Metal Halide and T5 Grow Corals Better Than LED and Cost Less

[Sdot]

A well designed light from a features standpoint but the reports of their customer service and how problematic their lights have been based on complaints on here are horrific. Especially if running an sps tank. One can’t afford to have the entire light go down and take weeks to fix or pay full price to just have a backup

Agreed.... i have heard the quality is better the before. But i agree, that and the app made me very apprehensive about purchasing them.

 

[Bruce Burnett]

A well designed light from a features standpoint but the reports of their customer service and how problematic their lights have been based on complaints on here are horrific. Especially if running an sps tank. One can’t afford to have the entire light go down and take weeks to fix or pay full price to just have a backup

Well I have had mine for 7 years and any help I needed was fast. Even in the middle of the night

 

[Bpb]

Well I have had mine for 7 years and any help I needed was fast. Even in the middle of the night

It’s the “try to fix it yourself first” mentality they have which is just unforgivable. Yours may have worked fine. They’re not ALL problematic. But there have been a surprising number of complaints

 

[Aardvark1134]

every Orphek tank I have seen has disco in the sand bed. To me that rules them out right there. Well I have seen one with the lights 27 inches high that didn’t disco with Orphek but I am not air mounting over 2 feet above the tank either

 

[Bruce Burnett]

every Orphek tank I have seen has disco in the sand bed. To me that rules them out right there. Well I have seen one with the lights 27 inches high that didn’t disco with Orphek but I am not air mounting over 2 feet above the tank either

Mine were mounted 9 inches above the tank even my son who was using an 8 bulb ATI and now Radions said there was no disco like the Radions but I can't say I have seen the newest one in person. I ran all channels 100% but for different time cycles.

 

[Aardvark1134]

Bruce can you give a 10 second video of your sand bed? If I could be sure they would not disco I do like their power spectrum and which model you have and how many of them.

 

[SeaDweller]

I just had to add a row of 6500K daylight T5 to my already "blanket" panel of Photon V2+s. That one row alone has added light to the underside of most colonies to let me see how badly some of the bases have been. If I had to do it all over, I'd go MH and LED strips.

 

[Bpb]

 

[RCS82]

Great pic.
Is it just the angle or do the bulbs seem to sit pretty low in the pendant too and not nearer to the top?

 

[vanpire]

Is that the full size reflector or their mini version? How high above the waterline do you have it mounted?

 

[Bruce Burnett]

Bruce can you give a 10 second video of your sand bed? If I could be sure they would not disco I do like their power spectrum and which model you have and how many of them.

I wish I could but we sold our home and computer is in storage that has my pictures. My tank was on Orpheks web site. They still have a lot of photos of various displays on their site. My tank was bare bottom painted white underneath. The standard lens are 120 degree. You can get 90 and 60 degree lens. There was no disco on bottom with 120 degree lens. I put 90 degree lens on and you could catch a single color through a small hole in the rocks but it was not noticeable unless you were trying to find them. I could grow SPS on the bottom even in the corners. 120 degree lenses were good for up to 36 inches deep. 90 degree were good to about 6 feet and 60 degree over that. I never did par measurements. I know the newer ver 4 cover a slightly smaller area. I dealt with James Gasta in purchase. I know he has a single ver 4 over his red sea 350. He keeps it simple as he is old school and been around longer than many in the hobby have been alive. After I move into new home I will be setting up new tank. I have not decided for sure on lighting. I am on a budget but if I can swing it might be new Atlantiks. I have also thought about using their newest OR bars. I had one of the early version and they are nicely built. The Atlantiks I think are one of the nicest looking lights out there. They a bit heavier than other lights at over 16 lbs each.

 

[Bpb]

Great pic.
Is it just the angle or do the bulbs seem to sit pretty low in the pendant too and not nearer to the top?

They do sit fairly low I suppose. They’re about midway from bottom to top Id say

 

[Bpb]

Is that the full size reflector or their mini version? How high above the waterline do you have it mounted?

They’re the 16.5” “mini” version. These illuminate a 90 gallon standard 48”x18”x24” and the pendants are mounted 12” off the rim.

Words to note on these reflectors. They’re fairly “deep” reflectors relative to their width. Meaning the facets are more vertically positioned than many. This makes for a deep penetrating spotlight effect. Even at 36” away from the pendants, they don’t give a full 24” spread overlap. I have mine positioned about 6” apart and there’s a dark band down the middle of the tank where the light just doesn’t overlap. At one point 12” deep in the water (24” from reflector) you can read 700 par, move over 8” and it’ll be 200.

They were free. So I am rolling with them. If I had a preference I’d have gone with something like Hamilton cayman sun pendants, or lumenmax elites which are more flat and have wider spread with more even par.

I have a 3rd identical pendant I’ll be using along with these two on my 60”x24”x24” 150 gallon I’m upgrading to, and they’ll be spaced about 2” apart And raised an additional 3” to make them 15” off the water. I anticipate the increased light overlap and height will make for much more even and manageable par numbers.

