OR4 and helix comparisons?

[t5Nitro]

Has anybody tried these two led bars together yet?

Needing to replace one of my light bars. Debating an OR4 bar to replace an OR3 bar that stopped working. Also considering the populargrow bars from aliexpress. They're only 80$ for the largest bar.

 

[Red_Beard]

I also would be very interested in comparisons. I love that the OR4s are controllable, as i like to watch the tank in the night as it fades to bluesville and goes to bed. But, i like even more the blending and spectrum in the helix. BUUUT, that is all second and third hand and not even from anyone comparing the 2.

 

[Red_Beard]

looking for some updates on those reports...
Any first hand comparisons of the helix and the OR4s?

 

[Bruttall]

I just bought 2 or4 Blue Sky 120 light bars. Right out of the box one had a defective power supply, rather than just exchange a defective product, I now get to install a new power supply, on my brand new light, no idea what I am getting into with this, but unless I can just Plug it into the socket on the cord, I will have to hire someone to replace the PS on my Brand New Light Bar from Orphek.

What I have learned thru this is Orphek over charges enough for it's product they can just drop ship replacement parts without asking for the defective parts in return to be repairs (DISPOSABLE Lights made from Disposable parts?) and the Consumer is responsible for repairs. Knowing Most warranty are voided by Consumer repairing the items it seems to me Orphek is selling a product they don't really stand behind.

Would I recommend these to anyone? HECK NO!! RUN do not walk away from this company.

 

[Red_Beard]

I just bought 2 or4 Blue Sky 120 light bars. Right out of the box one had a defective power supply, rather than just exchange a defective product, I now get to install a new power supply, on my brand new light, no idea what I am getting into with this, but unless I can just Plug it into the socket on the cord, I will have to hire someone to replace the PS on my Brand New Light Bar from Orphek.

What I have learned thru this is Orphek over charges enough for it's product they can just drop ship replacement parts without asking for the defective parts in return to be repairs (DISPOSABLE Lights made from Disposable parts?) and the Consumer is responsible for repairs. Knowing Most warranty are voided by Consumer repairing the items it seems to me Orphek is selling a product they don't really stand behind.

Would I recommend these to anyone? HECK NO!! RUN do not walk away from this company.

Thank you for the feedback! I think their power supplies are all inline for the or4, so you should just be able to plug the new supply into your bar and be good right? Defective parts aside, how is the spectrum on the blue sky?

 

[minus9]

Here’s my take on the Orphek/Quanta comparison. The Orphek will give you more channels to dim per bar, which I don’t think is necessary for a bar, and the helix just gives you dimming of the whole bar. Orphek is just now catching up with the diode count on their bars to the early quanta pro bars (2 diodes per lens), but the helix has 4 diodes per lens and each lens has four different wavelength diodes, meaning, the blending happens as soon as the light leaves the lens. The helix meso blue only has two sets of colors running the length of the bar (blue and violet), which increases the blending of all the different spectrums throughout the bar. I believe the Orphek requires another unit or controller in order to dim them, but I could be wrong? Quanta helix is a simple 0-10v bare wire dimming, so your dimming options are many. Having owned Orphek (OR2’s) and directly comparing them combined with xho’s, the Quanta pro meso blue out performed both of them combined (par and spectrum). The helix improves on the design even more by increasing the diode count, blending and output, which is roughly 15% more than the pro version.
I was going to change my lighting to just meso blue and tropic suns (12k spectrum), but the announcement of the Atlas and Helix release changed my mind. I now use a single Atlas and two meso blue pro bars over my 36x36x16.
The meso blue is such a good bar, that you can combine it with any fixture and it blends in so well. My son’s tank has two meso blue pro bars with two Kessil 360x’s and it’s an amazing combo. I have another friend who uses quanta bars with two Kessil 500x’s and it’s an awesome combo.

 

[minus9]

I’ll also add the quanta lens degree is better than Orphek.

 

[Red_Beard]

Here’s my take on the Orphek/Quanta comparison. The Orphek will give you more channels to dim per bar, which I don’t think is necessary for a bar, and the helix just gives you dimming of the whole bar. Orphek is just now catching up with the diode count on their bars to the early quanta pro bars (2 diodes per lens), but the helix has 4 diodes per lens and each lens has four different wavelength diodes, meaning, the blending happens as soon as the light leaves the lens. The helix meso blue only has two sets of colors running the length of the bar (blue and violet), which increases the blending of all the different spectrums throughout the bar. I believe the Orphek requires another unit or controller in order to dim them, but I could be wrong? Quanta helix is a simple 0-10v bare wire dimming, so your dimming options are many. Having owned Orphek (OR2’s) and directly comparing them combined with xho’s, the Quanta pro meso blue out performed both of them combined (par and spectrum). The helix improves on the design even more by increasing the diode count, blending and output, which is roughly 15% more than the pro version.
I was going to change my lighting to just meso blue and tropic suns (12k spectrum), but the announcement of the Atlas and Helix release changed my mind. I now use a single Atlas and two meso blue pro bars over my 36x36x16.
The meso blue is such a good bar, that you can combine it with any fixture and it blends in so well. My son’s tank has two meso blue pro bars with two Kessil 360x’s and it’s an amazing combo. I have another friend who uses quanta bars with two Kessil 500x’s and it’s an awesome combo.

