Philips CoralCare Gen 2 First look.

[MabuyaQ]

Just saw the brs test. Really not impressive, deceptive for this price. Not a bad light but radion and others perform much better.

Deceptive is the wrong word, the intended use of this light is different from the way it was tested at by BRS. So by default this light won't perform at full potential. Those radions may actually be designed to show maximum performance in this test and perform much worse than the coral cares at the intended use of that light. Just as 'deceptive', except we don't know without that test. All you know is that these are not your lights as their performance isn't in range with your personal requirements, which seem to be equal to the way BRS tests these fixtures.

 

[Oldreefer44]

Deceptive is the wrong word, the intended use of this light is different from the way it was tested at by BRS. So by default this light won't perform at full potential. Those radions may actually be designed to show maximum performance in this test and perform much worse than the coral cares at the intended use of that light. Just as 'deceptive', except we don't know without that test. All you know is that these are not your lights as their performance isn't in range with your personal requirements, which seem to be equal to the way BRS tests these fixtures.

Dana Riddles test is very thorough and for the most part pretty favorable.

 

[Superlightman]

I purchased 4 of them to see how they compare to the 5 G5 XR30’s I’m currently running. I’ll see how they work out

Tell us your results please

 

[Superlightman]

Deceptive is the wrong word, the intended use of this light is different from the way it was tested at by BRS. So by default this light won't perform at full potential. Those radions may actually be designed to show maximum performance in this test and perform much worse than the coral cares at the intended use of that light. Just as 'deceptive', except we don't know without that test. All you know is that these are not your lights as their performance isn't in range with your personal requirements, which seem to be equal to the way BRS tests these fixtures.

Wich way are they designed to be used then? I not unterstand this. For corals spectrum ,par, and spread are important and on each of this items they are more bad ,so ho could them be better? Please clarify your arguments

 

[Superlightman]

Dana Riddles test is very thorough and for the most part pretty favorable.

Where? Do you have the link? And yes they are a good light but that doesn't mean they are the best for this price

 

[Oldreefer44]

Where? Do you have the link? And yes they are a good light but that doesn't mean they are the best for this price

Google Dana Riddle / Coral Care

 

[Oldreefer44]

Where? Do you have the link? And yes they are a good light but that doesn't mean they are the best for this price

Product Review: Philips’ CoralCare Gen 2 LED Luminaire

It has been almost 15 years since PFO offered the first commercially available LED luminaire for the aquarium market. These were wildly controversial at that ti

reefs.com

 

[User1]

Where? Do you have the link? And yes they are a good light but that doesn't mean they are the best for this price

There is no best. Best is subjective. Also understand that lighting is just one part of the total system. Most lights will work provided the system is designed with them in mind. Design is everything to include but not limited to display, life support (filtration), flow, lights, corals, rocks, and more. There are enough reviews on these lights and the earlier gen 1 to support that they will grow corals and support a wide range of tanks.

I believe Terence over at Neptune has an amazing tank and uses the first gen and it is a sps dominated tank. Pretty sure he has a build thread here. Gilroy something or other - feel free to search.

 

[Superlightman]

I read the article,but it not shows that is better. Probably it is not a bad light and yes surely it will grow corals, many leds do,even black box. But in this price range it seems to be not the best at all ,so i not really understand so much enthusiasm from so people for a new light that have nothing special and seems to be less performant than others?

 

[User1]

I read the article,but it not shows that is better. Probably it is not a bad light and yes surely it will grow corals, many leds do,even black box. But in this price range it seems to be not the best at all ,so i not really understand so much enthusiasm from so people for a new light that have nothing special and seems to be less performant than others?

It isn't supposed to show that it is better. It is a paper to show its light characteristics and how it performs. The onus is on the hobbyist to then take the information and decide if it is for them. I don't believe I've read any of his papers on lights that say this is the best. It is more of an in-depth technical analysis and when he has questions on results he reaches out to he manufacture to get answers or clarification. I think that is really awesome.

There is more to successful tanks that a par number. This really is an important thing to understand and if you are interesting in it search on Dana's other articles. Lots of good information he has provided to get you started. But again. Best? No. The coralcare will not be the best but then again neither is the Kessil a360x or Gen 5 radions.