 

[DesertReefT4r]

I want to setup a small frag tank and with a mh just wish they came in a little lower wattage

70w MH used to available not sure if anyone makes one for reef use any more. JBJ used to make one call the Viper I think it was called. 150w MH can still be found pretty easy either new or used.

 

[Skibum]

Metal Halides are far superior for popping pop-corn which is necessary for reading a thread like this:

 

[A. grandis]

I've been extra busy lately.
Found these videos this morning and wanted to share here to illustrate what natural light looks like.
Shimmering (represented by metal halide or LED):

Sky light (represented by T5):

It is natural to have both types of light over the reef. Some days are sunny and others overcast. The 2 types of light could be represented over our reefs at home having the halides or LEDs coming on for 4 days and T5s only for 3 days, for example. That is the main reason why I use both types of light per day. T5s first, halides during the mid day hours, and more T5s to close the photoperiod. That way we offer the best we can.
Enjoy.
Stay safe!

 

[Graffiti Spot]

I have not seen any led only tanks with massive colonies that have huge base branches and thick natural growth. I have seen a lot of led tanks that have tiny little growth tips on the acro colonies that look fragile, small and unhealthy.
I won’t use led in any fixture. When they break it’s too much work and time to fix them for me. Led fixtures are way to expensive and my metal halides NEVER have issues. I do like to use led in strips Alongside my main lighting.
I would love to see an led only tank that is growing old colonies of humilus, monticulosa, or any of the thick reefcrest acros but I haven’t found one yet. Probably because they are not what most people can keep or want to keep. But to me these corals show how skilled a reefer actually is and I love seeing big thick colonies. I don’t care to see blue lights and thin acros.

The only led only tanks that have suprised me have lots of lights hung high up and at 100%. Still not many run their lights this way.

 

[Aardvark1134]

Considering most expert reefers and coral stores agree mixed tanks are harder to get to do well than SPS dominate...I would not say that SPS dominate is the measure of how skilled a reefer is. More a measure of how much they want to spend.

 

[A. grandis]

I have not seen any led only tanks with massive colonies that have huge base branches and thick natural growth. I have seen a lot of led tanks that have tiny little growth tips on the acro colonies that look fragile, small and unhealthy.
I won’t use led in any fixture. When they break it’s too much work and time to fix them for me. Led fixtures are way to expensive and my metal halides NEVER have issues. I do like to use led in strips Alongside my main lighting.
I would love to see an led only tank that is growing old colonies of humilus, monticulosa, or any of the thick reefcrest acros but I haven’t found one yet. Probably because they are not what most people can keep or want to keep. But to me these corals show how skilled a reefer actually is and I love seeing big thick colonies. I don’t care to see blue lights and thin acros.

The only led only tanks that have suprised me have lots of lights hung high up and at 100%. Still not many run their lights this way.

My intention showing the videos in the beginning of the thread, and the last 2 videos, was towards your observations. I also think like that. We do have to keep in mind that the majority of our friends here might not see the hobby like you and I. Either because they don't know better or they neverpaid attention to such. It is hard to believe that people wouldn't actually care, but I believe that group also exists. There are some that do though. I'm kind of trying to let all see my point. I'm not sure if you had that vision before, or this thread actually opened your eyes in that respect.
I'm happy for your post. We do have to respect other visions though, but I'm sure others will also respect ours as well and that is great!

 

[Bruce Burnett]

I have not seen any led only tanks with massive colonies that have huge base branches and thick natural growth. I have seen a lot of led tanks that have tiny little growth tips on the acro colonies that look fragile, small and unhealthy.
I won’t use led in any fixture. When they break it’s too much work and time to fix them for me. Led fixtures are way to expensive and my metal halides NEVER have issues. I do like to use led in strips Alongside my main lighting.
I would love to see an led only tank that is growing old colonies of humilus, monticulosa, or any of the thick reefcrest acros but I haven’t found one yet. Probably because they are not what most people can keep or want to keep. But to me these corals show how skilled a reefer actually is and I love seeing big thick colonies. I don’t care to see blue lights and thin acros.

The only led only tanks that have suprised me have lots of lights hung high up and at 100%. Still not many run their lights this way.

If you want tight thick colonies then one needs lots more flow. Long thin branch's low flow. I noticed the difference in that on my own tank. I don't like an all blue tank why I never went all Vho or T5. The version I had of the Orphek were not blue but looked more like mh. I had to get rid of my mh as where I lived I just could not use them without a chiller. Most leds can be set to be blue to white like 14k halide. I think part of it is people thinking they can replace one 250 or 400 watt halide with 90 watts of led. I have seen a lot of nice tanks with led growing SPS but everyone of them had lots of fixtures. Even with the red sea leds which can be very white to very blue on the reefer 350 red sea has two as standard. BRS when they tested felt it was only enough for lps and softies. If you were looking to do all sps plan on four. But if you were doing a 30-36 inch deep front to back you would have to run two rows. That is also the problem with Radions. With my Orpheks I could see daily growth on everything. The also made me decide next tank will not have any chalice or monti cap the crap was worse than weeds. I have not decided yet what lighting I am going to use on my new setup after I move.