units are said to be pretty reliable. Other than the timers and power supplies, there is really nothing else that can fail. They claim they use the highest quality power supplies. It's hard to tell how many others may be having this problem as they have only sold just over 1000 PR-156's around the world in 2-3 years (per the new Orphek Rep in Canada). There are no complex wiring or electronics inside like many of the more advanced units.

 

These are the fixtures i will be getting for my tank Prometheus 2012 | Reef Technology Intl they dont come out for another 2 weeks but if you are looking to switch this is the way i would go. If not with reeftech leds then AI Sols.

 

m2434 check this out heres your par numbers and the coverage that you doubt. check out the first video on the page and reef4life you may wanna check it out since this is ur inquiry lol Mr. Saltwater Tank’s Radion LED Experiment

 

PAR numbers on LED fixtures are kind of useless because LEDs do not emit light the same way a MH or T5. But as for the hardware they use its pretty awesome they have 5w LEDS which is normally used on tanks with depths over 30".
Yes its only 8 leds but that is still enough for some awesome penetration and 120 degree spread.

Dimensions
Length: 11.8 inches (30 cm)
Width: 7 inches (18 cm)
Thickness: 1.5 inches (3.9 cm)
LED
• 8x Cree XP-G Cool White LEDs run at 5W each
• 8x Cree XP-E Blue LEDs run at 3W each
• 10x Cree XP-E Royal Blue LEDs run at 3W each
• 4x Cree XP-E Green LEDs run at 3W each
• 4x Osram Oslon SSL Hyper Red LEDs run at 3W each

 

how about Acan?

 

The A102AC, A103AC, A104AC uses so-called 3 watt LED bulbs with similar specifications as Cree XPG. Manufacturers who drive 3 watts to each bulb can potentially cut down their production costs by reducing the number of bulbs and lenses used, but this comes at the expense of reliability and efficiency. In contrast, in order to maximize longevity, increase longevity, and maximize lumens, we only drive approximately 1 to 1.3 watts to each bulb.
The A101AC uses "1 watt" bulbs, but we've chosen to drive only approximately .25 watts to each bulb to ensure the maximum reliability and efficiency, and also to minimize heat generation.
We are closely working with a select number of top LED bulb manufacturers who are committed to developing specially produced bulbs most suitable for aquarium lighting. Based on our comparison tests, the high-quality bulbs used in our fixtures are superior for meeting the needs of reef keepers and more efficient than the bulbs from big name companies.



Please see in bold - I personally wouldnt go near that fixture for the price especially when you can pick up AI Sols for that price and you know they are quality CREE LEDS.

 

i don't think they make the 101 any more. 102 and 104 claim great par and are similar style to Orphek, plus great programmability. called 800 and 600 series. supposedly use 3w leds specifically made for aquarium use. Crees aren't.

just a suggestion.

 

I think the good recommendations are already here, so I have no comment there. I just wanted to say that though it wasn't the best review, it's good to finally see some first hand experience with Orphek. Thanks for putting it up.