They are tools and we need to select the right one for our systems.

 

[Hydrored]

I read the article,but it not shows that is better. Probably it is not a bad light and yes surely it will grow corals, many leds do,even black box. But in this price range it seems to be not the best at all ,so i not really understand so much enthusiasm from so people for a new light that have nothing special and seems to be less performant than others?

Are they the best? Who knows. If they do not meet your expectations then don’t buy them. Price is all relative. I may have the “best” lights in some peoples opinion now, I’m personally willing to spend the money and try them because why not?

 

[MabuyaQ]

Wich way are they designed to be used then? I not unterstand this. For corals spectrum ,par, and spread are important and on each of this items they are more bad ,so ho could them be better? Please clarify your arguments

The lighting design used by Philips is based on a lower color temperature (at a setting of 100% white + 100% blue), so this is where maximum performance is achieved. That is not what BRS tested, so if you than compare it to a theoretical light that is designed to perform good at the BRS parameters, you can expect this fixture to lose. You can't conclude anything from a test with just one datapoint.

 

[Superlightman]

The lighting design used by Philips is based on a lower color temperature (at a setting of 100% white + 100% blue), so this is where maximum performance is achieved. That is not what BRS tested, so if you than compare it to a theoretical light that is designed to perform good at the BRS parameters, you can expect this fixture to lose. You can't conclude anything from a test with just one datapoint.

Can you explain this:
"The lighting design used by Philips is based on a lower color temperature " what you mean?

 

[MabuyaQ]

Can you explain this:
"The lighting design used by Philips is based on a lower color temperature " what you mean?

Now you are trolling.....

 

[Superlightman]

Now you are trolling.....

No I not get the point of what you try to explain, sorry for my englisch

 

[MabuyaQ]

No I not get the point of what you try to explain, sorry for my englisch

Okay in that case sorry for calling you out on trolling. As I said, between the brackets in the post you quoted, the coral cares are designed around the idea of providing the light your corals need with the tank looking natural as well. This means you run them at the center of the colorscale (100% white and 100% blue) and you only adjust intensity. At that setting this fixture has maximum performance. If you want to run it at a different color temperature like BRS did, that is possible but will always come at the expense of performance. So comparing this light to a light that is designed to run at a higher colortemperature at the settings of that other light is just as unfair as doing the opposite because you can expect the coral cares to win in that case.

The BRS test isn't a bad test, but it is meaningless for anybody interested in running these lights at a different colortemperature as they don't provide any data for those settings.

 

[Superlightman]

OK thanks for your answer now I unterstand. But in the brs if I unterstand it right they take the first measurement all time with all lights at 100% then only adjust the spectrum and test it a second time?

 

[Chibils]

OK thanks for your answer now I unterstand. But in the brs if I unterstand it right they take the first measurement all time with all lights at 100% then only adjust the spectrum and test it a second time?

Spectrum is what @MabuyaQ is referring to when he says color temperature. It's a scale that has long been used in aquarium lighting to give a more objective measure to the "blue-ness" of our lights. You are probably familiar with color temperatures like 6,500K, 10,000K, 14,000K, and 20,000K.

The argument being made here is that the CoralCare was designed for the European market first, which strongly prefers a "natural" 10,000-14,000K look. The full-on blue, no-white, actinics-only type reefs that are common in the US are not something that was designed for. BRS tested these lights with blues at 100% and whites at 30% to match the color temp they liked (very blue), so of course the output will be predictably diminished.

 

[MabuyaQ]

OK thanks for your answer now I unterstand. But in the brs if I unterstand it right they take the first measurement all time with all lights at 100% then only adjust the spectrum and test it a second time?

Only the information provided on the mounting hight for the cube tank, this ends at 3:20 in the video, shows PARdata with the 100%/100% setting (most likely at 100% intensity). All other data is at the BRS colorsettings.

 

[Oldreefer44]

I am in the process of moving corals and fish from a 135 lit by Orphek Atlantiks to a new 180 that will have 3 coral cares and 2 Orphek bars . One a blue plus and one what they call a UV bar. My intention is to run the CC's at 100% and get the blue that I want from the bars. Will be interesting to compare the two as they will be running simultainiously for a few weeks.