I am sold on the helix's quad design, i think that is a very innovative concept. I even emailed Luca a few times (which spectrum should i get, when are they going to be restocked) and got a prompt reply too, so i am sure customer service is going to be top notch. I only have 2 (very minor) issues, one of them being my own lack of patience in waiting for a restock of the 48 inchers lol. The other is that i think the .001 - .1% lunar cycle is pretty neat on the or4, and the built in app controlled dimming/timer is a very nice feature to have. But... i can make my own dimmer pretty easy with the 0-10v control, just not the lunar .001 bit. My plan is still to snag a meso blue 48 when they do come back in stock, most of my curiosity here is purely speculative, i have an inquiring mind.

 

[minus9]

I am sold on the helix's quad design, i think that is a very innovative concept. I even emailed Luca a few times (which spectrum should i get, when are they going to be restocked) and got a prompt reply too, so i am sure customer service is going to be top notch. I only have 2 (very minor) issues, one of them being my own lack of patience in waiting for a restock of the 48 inchers lol. The other is that i think the .001 - .1% lunar cycle is pretty neat on the or4, and the built in app controlled dimming/timer is a very nice feature to have. But... i can make my own dimmer pretty easy with the 0-10v control, just not the lunar .001 bit. My plan is still to snag a meso blue 48 when they do come back in stock, most of my curiosity here is purely speculative, i have an inquiring mind.

Do you have/use a controller? If so, you can make your own lunar lights.

 

[minus9]

Luca is awesome! I try and support the “little guys” as much as possible, especially when they’re producing superior products compared to the “big guys”. He also has all kinds of printed mounting options as well.

 

[Keithb22]

I had ordered Orpheus a while back when they first came out, they were killer looking g lights and reviewed well. I ended up ordering just before covid and like a week before the Chinese new year. Over a month later they still hadn’t shipped yet, wasn’t super impressed with response time or solutions. Ultimately I ended up going with radions. It was always shipping out the next day. I get there are a lot of barriers going on, especially at that time, but I like to be able to get a fairly timely response with any questions and issues. The few questions I had for the quantas were answered pretty quickly and communication has always been solid. Not a light comparison but just a heads up with issues you could run into. Hope it helps.

 

[Red_Beard]

Do you have/use a controller? If so, you can make your own lunar lights.

Luca is awesome! I try and support the “little guys” as much as possible, especially when they’re producing superior products compared to the “big guys”. He also has all kinds of printed mounting options as well.

Definitely. supporting the little guy is supporting innovation!
I dont have a commercial controller, but i have a raspberry pi i use for ATO and temp monitoring. would be a simple thing to add 0-10v control to it for a light timer, that would get me down to the 1%, but not .001%. That is for sure not a deal breaker though, just something novel that would be "cool".

 

[josh57]

I have 2 OR4 Blue Skys. And absolutely love the spectrum. And they were easy to set up. I have no used the helix. I did really want to go down the helix route. But having only 2 color spectrum options, and me needing to fix a color balance issue I had with my current lights.

I am very picky on spectrum and how my tank looks. And only having 2 options even if they were my primary lights as well would have been hard for me. So I went Orphek and have been happy.

 

[Bruttall]

Thank you for the feedback! I think their power supplies are all inline for the or4, so you should just be able to plug the new supply into your bar and be good right? Defective parts aside, how is the spectrum on the blue sky?

I like the color pop but all I have is the Blue Sky bars, 470/480nm spectrum only. I matched with 4 Reefi-Labs Uno 2.0. I'd be singing praises if half of my purchase wasn't defective out of the box.

 

[fishface NJ]

I like the color pop but all I have is the Blue Sky bars, 470/480nm spectrum only. I matched with 4 Reefi-Labs Uno 2.0. I'd be singing praises if half of my purchase wasn't defective out of the box.

I have Sky Blue and Blue Plus. The Sky Blue gives a color pop where the Blue Plus color doesn't give off much blue

 

[X-37B]

I run 3 or4 uv/v bars with my 2 photon 50's. Been running for 3 months ar 4-5hrs a day at 100%.
They complement my photons and give very nice coloring to my corals overall.

 

[Bruttall]

10 days later, got the replacement dim driver today, it has a Europe plug on it. Be great if I didn't live in the USA! And then they bullied me into closing my paypal dispute to try and get a driver, with a US plug on it, that works.

You can waste your money on these if ya want, I wish I had not ever sent them money the have refused to refund. I have so much buyers remorse over this I almost want to just throw these in the trash along with everything else and quit. Sick of getting scammed in every aspect of life.

 

[Red_Beard]

10 days later, got the replacement dim driver today, it has a Europe plug on it. Be great if I didn't live in the USA! And then they bullied me into closing my paypal dispute to try and get a driver, with a US plug on it, that works.

You can waste your money on these if ya want, I wish I had not ever sent them money the have refused to refund. I have so much buyers remorse over this I almost want to just throw these in the trash along with everything else and quit. Sick of getting scammed in every aspect of life.

Bro, that really sucks. Sorry to hear it.

 

[Keithb22]

bummed to hear Orphek is still awful with customer service. Just talked to my wife about how terrible it was, honestly forgot how it took forever before they even thought about shipping. Hate to say it but an awful overall experience. Not one to blow smoke up anyone’s rear end but Luca from HELIX has always responded within hours about any questions I’ve sent.